What Is Your Unique Selling Proposition? You’re Leaving Money On The Table If You Don’t Have One…
Keywords: copywriter, freelancer, business writer, copywriter coaching, copywriting
If you’ve done any freelance work in marketing, you may be familiar with the phrase “unique selling proposition” (commonly known as the “USP”).
The USP tells your prospect what differentiates your product from everyone else’s in your category. And it’s the single most important reason your prospect will buy from you…or from someone else.
But did you know that you, as a freelancer, are a “product” too…and that you need a USP to differentiate you from all of the other business freelancers working in your field? The most successful copywriters can say why they’re the best writer for the job. Can you?
There are many ways to differentiate yourself from the competition. I trade on my agency experience and “big name” clients. When I help my coaching students discover their Unique Selling Proposition, we start with a review of their experience and successes.
We are positioning one of my students as a “problem solver,” because he’s taken start-up companies to great success as a software salesman. Another student is positioned as “the headline Doctor” because she feels she is exceptional at writing headlines. She offers potential clients a free headline critique of their marketing materials, valued at $300.
Even if you think you have nothing in your background that will position you as special or unique, you’re almost certainly wrong. One of my students is entering copywriting after spending a lifetime in anthropology. “How can I possibly find anything in anthropology that a marketer would value?” she asked. “Tell me about anthropology I replied.”
After a 10-minute discussion she mentioned that there are seven motivators that are common to all people in all cultures. “Could a product or service have any kind of connection to any of these motivators?” I asked. And we brainstormed common products and services that are commonly sold via direct mail, ads, or ecommerce.
It turned out that there was a link to the seven motivators for every product or service, which allowed us to say that my student had a deeper level of empathy for people (and prospects), than most copywriters. And since the ability to convey empathy is so critical to the success of a marketing piece, then a client would be well served by using her copywriting services over someone else’s.
My student went on to create a free report to give to potential clients, entitled “The Amazing Link Between Anthropology and Direct Marketing that Can Really Increase Your Profits.” We also created an “Empathy Scale” so she could offer to measure the “empathy level” of a client’s past mailing.
So think for a moment. What would you say if a potential client asked “Why you?” If you don’t have a quick answer, then it’s time to create your own powerful USP.
Award-winning copywriter Chris Marlow publishes a free newsletter for freelancers who want to build a successful business. Visit:
www.FreelancersBusinessBulletin.com also shows business freelancers how to quickly build a successful business. Visit:
www.TheCopywritersCoach.com Box 1134, Palm Desert, CA, 92261
P: 760-340-2045
chris@chrismarlow.com
© Chris Marlow, all rights reserved
Previous Articles Highlighter:
Four Ways To Use Niche Marketing (1)
It is a way to focus your attention on a single group of customers that is most likely to buy your product or service. This group is going to be the most loyal and they will make up your biggest profit base.
The Dark Side Of SEO: Black Hat SEO (2)
Jeff Casmer is an internet marketing consultant and work at home business owner. His "Top Ranked" (www.24hourwealth.com Earn Money at Home Directory gives you all the information you need to start and prosper with your own Internet Home Based Business.
How Copywriters Can Bounce Back After A Client Messes Up A Direct Marketing Campaign (3)
First, you may uncover a "buried" influence. I recall one client who came to me and said "We don't want any response, we just want them to know we exist." To which I replied, "If we're making the effort, why not see what we can get?
Discover Your Powerful Secret To Make Money From Your Blog (4)
Once you have discovered a niche that you can attack in a unique way, you will still have a lot to do, but finding your place in the blogosphere is the place to begin.
Things You Need To Know In Order To Find The Best Web Hosting (5)
It enables you to track your marketing plans and bandwidth usage. It saves you money by preventing wasteful spending on not profitable website advertising campaigns. Control Panel Most control panels are very easy to use since they are developed with a user friendly interface browser for the everyday user.
