How do I promote a Unique Selling Point?

[iJeep]

OK. I have seen tons of people say that the key to boosting a conversion rate is to have a unique selling point that gives you an advantage over the competition.

After you get this unique selling point up and running (a logo, info page and something that mentions it on pretty much every page) what else do you do?

Should one go out and incorporate the unique selling point into advertisements or start working on something else while that takes it course?

[lorax]

Let's define a unique selling point. For me, it's often the unique angle, unique use, or low price of the product that I want to sell. Perhaps the product itself is unique. For instance, let's say I sell blue-widgets.

Unique Angle: My blue widgets are the same as my competitors blue widgets but the difference between us is that I sell my blue widgets exclusively to churches. That's a unique angle. I could reinforce this angle by bulking out my site with helpful information about how churches use my blue widgets and stories about how churches have found my blue widgets useful.

Unique Use: My blue widgets are the same as my competitors but I noticed that some folks use them for decoration rather than target practice so I decide to tell my customers about this and offer suggestions about how they can do the same.

Unique Price: My blue widgets are the same but I buy them in bulk and therefore can afford to sell them at 10% less than my competition.

Unique Product: Sometimes you get lucky and the product is unique. It could be a new approach to an existing product or something totally revolutionary.

Now, how to use these to your advantage. Marketing to the rescue! Once you've adjusted your site to highlight the unique selling point you need to tell the target audience about it. Advertisements, press releases, along with how to and helpful tip articles are traditional methods for getting the word out. Be creative!

If you sell widgets to churches well you should be at least a few of the church trade shows.

If your pricing is low you should be working the comparison shopping websites and other deal oriented marketing resources.

If your product is unique or is used is some unintended way, you should be writing press releases and telling newspapers, tv, and radio editors about it.

These are just some starting thoughts. It would be interesting to hear what the real hard-core sellers come up with.

[fiu88]

IJeep...
1. make sure your USP is evident and clear to all who visit...that'll keep them coming back and spreading the word

2. Sponsor relevant forums, do some PPC to get the ball rolling....

Your usp is your reason for being, without it, few people would want to do businesss with you, with it the sky is the limit....

Your in a very crowded market(I'm in the same one)...make sure your USP really allows you to set yourself apart from the masses..........

[incrediBILL]

Conversion can also be increased by doing the following:

- Put an exit page on your cart and checkout, offer a coupon/discount to someone that tries to leave with an abandoned cart. It can recapture some lost sales without giving up margins on all sales.

- DECLINED sales by payment gateways can be re-captured!
a) give them a way to contact you to place an order in the event something is going wrong with their transaction
b) call the DECLINES you see in your payment gateway backend, we've converted up to 30% of them that weren't fraud attempts, assuming they didnt buy elsewhere.

[Raymond]

If you do use coupon code, be VERY careful how you place it in your checkout. My own numbers show that by removing our old coupon code entering field, our conversion were up by 0.3%.

I am sure coupon works, but you have to know where to place it so it does not distract people from checking out.