Create a Unique Selling Proposition |
Learn More About Creating a USP
What You'll Learn
In this article you'll learn how to define your Unique Selling Proposition and make it clear you're the best at your game.
In this article you'll learn how to define your Unique Selling Proposition and make it clear you're the best at your game.
Why Is This Important?
Your USP is one the most fundamental assets in any solid fitness marketing campaign. Simply stated, it’s a summary of what makes your business unique and valuable to your target market. It answers the question: How do your business services benefit your clients better than anyone else can? Here's how to create one.
Step 1: Understanding USP's
A USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is one of the most fundamental assets in any solid fitness marketing campaign. It is a unique part of your services or skill set that sets you aside from other personal trainers and helps you stand out from the crowd.
Simply stated, it’s a summary of what makes your business unique and valuable to your target market. It answers the question:
Why would someone choose me over the other PT's, offering the same services?
The answer to this is usually... BECAUSE OF YOU!
Personal training is personal training. If you have no reputation, people will sign up with you because of how you make them feel. Not because you're the only trainer with a money back guarantee.
Everyone has their own personal needs or desires or little quirks, which makes them individual. So a business's USP helps joe blogs narrow down his options and quickly. But ultimately, it will be YOU who they want to train with, not the features you've promoted.
However, these features can sometimes help and if you CAN have one, then why not!
Let's move onto step 2 and dig a little deeper.
Simply stated, it’s a summary of what makes your business unique and valuable to your target market. It answers the question:
Why would someone choose me over the other PT's, offering the same services?
The answer to this is usually... BECAUSE OF YOU!
Personal training is personal training. If you have no reputation, people will sign up with you because of how you make them feel. Not because you're the only trainer with a money back guarantee.
Everyone has their own personal needs or desires or little quirks, which makes them individual. So a business's USP helps joe blogs narrow down his options and quickly. But ultimately, it will be YOU who they want to train with, not the features you've promoted.
However, these features can sometimes help and if you CAN have one, then why not!
Let's move onto step 2 and dig a little deeper.
Step 2: Why Is a USP So Important To Your Business?
Not only does a USP distinguish your business from the 10's of other fitness businesses in your area are but a USP can give a great deal of clarity to your business model, what your company does and why you do it. It can define your business and most important business goals in just a sentence.
Successful USPs can be used as a company slogan and should be incorporated into all of your marketing activities.
A great USP helps funnel your clients to you, without having to "sell sell sell." We can't be everything to everyone, it's impossible and so your aim is to have just one amazing selling point and market that asset (we will talk about that in a minute) so it is clear and out there from the word go. No point having a USP and burying it under loads of text and layers of marketing. Keep it short and sweet.
Successful USPs can be used as a company slogan and should be incorporated into all of your marketing activities.
A great USP helps funnel your clients to you, without having to "sell sell sell." We can't be everything to everyone, it's impossible and so your aim is to have just one amazing selling point and market that asset (we will talk about that in a minute) so it is clear and out there from the word go. No point having a USP and burying it under loads of text and layers of marketing. Keep it short and sweet.
Step 3: How Can I Learn From My Competition?
At My Personal Trainer Website, we're website designers and marketers. Website design and marketing is pretty much the same in every niche. So why are we so appealing to our potential clients? What is our USP? Why does it work? We build websites (of course) marketed to personal trainers (of course), it's that simple.
No matter what business you're in, the principles remain the same but yet My Personal Trainer Website thrives so well because we've defined a target market. A market we know well because we've already succeeded in it. Personal training. That is our USP. We design websites not for everyone, but drawing on our past skill set, we leverage this to create our USP and that is why we thrive.
We could market for anybody but then our services and offerings would get lost in the busyness of all the other "general" website designers. We have a niche, it's very specific and now we are masters of the personal trainer website design industry.
No matter what business you're in, the principles remain the same but yet My Personal Trainer Website thrives so well because we've defined a target market. A market we know well because we've already succeeded in it. Personal training. That is our USP. We design websites not for everyone, but drawing on our past skill set, we leverage this to create our USP and that is why we thrive.
We could market for anybody but then our services and offerings would get lost in the busyness of all the other "general" website designers. We have a niche, it's very specific and now we are masters of the personal trainer website design industry.
Step 4: Now Your Ready To Create Your USP!
So now you know how valuable to your bsiness a USP really is, you just need to choose your own. As we have suggested, you should be able to sum it up in one sentance, which you could use as your stapline for your website and branding. If you really can't pitch your USP in one sentance, it usually means its too fluffy and full of padding.
Take our own strapeline at My PT website.
"My Personal Trainer Website builds, manages and updates your Internet presence, to help you get more clients and members."
