What is a unique selling point (USP)?

What is a unique selling point?

A unique selling point, usually shortened to USP, is the single reason a customer should buy from you. It is why they pick you over anyone else they could choose.

It is not a slogan or a list of everything you do. It is one promise that is true of your business, matters to the buyer and is hard for others to copy.

The idea comes from advertising. The encyclopaedia entry on the unique selling proposition notes that the strategy was used in successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. The thinking has lasted because buyers still compare options quickly and pick the one that gives them a clear reason.

Each word in the name is a test your point has to pass:

• Unique: others nearby do not offer it, or do not offer it in the same way.
• Selling: it is a benefit a buyer cares about enough to change their choice.
• Point: it is one thing, said in one sentence, not five things at once.

How is a USP different from a value proposition?

The two are close, and people often use them as if they were the same. A value proposition is the full promise of what a customer gets from you. It covers the problem you solve, who you solve it for and why the result is worth paying for. It can take a short paragraph to explain.

A USP is the sharpest edge of that promise. It is the part that sets you apart, cut down so a visitor can take it in within a few seconds. A good way to think about it:

• Your value proposition answers: why is this worth buying?
• Your USP answers: why buy it from us and not the business down the road?

You need both. The value proposition explains the offer on your service pages. The USP leads the page, because it is the reason the visitor keeps reading.

What does a good unique selling point look like?

Here are illustrative examples, not real firms. Each weak version is something almost every business in that trade could say. Each stronger version is specific and could be checked.

• A plumber in Bath. Weak: quality work at fair prices. Stronger: a fixed price agreed before any work starts, with no extra charge if the job takes longer.
• A dog groomer in Leeds. Weak: we love dogs. Stronger: one dog in the salon at a time, so nervous dogs are never kept waiting in a cage.
• An accountant in Norwich. Weak: friendly, reliable service. Stronger: every client has one named accountant who answers the phone, not a call centre.
• A florist in York. Weak: beautiful flowers for every occasion. Stronger: same-day delivery across the city for orders placed before 2pm.

Notice the pattern. The weak versions describe a feeling. The stronger versions describe something the customer can see, count or hold you to. That is what makes a buyer remember you and makes the point fair to use in your marketing.

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How do you find your unique selling point?

Your USP is usually already there, hidden in why your best customers chose you. The work is finding it and saying it plainly. These steps help:

1. Ask five or ten recent customers why they picked you, and write down their exact words.
2. List the worries a buyer has before choosing a business like yours, such as price, speed, trust or mess.
3. Look at the other businesses a customer would compare you with, and note what each one promises.
4. Mark the things you do that answer a real worry and that the others do not promise.
5. Check you can keep doing it every time, and that you can prove it.
6. Write it as one sentence a customer would say to a friend.

Mapping the steps a buyer takes before they contact you shows where the point matters most. Our guide what is customer journey mapping? explains how. The UK government guide on how to write a business plan describes a plan that covers objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts. Your USP belongs at the heart of the sales and marketing part.

What rules apply to a USP in the UK?

A USP is a marketing claim, so UK advertising rules apply to it, including on your own website. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), sets out the rules in its section on misleading advertising. The parts that matter most for a USP:

• Rule 3.1 says marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
• Rule 3.2 allows obvious exaggeration, which it calls puffery, if the average consumer is unlikely to take it literally and it does not materially mislead.
• Rule 3.7 says you must hold documentary evidence to prove claims a consumer is likely to regard as objective, before you publish them.
• Rule 3.33 says a comparison with others must compare products meeting the same needs or intended for the same purpose.

Consumer law points the same way. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) guidance on unfair commercial practices says traders should not give consumers information which is objectively false. It adds that any factual claims a trader makes about a product should be supported by evidence.

In practice, a point such as the fastest in town needs proof before it goes live, while a point you can show, such as a fixed price agreed in writing, is safer and more convincing. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Why does a strong USP take skill and time?

Most businesses can write a USP in five minutes. Writing one that works takes longer, because the first answer is almost always the one everyone else gives. These are the parts that take real effort:

• Research: talking to customers and reading what others in your area promise, rather than guessing.
• Honesty: picking a point you can keep to every time, not only on a good day.
• Proof: gathering reviews, numbers, photos or written terms that back the claim up.
• Wording: cutting a paragraph down to one sentence without losing what makes it true.
• Placement: deciding where the point appears on each page, and what sits next to it.
• Testing: watching how visitors respond and adjusting the wording when it does not land.

Then the point has to be built into the website itself: the headline, the order of each page, the proof beside the claim and the button that follows it. A USP buried in the fourth paragraph of an about page does very little.

If that sounds like a lot of work, it is, and it is the work our web design team does for small businesses before a single page is built. We ask the questions above, turn the answers into one clear point, and build every page around it. As we put it on that page, each site is designed for your business and written for your customers, not a template with your logo dropped in.

How should a unique selling point appear on your website?

Your USP should be the first thing a visitor reads, in the main headline at the top of the home page, with a short line underneath that explains it. Put the proof right next to it, such as a review, a number or a guarantee, so the claim and the evidence arrive together.

• Lead each service page with the version of the point that fits that service.
• Follow the point with one clear next step. Our guide what is a call to action? explains how to word it.
• Plan where the point and its proof sit before any design work starts. Our guide what is a website wireframe? shows how that layout is planned.
• Use the same words in your page titles and descriptions, so search results carry the point too. Our SEO (search engine optimisation) service helps the right people find those pages.
• Keep the wording the same across your site, social pages and printed material, so customers hear one message.

A clear USP does a quiet job on every page. It gives the visitor a reason to stay, a reason to trust you and a reason to get in touch.

Buzzozo builds premium websites for UK small businesses, and plans start from £149 a month for the first 100 businesses. You can compare what each one includes on our plans and prices page. Want to see your own point on a real page first? Start your free 14-day trial. No card needed.

Once you know your unique selling point, put it at the top of your website design brief. Then use content marketing that explains your difference to show it to the people searching.

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