June 18

0 comments

How To Create A Unique Selling Point That Your Visitors Will Reward

By Fabian Pott

June 18, 2020


Does a USP really matter or is this just a waste of time?

Unique Selling Point for SEO

A Unique Selling Point (USP) is the be-all and end-all for any project with a long-term focus which you should think of in any project. 

I don’t need that because I do pure spam.”

No, even S P A M projects need one!

In this article, I will show you some nice ideas and tactics to not only make your project more valuable but also more effective in terms of getting better visitor statistics without even relying on better rankings!

Every visitor who comes to your website is eventually only a single click away from a solution that you might be able to offer him or her. 

That’s why this site needs to be all the more convincing and have a truly unique selling point. 

So this article will not be about going into various examples in more detail, but rather about the following:

  1. What exactly does a Unique Selling Point actually mean?
  2. How do you build a Unique Selling Point?
  3. Cool examples of a Unique Selling Point
  4. Outlook and summary

I would like to emphasize that I only judge pages from my point of view of what they do well and what they do poorly. So if your site is included, please do not misunderstand me. I don’t want to talk a website bad about it, I just want to talk about chances and possibilities that everyone can and should use for himself or rather for his own website project. 

What exactly does a Unique Selling Point actually mean?

If you think that simply because there are no competitors doesn’t really mean that this is also a unique selling point. 

It’s enough when only one new competitor is getting into the same niche and just targets the same keywords as you do – then your “USP” faded into thin air. By the way: That’s the most common mistake people do in online marketing or when building niche sites or rather an entire website.

Normally every company should have something that makes it stand out from the competition in an effective and sustainable way.

So what does it not mean with regard to SEO?

  • better ranking
  • better link profile
  • better internal linking
  • faster hosting
  • better design
  • better price
  • etc. …

These are all good features but this can be easily improved or also copied by others so this won’t last long. 

Maybe you also experienced that you might have bought something which was more expensive than another offer – the price has never been the only reason why somebody decided to buy something.

The reason for that was mainly that this product or service had something included which others didn’t have – and simply stood out and obviously had a big advantage.

Just think of the iPhone – It’s an impertinence to set the price so high. But the advantages are obvious, which has not really been achieved by any other competitors yet: 

  1. The ease of use – it is innovative and intuitive
  2. The design of the product itself and its packaging
  3. The cult and tribe behind it – people even sleep in front of the stores when a new model is getting released!

So that you understand how this approach can be directly mirrored on your own online assets. Let me show you three examples so that you really understand what a unique selling point could be:

FedEx Corporation

When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.

Unfortunately, FedEx changed this slogan into “The World in Time”. But the old one was way more powerful because it also contained the USP. The customer got a guarantee that the product would be delivered safely and on time.

So you had the security of knowing that it’s getting delivered as promised. So you save time and might also get it overnight if necessary!

Domino’s Pizza

You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s free!

Well.. unfortunately, I never go any pizza for free because Domino’s always delivered on time. At least at my place in Germany where I’m currently living. But sadly, this guarantee doesn’t exist anymore because their drivers were driving around like absolute maniacs to beat the time limit in any case!

But the slogan is perfectly clear, communicates everything in easy words and in the end you also get a guarantee of what’s most important for you! Hot pizza within 30 minutes!

But look at this what I just found (could be outdated later so don’t take my words in the next few years as I assume that this is not going to last forever!).

Avis

We’re number two. We try harder!

You might think “What?!”. But believe me – this slogan in powerful! After the 

For a very long time, Hertz was the biggest car rental in the world. Not it’s enterprise holdings but in those days Avis was the second largest company in this industry.

Avis had some serious problems with its reputation and by this, they tried to give the brand its old strength that would pull the company out of its deep hole. By this campaign, the market went from 11 % to 35 %! So you can see that this can be very effective!

There are a lot of more examples like “trusted shops guarantee”, “same-day delivery”, innovative technology or an online shop with a massive product range. 

Conclusion: 

A unique selling point is something, which increases the comfort for your client and your visitors of your website. It’s something like an addition, an extra step, which separates you from others!