Online Marketing: Show Customers Your Expertise (6)
After you've worked so hard to make your articles interesting and informative, you don't want to drive people away with your "About the Author" box. Make it clear, brief, and friendly.
3 Simple Tips To Help Explode Your Membership Site Results (7)
Membership Site Tactic #3 - Leverage membership to sell more One last thing the best membership sites do is market other things to their members. This may appear obvious to some readers, but surprisingly enough, no more than 1 in 10 membership programs have a systematic approach to 'pitching' other relevant, helpful products and services to their clients.
Why Should You Listen To Julia Roberts? (8)
Let me explain... If John Doe comes to you with a sales pitch, you will view him with some degree of neutrality, or possibly even negativity, because you don't know him.
Earn Free Money Online With SEO (9)
Now, let's look at on-page and off-page optimization. On-page optimization is the work that you do on the actual web page itself. What you need to do is place your keyword phrase in your URL (if possible), in the title tag of the page, in the description tag and in the keywords tag, Then, sprinkle your keywords in the body of the text, in the first and last paragraphs, and make sure that you bold, underline or italicize the keyword phrase to give it more emphasis in the search engines.
How To Use Adswaps To Build Your List (10)
AdSwap Take the traffic from someone else's website and use that to generate more traffic to your own. The best part about this is that it costs considerably less.
Make Huge Profits From Your Stay At Home Mom Business Ideas And Say Goodbye To Your Boss (11)
Here's a few things you may want to check before saying goodbye to your boss; - Go to Google and do a search for a particular keyword phrase (example:"buy scrapbooking supplies") and see how many competing sites in the results.
How An Affiliate Program Can Help Your Business (12)
I hope this information helps you get your online business off to a good start. The affiliates you recruit into your program are almost like your employees, they are doing your advertising work for you, and it does not cost you anything unless they make a sale.
How To Get 50% Of Your Freelance Fee Up Front -And A Whole Lot More! (13)
Since I tend to work with mid-size to large companies, I never have a problem getting my up front fee or having it delivered over night. My feeling is that clients are in a hurry to get their copy and are at their most agreeable at this stage.
How To Start Making Money By Taking And Selling Online Surveys (14)
Why are online surveys so popular? For one thing, surveys don't demand a lot of time or work, by comparison with other more regular jobs. You don't have to leave the comforts of your home with the new online surveys being sent to you in a link via email.
Article Marketing Is All About Titles (15)
Your goal now in article marketing is for your articles to be prominent in the search engines. How do you make this possible? By using the right title.
Using Public Domain Content For Your Online Business (16)
Sometimes unknown writers and their works of literature become quite popular with just the right spin. The key is finding them. In order to do that, you first have to know what constitutes a public domain work as far as the time period.
Web Site Tracking Software (17)
4. Web Traffic Analysis Software: this is a program that will take your raw log files and generate a report on your traffic. The quality will completely depend on what program you are using.
How Do I Get Hold Of Stock? (18)
Well, that's one of the biggest challenges you will face when building your online business, but if you think that trawling thorough masses of online offers is the only way then you may be surprised.
The Top Internet Business (19)
Keywords: make money online, affiliate marketing, internet business, affiliate, home income portal, traffic, promote When looking for the top internet business you will want the one that has proven results as well as the willingness to not only share the information that worked to help that site grow, but also the support you will need to make your business grow as well.
Things You Need To Know Upfront When Looking For A Web Hosting Company (20)
If you set a limit to your spending make sure you stick with it. If you find a company that has what you need, but costs more than you want to spend you may want to check around with other companies.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Some Of The Factors To Consider When Choosing The Best Web Host For Your Website (1)
This is why you need to do a lot or research and comparative study before opting for a web host. Some very important criteria for choosing a web host include the facilities of data storage and the data transfer.
Directory Marketing Is Still Alive In 2007 (2)
You receive 1-way links back to your site on a page that has the context that matches your site as close as possible. Many of the directories are considered "Authority" sites because they are hand editing so spam is not allowed.
