In the world of professional marketers, there is an ongoing
debate about the value of branding and its worth as an
investment for you, the small business owner. Many agency
and media reps tell clients, "You need to get your name out
there and build your brand so that when a prospect has a
need for your product or service, they will think of you."
Those of us in the direct response crowd disagree with that
thought process because the typical small business owner
usually lacks the resources to wait for prospects to need
their service. We believe marketing investments should
generate leads or clients with branding being an added
benefit of the investment.
An additional problem with pure image or brand advertising
is that it is very difficult to track and measure its
effectiveness. In my mind, if I am going to invest in my
company, whether it is in advertising, direct mail, new
equipment or staff, I want to know my return on my
investment and believe clients should also be able to do so.
Is there a happy medium between the two camps where we can
serve our clients with marketing that builds brands and
gives prospects a reason to buy now? Is there a small
business target marketing strategy that accomplishes both
objectives? Absolutely!
The tool to make this happen is the Unique Selling
Proposition, or USP. A compelling USP will will create a
powerful and compelling reason for a target prospect to
act now. They will think, "I need this" or "I need more
information about this amazing product."
Let's go back a couple of decades so we can illustrate this
point with a couple well-known examples: If Federal
Express had run their media campaigns by putting their name
out in front of the market, their name would have been very
well known but that's about all. Instead they said to
their prospects "When it absolutely, positively has to be
there overnight."
Did the compelling USP work? I think we can agree it went
over rather well.
Will it work for a small business? Well, several years
ago, a man named Tom Monohan was in one of the most
competitive businesses that also traditionally has one of
the highest failure rates - The restaurant business. He
was in the most competitive arena of this market - pizza.
His marketing message was not, "We have pizza" or "My
company name is." His message was, "Fresh hot pizza in
thirty minutes or less - or it's free." I think we can
agree that Dominos Pizza did well with their USP!
People, businesses included do not care about you, your
name or your brand. They care about what you, your product
or your service will to do for them. Once they've made the
decision to buy, your name increases in psychological
importance, but not until then.
Remember that your small business target marketing has very
specific objectives and they are to deliver prospects or
clients. If they are not designed to do so, you can either
hope that you will get more clients or throw out useless
ads and switch to ads and marketing designed to bring you
profits.
The marketing designed to generate profits starts with your
USP and tells your targeted prospect why they should buy
from you and do so now.
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Join the legions of small business owners who threw out
risky brand advertising for marketing guaranteed to deliver
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