But it’s not all! You do not need a USP to do good business, but it helps a lot.

In terms of SEO, you still need backlinks, a fast website, and some other optimizations which lead to better rankings. Also, you will get better user statistics by just implementing better usability on your website which might improve your SEO as well.

Unique selling itself doesn’t really give you better rankings but you will improve the potential of your web asset because your users will appreciate and reward it!

So… how to get this done?

How do you build a Unique Selling Point?

You now should know the basics of what a unique selling point is all about. You need this knowledge so that you will understand what a real USP can mean for your website.

The only problem we have here is that these examples above are from companies which are very big. So that’s why I now will talk about ways how to implement this strategy directly on your website!

Let’s start with some easy to implement strategies:

Homemade pictures

5 weeks ago I started a lead gen campaign and went into a Facebook group to ask for some pictures from people who take pictures for you – which you indeed can’t find anywhere else. This is good if you don’t want to rely on stock photos.

Some minutes later I got a message of a young student who later in the evening sent me 10 photos which were related to the industry I’m working on. She also had some skill in making infographics and gave me a nice and brief infographic.

The full cost was about 20 dollars. And to be honest: She was from the US and I’m sitting here in my little room in Southwest Germany (during Corona) and didn’t even move any finger.

These photos I used for a small outreach campaign and you can read below how successful it was:

Unique Selling Point SEO outreachThe time required for this was quite small and the benefits were all the greater. Sometimes it pays off to go the extra mile and show things in a photo in a more original way and use this as a chance for a backlink. It makes it way easier and seems to be a nice unique selling point for my website and outreach campaigns.

I work with an agency that has been implementing this strategy for years and has achieved incredible results. As in the big so also in the small for my own little lead gen site which now ranks for every important keyword in the top ten!

Own videos

A good video is another way to improve the time of how long your visitors are on your website. You will also get some decent traffic from youtube and use it to promote your offers or services. The only requirement, as with homemade photos, is the quality of your video.

For sure you will know about such videos as well:

But this is no unique selling point. It works for spam as it’s used to target a massive amount of keywords but not for your money site. 

Instead, look at this:

The same happens to videos for product tests. There is still a big potential and we will also talk about different strategies on how to use and create those to really get hell lot of traffic and make a decent amount of money!

Just search for your main keyword on Youtube and look at those results. Often there are more videos which are worse than those which are of high quality!

The time required for this is mostly a bit more but in the end, you can create a lot of traffic with high quality or simply build a list with those visitors.

In my opinion, there are so many easy cutting-software which help you to create a nice video within one day. Even for this, you can go into several Facebook groups and just ask for simple videos made with a smartphone. You will be surprised how easy, fast and cheap you’ll get them!

Better content

Yeah, it’s always one of those things. This point is almost self-explanatory, but very few people stick to it – which is good for me as well as for you!

I’ll summarize it briefly – but I don’t want to use a saying here:

We all boil only water!

Text content

Know and understand your target audience – who are you writing for and why should this person read this text?

Read through all the content you can find before writing – what do you like and what do you dislike most? Always be critical and if there is something you don’t like, then do it differently and better!

You should know what you are writing about – don’t you also know these guidebooks, which are written by people who actually have no idea about the topic?

Explain foreign words and write foreign words in simple words and short sentences – do not avoid technical terms, but mention and explain them!

Also, pay attention to grammar and spelling – I leave websites whose texts are basically “cheap”. Because this can be recognized quickly!

  1. Know and understand your target group

I’m sure you’ve heard of it. To create really good content, you should understand your target group well. Why do these people search for this search term? What is behind it? How do you think they will feel when they search for “get rid of acne” on Google? Don’t you think that there is an infinite number of emotions involved?

Especially in some niches, this is often very neglected. Are there perhaps different target groups on your site that come across a search term? Shouldn’t a site whose traffic consists mainly of “children” also contain a link at some point that brings parents on board and can decisively influence the purchase decision?

Perhaps the parents themselves have no idea about the topic. And exactly I try to target this target group as well. I specifically address the safety of the child when using these products – and that helps immensely with the fact that my sales have skyrocketed. My texts must therefore not only be suitable for young people, but also for the target group that will ultimately make the purchase.

