A “Unique Selling Proposition” is your message about what sets you, your business, your brand apart from all the others. USPs are something of a marketing fundamental, but knowing about them and actually implementing them in your business are two entirely different things. And if you’re a blogger, a marketer or a product creator, is branding even one of the things on your mind?
Well, if you’d like to get a better response from people in your market, if you’d like to make more sales and if you’d like to get more comments on your blog, then your USP might have more to contribute to your goals than you suspected. And instead of talking fluff around the subject or giving you a vapid 10-point list, I decided to give you a very practical example of how to apply a USP, that you can test right away. And don’t worry about branding your entire business just yet. You can use this method for any single piece of content you create.
Watch the video below to see what I mean:
Let me know your thoughts and comments on this video!
Cheers,
P.S.: To get a more up-to-date and much more detailed guide on creating a killer unique selling point for any business or blog, check out this newer post.
And you want us to praise you for that nice shirt you are wearing?
:-)
alex
Hey Alex,
You know, I was thinking about adding a sentence that clearly states the USP of this post (it is in there, but not super-explicit), but I thought that would seem too tacked-on.
Interesting video. I like your stuff… unique things always from you. I won’t unsubscribe for awhile. Nice professional video.
Interesting observation Shane.
Asking for the order is a well known cry but asking for a pat on the back? That’s new.
I liked the cute way you asked for comments at the end.
I have made a couple of videos where I specifically ask for comments at the end. After over 4000 views how many comments do you think I’ve got? Only ones where I personally know the commenter is the answer. Could be the way I’ve done it. Could be a number of things. The fact remains that it doesn’t always work, even a little bit. I’ll keep trying though. When I find out how to ask, and get a response as well, I think I’ll be on my way to some regular visitors, new found friends and even perhaps a bit of business.
Good luck and a Happy New Year to you.
Tony
Getting blog-comments can be quite difficult, depending on your traffic source.
For example, I probably get something like 1 comment out of 10’000 Google visitors. Some of my articles are getting good, regular traffic from Google, but the comment count almost doesn’t change at all. And whether I explicitly ask for comments or not doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.
Traffic from social sites tends to be more communicative, there. And of course, e-mail traffic is the best. From e-mail traffic, I get around a 5% commenting rate.
One thing I don’t know about is RSS subscriber traffic. I don’t advertise my RSS feed a lot, so I don’t have many subscribers. But it seems that bloggers with tons of RSS subscribers also tend to get a decent amount of comments.
Long story short: I think the number of comments you get has more to do with the traffic source than anything else.
Oh, Shane. We are not worthy. We praise the ground you walk on ;-)
Seriously, you bring up some interesting points regarding video and USP.
I’ve found that the articles where I get the most interest (and traffic) are the reviews I do associated with an interview with the product creator. A good example being:
http://ultimatemarketingstrategies.net/backlink-battleplan-review-and-interview-with-shane-melaugh
While I don’t directly push a USP, I think any aspect that personalises your message, gains more credibility with your audience.
I think your USP is that you have a face behind your articles and you aren’t afraid to call a spade a spade.
Keep up the good work.
Peter
Haha, that’s the right attiude! :D
I think it’s a great idea to personalize the reviews with interviews. Clearly, it’s working for you (you always show up on my affiliate payouts file) and I can see why. :)
Wow, man. Did you do something to your camera? It’s like completely different as everybody above has noted, too…. (hehe)
Here’s to 2011 my friend!
The answer is so simple for guys like you . . . I’ll tell you in a minute! First of all, I love your information and the whole setup is nearly perfect only because nothing is perfect. I just haven’t found what’s not yet. Unless your lack of comments but that’s about to be fixed right now.
I take those are the share things on the right side? How do they work? I forgot and there is no instructions telling us what to do with those 4 buttons?
Why should I Comment: You know this. Give people, especially shy people, a good enough reason to spend their time commenting with meaningful relevance instead of clicking away to surf and they will overcome their own inner objections.
Link Value for Blog Comments: Since the week of 11/20/2010 – Big Fat ZERO.
Results deserve rewards: Where is your Twitter following? Facebook Fans? Like you said, tell people why you want them to comment and if they do, you’re prepared to shoot that comment and their link to your Twitter followers or Facebook fans….under certain conditions.
Comment Criteria: You must be protective of your followers, subscribers and your reputation – anyone commenting better understand that or move on. The comments and links you choose to promote have to meet your guidelines and not all comments can be included. However, the more persistent, helpful and best quality comments over time will earn a possible reward.
Benefits: This is great practice for being resourceful and remarkable enough to be memorable, at least for awhile.
Okay, there you have it! Problem solved. Or not?
I think your point is very direct and well taken. I would agree with you that we need to make ourselves known. People in general will do as you instruct them so this makes perfect sense.