Do you know what makes your business unique? Can you properly define what separates you from your competitors?

Better yet, can your employees?

This is an important question to answer when it comes to marketing your business. Your unique value proposition, or UVP, is what gives you an edge against your competitors. It is the one thing that you provide that your current and prospective customers CANNOT get elsewhere.?

Properly communicating your UVP can be the difference between a sub-par marketing strategy and one that truly differentiates your business.?

Let?s imagine how Matt, who owns and operates the only vegan restaurant in the downtown area of his city, would define his UVP.?

Define Your Uniqueness

The first thing Matt needs to do is define what makes his business unique. For him it is not being a restaurant. There are other restaurants in the area.?

What makes Matt?s restaurant unique is that he is the only VEGAN restaurant in the downtown part of town. This helps him stand apart from the other restaurants who are his competition.?

This might be an obvious step, but it is still an important one.?

By taking the time to define what makes your business special you are staking your claim to your UVP. You are letting everyone in your organization know how you view your business, how you plan to serve your customers, and how you plan to differentiate yourself from your competitors.?

This will not only help in drafting your messaging, but it will also serve as a guide for your employees as they deliver service to your customers.?

Identify Your Benefits

Next, identify the benefits of your UVP.?

For Matt, operating the only vegan restaurant in the area means he is the only restaurant to offer a complete menu of healthy options for lunch and dinner.?

Matt can leverage his UVP to target people who work in the nearby office buildings by stating they are the only restaurant offering a healthy lunch alternative within walking distance for people working at a desk all day.?

When you identify the benefits of your UVP, you are describing to the customer what they can expect from your business.??

Describe What Makes These Benefits Valuable

After you identify your benefits, you want to describe what makes those benefits valuable. This is closely related to the previous step, so it is easy to get them mixed.

Here is an easy way to look at it:

• When you identify the benefits, you are establishing your customers expectations.?
• When you describe what makes those benefits valuable, you are detailing why your customers should care about those benefits.?

Going back to Matt:

• The benefit: ?The ONLY vegan restaurant within walking distance of your office.?
• What makes it valuable: ?A healthy alternative when you are too busy to pack a lunch.?

Matt is stating the benefit of being close to the office, which implies easy access in a timely manner. And then you are highlighting the fact that you are the only healthy alternative in the area. So those who have a short lunch break, but do not want another hot dog from the street cart, have a healthier choice.?

Identify and Solve Your Customer’s Problems

Remember an important part of marketing is identifying and addressing your customers problems.?

We have already done that with Matt?s example.?

By Matt stating that he is the only vegan restaurant within walking distance he is doing the following:

• Identifying his customer?s problems: Lack of healthy lunch alternatives and not a lot of time
• Solving his customer?s problems: Offering a menu of vegan options and being within walking distance of downtown office buildings.?

If possible look for ways that you can identify and solve the problem with one statement. It may take some time, but in most cases it can be done.

This helps with the last step.

Make Sure It Can Be Understood In Under 5 Seconds

Your audience does not have a lot of time, so you want to make sure your UVP can be quickly understood.?

Matt?s UVP would look something like this:

MATT?S VEGAN RESTAURANT

The ONLY vegan restaurant within walking distance of your office!

A healthy alternative when you are too busy to pack a lunch.?

This is a simple and quick statement that does not require a lot of time to read or to understand the message.?

Note: This is a simplified example of a UVP, but you can see how it clearly checks all the steps outlined above. Most businesses will not be as clean cut as a downtown vegan restaurant. That?s ok. Drafting a good UVP that can be understood in under five seconds can be challenging. However it is worth the effort.?

Your UVP could very well be the difference between a customer selecting your business over a competitor. It could also be the thing that keeps them coming back and potentially referring other customers.?

While you may know your UVP, you must be able to communicate your uniqueness to your target audience so they are aware of what truly makes you and your business unique. If you are able to do that, then you will be setting yourself and your marketing efforts up for success.?