  1. Study and read existing content carefully

Sure. There’s always some website that’s already ranked on a topic. That’s why Google is also good at assessing what content is relevant to a particular search term. So take a look at what is already in the top 10 and take your time to read this content carefully and understand why Google has chosen these texts.

  1. You should know what you are writing about

Well… in the case of my side of the Honeymoon Maldives, I have to honestly admit that I’m not married. Of course, you can also choose niches that are not so hard to compete with and that you don’t always know about. But even that is not bad – because here it is about the fact that you like to ignore your own state of “ignorance” and just write on it. But before you start with that, you should take some time for it and I should really deal with the topic comprehensively. 

Depending on where your site is positioned, there are probably some videos, magazines, and books or even other, additional sources. Here it is very worthwhile to invest a little time and money. 

Be an expert in your niche! And if you are not yet, then you should definitely be in the end!

  1. Explain foreign words and write simply and understandably

Here it is even better if you have no idea about the topic. Because then your target group usually does not have it either! So you are automatically forced to explain words you don’t know in simple words. This is literally “foolproof”.

In the end, everyone who reads the text should really understand it completely.

You can also use foreign words very well as “external” links to refer to authority pages. Later I explain the word on my own page as simple as possible.

  1. Pay attention to grammar and spelling

Well, we are no longer in school here, but you should make sure that your error rate is as low as possible. You can use Grammarly for example. 

I think we all agree that reading texts that are full of mistakes can be extremely tiring and uncomfortable. I usually conclude from this that the person who wrote this text simply has no idea about the content itself!

Write casually, simply and purposefully. So that your target group really understands all of it. Make sure that there are no gross errors in grammar or spelling and you’ve already done almost everything!

  1. Structuring the text

You may also know it when it is said that in lectures as well as speeches the content is only about 30% of what people really “perceive” when you speak in front of them and present something. Of course, I don’t know whether this value is really correct.

What I am convinced of, however, is that a website visitor will only take a few seconds at most to scan and skim the text and then decide whether to read it word by word or leave the page again. So if your structure looks clean and orderly, chances are that you will get a lot more out of your traffic and thus generate a lot more revenue.

So don’t just put a lot of time, energy or money into your texts, but also into their visual appearance. Good quality should not only be readable but also immediately recognizable.

  • Appropriate font color (not light grey on white background)
  • Pleasant font size (It is best to look at the font size of pages that you found pleasant to read)
  • paragraphs (rule of thumb: after four lines at the latest)
  • Useful headings (short summary of the next section)
  • Fancy unordered Lists (something like this one)
  • Videos (maybe even the one you created)
  • Various highlights
  • Pictures and graphics (best done by yourself)

The time required to create better content than the competition is relatively high. I know this from contributions for seogeeklab.com or my own projects. But in the end the extra step, the additional effort is worth it, because many online marketers won’t bother.

Finally, I would like to mention 3 more websites that have implemented this area very well (in my opinion).

Saddleback Leather:

unique selling point example 1This lather bag company is one of the most interesting ones I’ve ever seen. When you visit the website, then its personality will blow your mind. It’s full of adventure (like Mexican bullfighting, travel in third-world countries, heartbreaking stories about the owner’s dog. 

What I really found funny is their slogan: “They’ll Fight Over it When You’re Dead.”

People WILL buy leather online here!

Nerd Fitness:

unique selling point example 2Well, we all know. The internet is full of people who write or talk about health and fitness. How many write about fitness and nerds? Well. I’m sure you can imagine. Only ONE!

IttyBiz:

unique selling point example 3The owner of the blog started to target a market where people don’t like marketing or rather can’t afford to spend a lot of money in it. When you read her content you think that she directly is talking to you!  People hate it or love it. I love her stuff… but it’s not for everybody.

What happens if you don’t have a USP?

Of course, you will be able to rank a website without a unique selling point. But at the end of the day, it’s that one extra step that makes the difference in how successful your projects become. Take it, put in the extra work and get the most out of your website.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Direct Your Visitors to a Clear Action at the Bottom of the Page

>