Kseniya I. Content Marketing Expert

How to make a USP for advertising in social networks

You will be able to attract the attention of customers on social networks if you make them an interesting and unique offer. This will help you stand out from your competitors and start a conversation with users who have seen your ad. A unique selling proposition is one of the key elements of social media advertising creative. How to write it correctly and where to start we will tell in the article.

What is USP and when to start creating it

A unique selling proposition is a characteristic of a product that distinguishes it from competitors' similar offerings. This concept is almost 80 years old and was invented by the famous American marketer Rosser Reeves. It was he who created the famous USP for M&M's, Colgate and other brands.

USP is designed to emphasize the peculiarity of the product and interest the buyer. Therefore, in order to write a really worthwhile offer, you need to understand the needs of customers, evaluate your resources and study the offers of competitors well.

Find out what matters to customers

Don't judge by yourself. Your idea of ​​a product may differ from what customers want from it. The surest way to find out the truth is to ask customers. You can also talk to sales managers and find out from them what most often worries customers and what is the real problem they solve with the help of the product.

If you decide to survey customers, then make a short list of questions. They should provide a detailed answer. With their help, you should understand in what situation a person uses your product, how it helps him, what would happen without him, and what attracts him most in your product.

Interview at least 30 people from your target audience. It is better if these are existing clients. If you use information from the sales department, then ask managers in advance in conversations with customers to find out the necessary information.

Evaluate product features

Before you make an offer to a client, evaluate the quality of your services and your capabilities. Relate this to the needs of a typical customer. The assessment must be truthful, do not try to embellish something. If you cannot offer, for example, round-the-clock support, then you should not focus on this. Think of other possibilities. You will most likely find areas of growth within existing services.

Look at competitors' offers

Your offer should either be more profitable than the offer of competitors, or radically different from it. For example, you know that competitors have slow delivery. Focus on fast delivery of goods at home. You need to study not only the site of competitors, but also try to see their ads. A good option would be a trial order or clarification of information from the position of the client.

This does not mean that you should speak negatively about your competitors. You can just become a little better or offer an additional bonus to customers. It might not cost you much. It can be a free calculation or consultation, or it can be convenient functionality on the site.

After you have collected all the information, write it down briefly, in the form of abstracts. This will help in the future when writing the text of the USP.

5 rules for creating an effective USP

Write briefly. There is always a temptation to write a lot and fit all the information into a sentence. It's not worth doing that. You have no more than 1-2 seconds to attract the attention of a client. This is how much time a person spends reading the headline and deciding whether he needs it or not. If the text of the USP is long, it will be skipped. This is especially true for social networks, where we all quickly scroll through the feed and read diagonally. Try to fit in 6-8 words.

Write in the client's world. When researching customer needs, you will definitely hear the same phrases that characterize your product. They can be used or at least taken as a basis. Remember USP M&M's "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands"? We usually talk about delicious sweets like this: “melts in your mouth”.

Emphasize the uniqueness of the product. Highlight the main consumer property of the product. If you can deliver a product in 1 hour and your competitors can deliver in a day, then focus on that. For example: "We deliver flowers in an hour to anywhere in the city." A unique advantage can be found in almost any product. If it seems to you that your product is the most common, then think about the situation in which it can be used or highlight the target group of customers for which it is intended. For example: "Furniture for new settlers."

Make strong offers. People don't really like to change their habits and therefore replacing a product with a new one will not be very easy. The argument must be valid. The client must understand that only you and your product have this advantage, that he can only get such a discount from you.

Talk about benefits. After reading the USP, a person should understand that buying a product from you is beneficial for him and will benefit him. It can be a discount, an understandable phrase about solving a problem in a short time. It all depends on what the customer expects from your product.

USP formula

There is a formula for writing USP - 4U. According to her, a unique offer should include 4 elements:

- Uniqueness

- Usefulness

- Ultra-specificity (ultra-specificity)

- Urgency

Uniqueness is what makes your product different. This is a feature that competing products do not have. If this is not the case, then you need to present an advantage from the other side, aiming at solving the problem or the target group. This may be an additional service that competitors do not provide, or a new quality of providing this service: faster, in a larger volume, etc.

Utility is the benefit that a customer will receive from buying a product from you. If there are several benefits, then either single out the most significant one or create several USPs. Don't combine them. Ultra-Specific. Highlight segments in your audience and write unique offers for each segment.

Urgency. Limit the timing of the offer. If you make the offer open-ended, then there will be no good reason to use it right now.

What is crucial to remember

When creating a USP for advertising in social networks:

- Study the needs of your target audience and understand what is important to it.

- Evaluate the capabilities of your product and your service.

- Study your competitors i.e. find their strengths and weaknesses. Try to become their client.

When writing the text of the USP, try to write briefly and clearly for customers, emphasize the uniqueness of the product, talk about the benefits. Make a really strong offer that customers definitely can’t refuse and limit it in time.

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