In the situation when you have access to all-around information, the best way to differentiate your product or offer from your competition is to sell a better version of it. You often heard, “Correct the defects of their product or offer and sell.” Easier to say than do it.
In this chapter, you will find ways of discovering the pros and cons of your competitors’ products. Today, I want you to focus on the following subjects – components of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP), Creation of the USP, and Methods of Spying Your Competition.
Unique Selling Proposition Components
Focus on the advantages your clients or customers will receive by using your product or services. At the end of the day, customers only care about whether or not you can solve their problems or fulfill their needs. Remember that they will buy from you if they like you, trust you, know you. There is no better way to achieve all the three goals to solve customer’s problems on the spot.
Finding USP is very similar to defining your Vision, Strategy, and Tactics. Do you remember our Day 2 classes? If so, you should have your vision, strategy, and tactics well developed. What is more, you should have a rationale build for your business.
Two components that are building our USP are:
- Customer Benefits and
- Uniqueness
Customer benefits
To some extent, customers care only about THEMSELVES. It is a good message because it means that they care about your business as long as you will help them. Many companies focus too much on features and spend not enough time on the results given to consumers.
To be on the surface, write down your business features. Next, I would like you to translate them into solutions for your customers. For example, if you sell Keto-Diet Calculator App, the features might be ease of use, up-to-date information, or auto-reminders.
The benefits are that customers will control their diet better and will achieve their weigh-loss targets quicker. After all, they will look sexy, feel great, and improve their health.
Uniqueness
What makes you different from all the others that provide the same or similar product or service? Uniqueness can come in many forms.
It can be related to the quality or speed of service.
It can be your price – it does not necessarily mean being cheaper
You can offer a different pricing structure or more frequent upgrades (if talking about apps).
You can provide your product in different distribution channels (your online store, Amazon, local stores, direct shipping)
Your product can have various forms – Hardcopy Books, e-books, PDFs, podcasts, videos, webinars, life events.
You can get ideas on how you’re different or how you can make your business different by checking out your competition.
By the way, in this course, I will teach you how to spy your competition within minutes using online tools.
Creation of USP
Do you remember our article when we have learned that the product is not an offer? Hence, keep your customers at the forefront of your mind. You can sell the same product, but you need to understand the INTENT of your customers when they buy your thing. During Day 4, you have created Personas. You are in a half-way. Below is the framework I want you to follow to build your USP.
Framework
Step 1. Recap The Basics.
Recap what you have included in your mission statement, market analysis, and your business goals. To do the quick summary answer the questions:
- What products or services are you selling?
- Who is your target audience?
- What does your business do well?
- What is your most crucial customer-focused business goal?
Step 2. Solve the problem.
Imagine you are selling a Keto-Diet Application. The problem your customers have with your competitor’s solution is that the application is not available on iPhones. Additionally, according to the survey, meals suggested by the competitor repeat too often.
Step 3. Identify Differentiators.
Staying with our example, something that can differentiate your offer is that the application is available on iPhones and Androids. Additionally, you provide 100 more recipes, what answers to their problem that meals suggested by the competitor repeat too often. At the end of this session, I will show some great ways to spy on your competitor.
Step 4. Promises Made. Promises Kept.
Once you decide to present an offer that you have promised to your customer, you’d better deliver it. There is nothing more harmful to the business as lost trusts. Nowadays, customers have access to so many products and services providers, and they will leave you without blinking their eyes if your product does not meet their expectations. Worse, they might leave your long-built brand.
Methods of Spying Your Competition
I have promised you to provide you ways of spying your competitors. I will show you four bulletproof ways.
Way 1. Amazon
Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world, selling products and services. If you want to be on the market, you need to sooner or later get into interaction with Amazon. Here’s the deal.
Find the products you are going to compete against and check the Amazon sales ranking of the product and read the comments. Amazon Sales Rank provides you with information about overall ranking and niche ranking (an excellent insight into your competition).
So, read the comments. Find the negative ones (equal or below 3) and understand them. Check if they build the overall average “star ranking.” or maybe they are in the minority. If the ratio of negative comments to the total comments is low, then take them with a distance.
Additionally, check how old they are. If quite old, it might be the case that your competitor improved his product already.
Take your time to play around this and write down the bad and the good ones – you will know what your potential target audience likes or dislikes.
Way 2. Quora
Quora.com is an online community where you can receive answers to the most challenging questions. It is also a good source of knowledge about your competitor’s products and services.
Try to type the question: “What is the best keto app?”.
You will spot right away a competitor who is advertising it’s app.
He writes about the advantages. Try to beat it, and you are good to go. Of course, you can ask as many questions as you need to feel comfortable with your offer.
Way 3. Buzzsumo
We’ve talked already about Buzzsumo, so you know it. The great thing about this online tool is that you can type the given phrase or URL and receive results about the current trendy topics.
You can judge who is on top, what are the issues that drive the traffic and interest to your competitors.What is more, you can check who shares the articles on Facebook, Pinterest, and more. Later on, it might be your starting base of customers! Think about this.
Way 4. Clickbank and Google Trends
We have presented both tools in our article How to find a profitable niche? If you would like to recall them, feel free to use them again. Now you know much more, and you can repeat your searches accordingly.
P.S. For those who skipped the article, but are interested in the content, we have prepared a quick summary of what this article is about.
- You have learned what the USP components are
- Furthermore, you know how to create your USP in four steps to keep your offer unique and beneficial for your customer
- Finally, you have learned about four ways of spying your competitor and getting valuable information about the pros and cons of their proposal. You also know how to identify their target audience (comments and shares).