Do you really think you’re all that unique??
Your average web marketing firm, ad agency, marketing consultant or web designer will often tell you that it’s very important to find your company’s “USP” or “Unique Selling Proposition.” This is a great business practice, so long as you are the marketing company that gets to charge people over and over again for this “uniqueness.” What this really does best is stroke their client’s ego- after all, you think you’re unique, don’t you? Anyone who ever thought about running their own business thought so at least once in their life.
The truth is, (brace yourself) most of the businesses in the world aren’t really all that unique at all. Sure, we have our individual attributes that make us different as a person, but as a business, who really cares?! Do you remember why you chose your auto insurance agent? A lot of people will say because the agent was in close proximity to their home. Others will say because they had online bill payment. Can you think of 5 insurance companies off the top of your head that take online bill payments? Here’s another example: is there a dry cleaners on your way to work? Probably- especially if you live anywhere near a town or a city. What are the chances you’ll use that dry cleaners instead of another one in town that spent six months figuring out their “Unique Selling Proposition”??
I’m not saying that working with an advertising agency to find your USP isn’t a valuable way to spend your marketing dollars, but I do want you to ask yourself, “Am I really that different?” and more importantly, “Does anyone care?”
Listen, the reason most people shop at Best Buy is because it’s (are you ready for this…?) “EASY!” You are greeted immediately upon walking in the store. You can see, at a glance, the entire layout of the place. The store is literally crawling with people in blue polo shirts that would love nothing better than to spend the next half hour with you figuring out which mousepad is the right color for your office. And, when you do finally make a decision, they’ll even wheel your purchase right over to the cash register so that you can hand them your precious money and enforce the fact that they are a hugely successful company. If I asked you 10 minutes ago what you thought Best Buy’s USP is, odds are you would have said something very different than “Easy.”
My challenge to you today is this: Figure out what your customers really want, and I mean really.
I’ll tell you a little secret, Jaymunda is a website design company with a bit of marketing flavor added. We are by no means the best website designers in the nation, we are not the most famous marketing company in the Southeastern United States. We sell a freakin’ commodity that half the population couldn’t care less about (we’ll talk about that some other time). We do make decent websites, but more importantly, we are EASY to work with and give you reliable, friendly service. 