See, we told you in one sentance what our USP is, no selling, no padding, just simple langauge. Anyone who is looking for a personal trainer website will go "yes they know how to build websites, just for me" and not only that they "help you get more clients and memebers"
So ask your self these questions, then write one sentance that will describe you, your USP and why people will want to work with you.
1. What unique skills do I have outside of being a personal trainer?
2. What unique offer can I add as value to my PT service?
3. What gap is there in the market in my area?
4. What are my clients looking for?
Write it down:
(Business name + USP + Why this is attractive to my clients?)
If you are still stuck at this point, don't worry. It can be hard to define just one thing, when you have so many ideas flying around your head. Come back to this after Step 4, more insight may help you decide.
Take our own strapeline at My PT website.
"My Personal Trainer Website builds, manages and updates your Internet presence, to help you get more clients and members."
See, we told you in one sentance what our USP is, no selling, no padding, just simple langauge. Anyone who is looking for a personal trainer website will go "yes they know how to build websites, just for me" and not only that they "help you get more clients and memebers"
So ask your self these questions, then write one sentance that will describe you, your USP and why people will want to work with you.
1. What unique skills do I have outside of being a personal trainer?
2. What unique offer can I add as value to my PT service?
3. What gap is there in the market in my area?
4. What are my clients looking for?
Write it down:
(Business name + USP + Why this is attractive to my clients?)
If you are still stuck at this point, don't worry. It can be hard to define just one thing, when you have so many ideas flying around your head. Come back to this after Step 4, more insight may help you decide.
Step 4 - How Do I Market My UPS's?
Effective marketing requires you to be an amateur psychologist. You need to know what drives and motivates clients. Go beyond the traditional customer demographics listed above, such as age, gender, race, income and geographic location, that most businesses collect to analyze their sales trends.
It is not enough to know that 75 percent of your clients are in the 18-to-25 age range. You need to look at their motives for hiring your services. Peer pressure, convenience and so on.
Ok so you know the basics of marketing, let's dig a little deeper...
It is not enough to know that 75 percent of your clients are in the 18-to-25 age range. You need to look at their motives for hiring your services. Peer pressure, convenience and so on.
Ok so you know the basics of marketing, let's dig a little deeper...
- FEARS – what are your niches long term fears that plague there mind constantly?
- SOLUTIONS – what are the short-term solutions your niche thinks they need (not what you know they need)?
- DREAMS – what are your niches long-terms goals? What do they want to see, hear, feel, know and accomplish?
Step 5 - How Do I Guarantee My USP's?
A big part of a successful USP is making a pledge to your clients. While this can be implied instead of spelled out in your USP, this will be the promise you make to your clients.
Let's run through a scenario of the above using our ideal client, John:
Let's run through a scenario of the above using our ideal client, John:
What gender is your ideal client? |
Male |
What age are they (within a 10 year gap)? |
45-55 |
What's their relationship status? |
Married |
Do they have kids and/or pets? |
2 kids, 1 dog |
What are their hobbies? |
Walking, Wine asting |
What's their yearly or monthly income? |
£50,000/year |
Let us dig deeper into Johns story...
Solutions - What HE thinks the solution to his problems are. |
John thinks he needs accountability. An appointment to go to to make sure he stays committed. He thinks he needs a nutritional program to help with weight loss. he thinks he needs to know more about exercise so he can train more effectively. |
Fears - What he fears. Things that he thinks about regularly. |
John worries that he'll get the same heart issues that 50% of men in his family get. He worries he won't be able to play with his grand kids. He worries his wife doesn't see him as a man anymore. He worries he'll have to train in front of other people. |
Dreams - His ideal situation. Where he wants to be in 12 moths time. |
John wants to be able to walk with his wife for long distances. He wants to reduce the size of his belly so his wife sees him as an attractive man. He wants to understand exercise and nutrition so he can eat better and actually ejnoy exercise. |
Ok, now we know what John fears, where he'd like to be in a years time and how HE thinks he can get there. Let's run through a few example USP's. Remember, your USP is your unique selling proposition. It's unique to you and what makes you different from your competitors.
John has a fear of training in front of others - We could offer complete privacy—and separate training areas—for those who want a quiet, convenient place to work out each day.
Need for accountability - We are the only 24/7 health accountability service in Harrogate, making sure John meets his goals set.
Dreams - We guarantee to make you fit for life or your money back. That is the guareentee.
Once you've gone through this three-step process, you need to take the next--and hardest--step: clearing your mind of any preconceived ideas about your product or service and being brutally honest. What features of your business jump out at you as something that sets you apart? What can you promote that will make customers want to patronize your business? How can you position your business to highlight your USP?
Don't get discouraged. Successful business ownership is not about having a unique product or service; it's about making your product stand out--even in a market filled with similar items.