The Growth Of Affiliate Marketing Software (3)
Most software also allows you to make global changes to your program details, meaning that changing the information one time, changes it on every link generated in the future. Obinna Heche: Delivering the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home successfully..
Learning The Basics Of RSS (4)
RSS gives benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers. 1. It gives you the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updates site learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.
Become An SEO Expert In 3 Easy Steps (5)
Don't try and target something with millions of competitors. These sites have a lot of authority and it will take quite some time to catch up. Becoming an expert SEO marketer is quite possible for the newbie and you too can enjoy free organic search traffic for your websites targeted keyword phrases.
Why The Availabilty Of Multiple SQL Databases Can Influence Your Choice Of Web Hosts (6)
SQL has completely revolutionized the way data storage is handled and maintained with secure and accessible data anytime, anywhere. Calculate the disk space you require immediately and make provisions of extra for future usage and business expansion.
The 3 Best Options For Profiting From PLR Products (7)
Make them bonuses. If you already have a core product in a niche, you may use PLR products to add perceived value to your product - by making them bonuses.
6 Free Ways To Make Money Online (8)
With off-page strategies, the idea is to get tons of back-links to your site (from article submitting and a linking campaign) so that you rank well in the search engines.
Generating An Income With A Home Business (9)
Some web hosting companies are not as good as others. Do not settle for less when you can have access to tools that will make your business run better.
How To Use Traffic Exchanges Effectively (10)
In other words, a traffic exchange allows members to exchange traffic between their sites. You can sign up as a free traffic exchange member or as a paid member with a monthly subscription.
How To Advertise Your Internet Business And Drive Traffic And Sales For Pennies (11)
Send them to your happiest customers (most will be glad to display your bumper sticker for you). Pens with your internet business imprinted on them work great as free giveaways at fairs and events.
How To Start A Home Business With A Minimum Budget (12)
But it can be had for under $100/year. Perhaps you have a skill you could offer as a service. Running errands for people, website design, tutoring, being a virtual assistant...
A Guide To Marketing (13)
- A Market Focused Organization A market focused organization is also a customer focused organization. It is no good selling something that people don't want so the first rule of marketing is know your client base, find out what they want and then fill the gap.
Benefits Of Being An Affiliate Marketer (14)
Affiliate marketing will give the product or service the maximum exposure that it may not get with other traditional advertising techniques. The more affiliate sites a merchant has, the higher the traffic, which can convert to sales.
Advertising Your Small Business On A Limited Budget (15)
More and more newspapers are offering this option as they struggle to maintain competitive online with eBay, Craigslist and other pure pay classified and marketplace sites. Another option for pay per click and inexpensive advertising for a business owner that wants to concentrate on local customers is with regional publications on some of the larger metropolitan newspapers and groups that are introducing citizen media sites.
A Question Of Scroll Bars (16)
Still, you shouldn't rely on it completely. Don't Eliminate it Entirely. But Pay Attention. The answer, then, when it comes to scrolling, is to be sensitive about it.
Traits You Need To Succeed As An Internet Marketer (17)
You will be spending hundreds of hours in product preparation and marketing before it can even be released. There will be times when you'll get frustrated and think of giving up, but that's normal.
How To Express Yourself Through Blogs (18)
Expressing your thoughts in written words, however, is not as simple a task as it may seem to be; many people, in fact, find that it can take hours to accurately transfer the most seemingly simple thoughts to the written word.
3 Tops Reasons Why You Must Have Your Own Affiliate Marketing Website (19)
In my professional opinion and from my own experience though, this is not the way to go if you are serious about making your affiliate business a full-time enterprise. Let me explain why - giving the most important points against using the affiliate website: 1.
Why Links Will Get You Top Rankings In Google (20)
When other people use your article in their site, they automatically include the link to you so that visitors can link through to you for more info etc. Make a note that good quality articles = good quality links.