USP is frequently called as one of the most misapprehended elements of a successful sales leaflet. In definition it is what makes your products different from your rivals. Here are some examples of unique selling positions for a particular product:

Lowest Price – if you can make your product cheaper than your rival then do it. In my opinion, I am not a fun of selling my products at cheap cost since someone else can always come along and sell at a much lower price, then eventually you are in a downward spiral for doing it for free.

High Quality – if your product excels more than your rival’s or is produced with top quality materials, then you can use this fact to boost your sales. For instance, compare Marks and Spencer’s food to their rivals from the packaging to the wholesome top ingredients, the quality is clear. It may charge them a little more than their rivals, but it will sell more in the market.

Superior Service – if you provide higher quality services than your rivals, most people will prefer your services than your rival’s. This works for specific markets that deal with mostly services such as beauty salons, mail order, tradesmen and many others.

So what if your service or product is similar to your rivals’? However, there are always contrasts. The best thing to do is to use them to your advantage.  You want to always stay ahead. So what can we do in this situation? One is to offer something unique that no other corporation has ever offered. There is an explanation why computer shop ‘A’ offers to excel more than their rival’s price for the same product by a certain percentage, while company ‘A’ provides a free of charge printer. So until you get a company with similar package, you will not spend any money. But, what if you have a similar product for sale as the shop up the street? Unless your potential customer knows the origins of you and your rival’s product, plus customer service and manufacturing process, then you cannot use this to your advantage.

However, you must be honest about your product. For instance, if I say to my readers that my product is extensively steamed to maintain cleanliness and purity (like containers for cosmetic cream), it does not matter if a similar company does the same thing up the street, but the fact that they do not advertise make it a USP in your potential customer’s eyes.

Here are some more USP examples.

•    I am the only car serviceman that will purchase your car if you are not fully pleased with our services.

•    Delivered in half an hour or we will pay for it.

•    No Furniture company will offer you free delivery apart from us.

•    Our recipe is highly classified, only I and other two people know it in the whole universe.

As with most ways for up copy results, research is essential with your USP. Sometimes your USP is apparent especially if your product is copyrighted. Other times you have to do some research in order to find it and use it to your advantage. Here is where diligence and personal selling qualities really help. Let me give you an instance to display what I am saying: If your company trades beanbag chairs for the little ones. So you, being a good salesperson, choose to trade these beanbags personally to customers before you start making the copy of your leaflet. After finishing twenty unique levels for your product, you notice that three quarter of those you visited asked if the chair eventually breaks. Since the chair is meant for the young one, it only natural that parents would be anxious about their child rolling on it, jumping on it or any other things that children do that might break the chair. So when you make your copy, ensure you address such problems.

For example you can write: ‘Our firm beanbag chairs are triple bonded for guaranteed break-proof performance.’ Moving to the most important part of your leaflet printing…the title, if you want to increase your response rate tremendously, focus on your title (I bet you have one). So the reason for this five times as many people read your titles than the content of your copy. In other words a title promotes your copy. No one will stop doing their daily chores to read your copy unless you offer them a nice reason to read it. The title is the most significant section of your copy. This is because your response rates can rise tremendously by not only having a title, but also making the title interesting and catchy in the eyes of your targeted customers. The key thing here is the target customers not everyone. Check this example: ‘Latest powerful Gloves Safeguard User against Hazardous Waste’ so in this case will the headline attract everyone? Of course not, and in the title you are not addressing everyone but those who deal with hazardous materials. The targeted readers will be pleased to hear about this latest gem. They may go further and inquire about your product only because they were pleased with the title of the copy. In the case that you sell gloves more than a particular purpose for instance gardening, then you can make a new leaflet with the title targeting the other customers who use gloves for a different purpose. This will make you touch everyone in their respective fields. It has always increase sales to target people as one than a whole crowd.

Going back to titles…where can you get the best titles.  One way is to look at the leaflets which have performed well and stood the test of time. You look for adverts that are frequently written in Newspapers and leaflets that you normally receive via mail most of the time. How do you know they are successful? Due to the fact if they were underperforming the producer would have never bother making them again and again. So how could you borrow the ideas of other successful leaflets to your own? Simple, make sure your title is straight to the point and has the feeling of urgency. It should talk to your targeted readers only. The other thing which is pretty important is the appearance of your title. Ensure the font of your title is large, bold and not similar to your content’s font. Generally, longer titles tend to attract more people than shorter ones, even when targeting more conservative customers. The last thing is never copy other titles exactly.

Dean Williams

Dean Williams is a design and marketing blogger working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building brands through quality print marketing. If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch hello@print-print.co.uk