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Marketing for Small Business - Find Your USP (Unique Selling Point)

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Published: 21May2008
Word count: 586
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When looking for your USP (Unique Selling Point) you will need to ask your self a few questions, one of them being "Why did I go into business?" Truly, this is a very good question to ask yourself if you are a small business owner. There are so many reasons: you have a niche that you liked, a product that you liked, you wanted freedom of decision making, freedom of hours of work, to show off to all your friends!! And there are a myriad of other reasons too.

But whether you are a single operator or employing 6 or so staff, then there is one thing that all small business owners must do and that is successfully MARKET YOUR BUSINESS.

Back to that question again, "Why did I go into business?" When you can answer that question you may be able to answer the next question "What is my Unique Selling Point?"

If you have a unique service or product then it is an easy question to answer, but in reality it is not very often that this occurs and if it does it probably wont be long before there is someone else doing the same thing. So if you have a service or product that other people nearby are selling then you have to look for a USP (Unique Selling Point) that sets you apart from your competitors.

Unless you can answer what your USP is, there is a pretty good chance that your marketing is being wasted because you are not differentiating your product or service enough to want people to come and buy from you.

To find out what your USP is you many need to do intensive market research on your competitors and find out what attracts clients to them and not to you. You may need to chat up a few of your customers to find out why they come to you, but not necessarily why they don't go to your competitors. Once you have found out you will need to differentiate your products or service.

If you honestly just cannot find one then you will need to set one up and this may be in the form of an extra service, an add on bonus or whatever you decide. Once you have created a USP then you can use this to focus your marketing and bring clients to you.

USP's are what get customers talking. If you are adding a USP make sure that it is something that is going to strike a cord in a positive way with not only your existing customers but also bring in new customers.

You may even decide to run a new USP every couple of months (as in a different bonus) and use this as your marketing tool so that your marketing is not seen as repetitive and boring. Add-ons and bonuses don't always have to cost a lot and if they are bringing in new customers it is well worth while.

These points should all be part of your marketing plan. If you have not got a marketing plan I would suggest you rough sketch up the next 12 months (taking into account seasonal changes if they affect you) and detail the next 3 months. It is not too difficult once you put your mind to it but like most small business owners finding the time seems almost impossible. Without doing this though, you may be spending a lot more money than you realise on ineffective marketing.

Kaye has been a small business owner for over 25 years and understands the problem faced when trying to market a small business. It is often hard for a small business owner to sit down and read about marketing so when purchasing our Marketing Must Do's for Every Small Business you will also get a free bonus audio CD. For your copy just go to http://www.ebooksnowonline.com/internet-marketing/marketing/

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