This is called a unique value proposition, or UVP. James Connor, who wrote The Perfection of Marketing, eloquently called this “The Sales Moment”. It’s that moment that your potential audience clearly understands why they are going to choose you over someone else.
Without a clear UVP you’ll never be able to effectively market your products/services (or your blog), and if you can’t do that, no amount of attention is going to matter. You’ll be dead in the water wondering why all of your effort isn’t working. Remember, you can’t put the cart before the horse. Developing a strong UVP is your first step.
Let’s pretend you own a business called Sarah’s Pizza Shack and your competitor on the corner is Paul’s Pasta Parlor. You both sell Italian food, and you both cater to the same neighborhood so you’re essentially the same to your target marketing, but in reality, you have differences. What are they? They could be:
- You have a much nicer dining room, the competitor’s place is like eating in a diner.
- Your children’s menu has favorites like chicken and fries, the competitor doesn’t.
- You’ve been in business for 50-years.
- Your staff is friendly and fun.
- Your pizza has won awards for years.
- Your home-made recipe for sauce was brought over from Italy in 1902 by your grandmother.
In other words… your pizza palace rules, and Paul’s Parlor is just a pretender. Those are reasons that your customers will choose you over them (your UVP), if you can effectively communicate those messages to them in the right way (getting their attention will be part of that).
Let’s get more practical now and talk about blogging. What could be the UVP of your blog? Here are some possibilities:
- Your content and writing style entertains the reader.
- Your content teaches the reader new things.
- Your content helps the reader to solve one specific problem.
- Your design is outstanding and gets “Wows” from most visitors.
- Your blog gets update much more frequently than your competitors.
- Your blog has a very active community around it.
- You have a closer relationship with your readers, and interact with them though many channels (e.g., comments, Twitter, emails).
- Your blog uses different type of media (e.g., text, audio and video).
At this point you should sit down with a piece of paper and write down your own UVP. If you don’t have one, well, it is time to develop it!
And remember, Paul is also reading this blog post, and he’s probably working on his UVP too. In fact he will probably try to beat you by getting those messages out faster than you are, in a more creative and loud way. But you’re not going to let him. You’re going to kick Paul’s butt because you are a doer, and remember, doers get what they want!
About the Author: For over 15-years, Jim Kukral has helped small businesses and large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance understand how find success on the Web. Jim is the author of the book, “Attention! This Book Will Make You Money“, as well as a professional speaker, blogger and Web business consultant. Find out more by visiting JimKukral.com. You can also follow Jim on Twitter @JimKukral.
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