USP has a couple of agreed upon definitions that directly pertain to your copywriting.

Unique Selling Proposition, created by Rosser Reeves in the 1950s and made popular by Jay Abraham, is what makes your business or product or service unique. What it is about what you're offering that separates it from any competition you have.

The other definition for USP is the Ultimate Strategic Position. I believe that this definition was created by Chet Holmes, Master Business Builder. You Ultimate Strategic Position is basically that position in your market that you want to occupy in the mind of your audience. Which one will make your business the most profitable.

It's based on your goals for growth as a company.

You'll use both of those definitions in your sales letter.

How To Use Your USP in Your Sales Letter

First we'll cover the Chet Holmes definition in your sales letter.

Actually, it's not that you'll use your own Ultimate Strategic Position in your copy, but you'll use it to plan your copy. You should know what position you want to hold in the minds of your prospects before you sit down to write.

So once you have a good idea of that future growth, then we can work on the Unique Selling Proposition.

Using Your Unique Selling Proposition

What is it that makes you, your product or service really unique? What's the one thing or two things that your competition can't or doesn't offer that you do? Is it that your price is lower? Is it that you're more experienced? Is it that your product or service is exclusive to a select group of people? Is it that your service is really great? That your technicians are more highly trained? That you are an expert in the field? That your product is guaranteed for three years when your competition is only guaranteed for 90 days? What is it that makes your product unique?

Now that thing that's unique is one thing that you'll want to convey in your sales letter.

And you'll want to have that statement honed and fine tuned to sound wonderful.

See, you'll be referring back to your USP in your sales letter over and over, at least twice, and more if your letter is a long one.

When you introduce your product: BAM, your Unique Selling Proposition.
When you introduce benefits: BAM, USP.
When you're building credibility: BAM, USP.
When you're closing the sale: BAM, USP.

Introducing your Product

When you introduce your product or service, you'll want to have one statement of your USP weaved into your copy there. Even something as corny as "Introducing the Only Rainbow Widget with 24 hour technical support, 365¼ days a year."

You can weave it into a little description about your rainbow widget, too.

When Introducing Benefits

Either at the beginning or somewhere else in your section on word picture, curiosity creating, motivation invoking benefits. Have that USP.

Something like "And above all that, you can use your rainbow widget anytime and no matter what happens, you can always call our toll-free technical support. (Though the Acme Rainbow Widget is very simple to use, almost never breaks down, and you likely will never need any support, it's nice to know that you always have help any time you want. You've got to see these rainbow widgets in action! Whew, you'll...)

Yep, follow the same rules of building benefits as you would to create any other benefit.

When Building Credibility

When you make your claims and set out to prove them, there's a great place to put your USP. Any documentation you have from customers that your USP is true or appreciated or helps get huge results. Any Testimonials, success stories, research, and other impeccable references.

When Closing the Sale

When you're closing the sale, going over a few key benefits again, put your USP there again. It helps with the logical part, when the reader is justifying the sale, and it builds that last little bit of believability you might need to make the sale.

So whatever your USP is, incorporate that into at least those parts of your sales letter.

What about the Ultimate Strategic Position?

Well, when you're putting together your sales letter, keep that future growth in mind. You can say how your business is growing and how you'll love to keep serving them with all of their future widget needs in all ways you can. Even though saying that you're growing isn't always great to put in a sales letter because it doesn't reinforce the whole "What's in it for ME?" thinking, a statement like that could add a bit in any field that's shaky or typically known for being unstable.

So use your Unique Selling Proposition throughout your copy, stated differently in each section, but communicating the same thing. It's important enough to have its own tutorial.

Links for This Section:
| The Copywriting Tutorials Index |
| What is Copywriting? | The Basics | The Emotions |
| The Headline | Lead or Hook | The Body |
| Building Benefits | Subheads | Why You? |
| Building Credibility | The Withdraw | The Close |
| Creating Urgency | The Guarantee | The P.S. |
| The Order Form |