How to create the USP and “Big Idea” for your launch

Identifying your “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP) is one of the most important things you can do to ensure success.

A strong USP will clearly differentiate your product vs. the customer’s other alternatives, making your product the clear winning and best choice.

Once you have chosen your USP, it’s helpful to develop a “Big Idea” that provides you with a launch platform.

This launch platform is bigger than your product (hence the term, “Big idea”).

Unless you are Apple, Microsoft or one of the big brands, chances are nobody cares about the fact you are launching a new product; so you need this “Big Idea” to garner attention.

Instead of concentrating your early launch efforts on your product, it’s more effective to begin with a discussion around such a big idea –a concept or set of issues or hot topics that matter to your target audience and buyers.

By keeping the initial pre?launch focus away from your product, it avoids creating sales resistance and turning people off.

But just how do you develop a great USP? And how do you evolve it into a “Big Idea” that will power your launch to success?

Here’s an approach you can use:

Step 1 – Develop the USP

What makes your product or website more unique, more valuable, and more visible in the market?

In our highly competitive world, you have to be unique and fill a special niche to be successful in the marketplace.

When your USP resonates with your target buyers, it sets you apart from the competition and makes you the best choice for buyers to make.

Use the following criteria to test whether or not your USP hits the mark:

1. Unique – clearly sets you apart from competitors, making you the logical best choice
2. Extremely Remarkable – so different and remarkable that it is so thought-provoking it creates a lasting impression that simply must be discussed further with others
3. Promise Results – promises specific results or an outcome that is highly desirable to the buyer (and may also include reversal; ie, “or it’s free”)
4. Persuasive – makes the promise in a way that is too compelling to resist or ignore under the circumstances
5. Proposition – makes a specific proposal or offer that is suggested for acceptance
6. Applicable – clearly applies to the specific circumstances the buyer finds themselves in
7. Succinct – brief and clear enough that it’s easy to understand and repeat to others via word of mouth

Step 2 – Process to develop your USP “from scratch”

If your buyer could get exactly what they wanted in a “perfect” world, what would that be? Write down everything you can think of that represents what the buyer wants, along with what they will actually get, and be as specific as possible.

Based on buyers’ competitive alternatives, what can you provide that meets the six (6) criteria better (than those alternatives)?

Express your best or top three (3) three answers using the 6 USP criteria below:

1. Unique – “your answer here”
2. Extremely Remarkable – “your answer here”
3. Promise Results – “your answer here”
4. Persuasive – “your answer here”
5. Proposition – “your answer here”
6. Applicable – “your answer here”

Step 3 – Now refine/succinctly express your USP candidates

After you’ve derived your top 3 USP answers (descriptions of your USP) using the above process, refine them as much as you can, keeping in mind that the 7th requirement is that your USP must be succinct, simple and easy to understand and repeat (verbally).

Step 4 – Test and validate

You can test your various U.S.P. expressions and taglines using online methods to get an idea of how receptive people are to each one.

One common way of doing this testing is to use Google Adwords text ads, and measure the click through rates. This approach can also be used to refine the exact text that gets the best response rates.

Another approach is to use Twitter to test response rates such as click-throughs to a landing page and “ReTweets” by others.

Step 5 – Choose the final USP and evolve it into your “Big Idea”

The Big Idea represents your USP, but in a larger context; e.g., “No Software” for Salesforce.com, “Overnight Delivery Anywhere” for FedX.

For example, let’s say your product is a new kind of solar panel based upon a technology break-through. This solar panel is so efficient it makes it possible to power your home at less than what you would pay for energy from the power company.

Let’s say the USP is “Power your home with solar power and get rid of your monthly electric bill.” We could then construct a Big Idea around something like “No Electric Bill” or “Finally, You Can Fire the Power Company Who Keeps Raising Your Rates.”

The Big Idea is simply that you no longer have to rely upon a power company ever again and you can get rid of that monthly electric bill.

Then, you can position this within the overall “hot topic” of going “green” through solar-powered renewable energy. Since none of your competitors can offer a solar power system this efficient, you can claim to be the only one who can get rid of that pesky light bill, while also being a good citizen of the “green club”.

Ideally, your Big Idea represents a very compelling benefit that only your company and product can provide, and which ties into something your buyers already find appealing -  it’s something they want to do or change in their life or business.

Then, as your launch gets underway, you can begin introducing how your unique approach and Big Idea address the market’s interests and needs.

This approach enables you to leverage what people are already interested in talking about (e.g., social media, green solutions, etc.), and then show how your launch addresses these areas of interest.

Turn your USP into a Big Idea that you can use to talk about the interesting and compelling benefits of what your launch will accomplish, without referring directly to your specific product.

Make the discussion about issues and benefits, not the product.

First, sell the Big Idea.

Why? Because you’ll have a better chance that prospects will purchase your product to actually obtain the benefits of the ”Big Idea” for themselves.

So get going and create your USP and “Big Idea” to successfully power your launch!

To your success.

Rick

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