In 1961, advertising legend Rosser Reeves introduced the marketing world to the notion of the unique selling proposition (USP) in his book Reality in Advertising. 

According to Reeves, there are three requirements for a USP in a marketing piece:

 

 

1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer.

2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer.

3. The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions.^[1]

For mompreneurs looking to cut through the clutter and land profitable clients, the main ideas are the same. However, I define the requirements a little differently.

First, your USP must at least imply a benefit that’s important to your target audience. In general, that means leveraging your specialty (if you have one) or your background.

For example, when I’m wearing my ‘marketing hat’ and I approach potential clients, I explain that I specialize in helping supply chain software and service companies develop messaging, targeted strategies and differentiated tactics that feed sales pipelines and drive revenue. Here, I’ve differentiated myself from most marketing generalists. But my statement needs more to actually convert prospects into clients.

So once I’ve made that proposition, I then differentiate by explaining that my focus on creating demand and driving revenue stems from more than 10 years of experience in supply chain sales and marketing.

That statement not only makes me unique, but it also complies with the third requirement in Reeves’ definition: it adds “oomph” to my USP.

That’s because you won’t find too many successful marketers with a) actual sales experience and b) more breadth and depth of supply chain knowledge.

I’ve worked with more than 25 software and service companies in this arena, and I know what makes their targets tick. I also know the tactics their prospects respond to, which means I do not have to spend a lot of time studying the industry to put together effective marketing programs. My focus on results, and the speed at which I can achieve them, is of great value to my clients and prospects.

When I pitch potential clients in my “sweet spot,” my win ratio is 100 percent. In fact, my only losses have occurred when I’ve wandered outside of my specialty zone.

For instance, a client of mine introduced me to a prospect in the banking industry. I put together a strong pitch, and during the pitch I felt positive synergy in the room. So I was rather surprised when I got the news that I had not won the account. When I followed up with the prospect, he explained that while he found my marketing skills strong, he found my industry skills lacking.

As it turns out, I was competing against another resource with many years of experience in the banking industry. In this instance, my USP was simply not appealing to my prospect, while the USP of my competition was. I was knocking on the wrong door!

What’s your USP and how is it working for you?  I’m putting together a ‘USP Bootcamp’ for next month and I’m looking for a few people to try it out free of charge.  If your USP needs work, email me and I’ll let you know more!

[1] Bly, Bob. “What’s Your Product’s USP?” Bly.com Newsletter Archives. July 12, 2002. http://www.bly.com/archive/index.php?m=200207.

 

Contributed by: Mark Gottlieb, a marketing professional who blogs at: Mark the Marketer.

Back in the 1990s, promoting your company website was relatively easy. You simply placed ‘meta tags’ on the top of your home page and submitted the page to free search engines or directories. With literally hundreds of millions of websites on the internet today and the quantity continuing to grow at a rapid rate, it is crucial to come up with proven and innovative ways to drive traffic to your company website on a continuous basis. I have listed 46 that come to mind. The growing importance of website marketing for maximizing company profits has resulted in a new group of marketing rock stars: digital marketers and even the chief digital officers.

Without further ado, here are 46 ways to drive traffic to your website:

1. Start with a strong, solid business foundation. This encompasses designing a business plan, marketing plan, and ideal client profile and 30-second elevator speech.

2. Post videos including how to videos on your own company YouTube channel. Reference your website URL in the videos.

3. Be consistent and ‘brand’ your company. Use the same colors, logo, etc. everywhere on your website. Perform QA on the website when making updates for proper branding.

4. Make your website trustworthy by implementing trust building policies: top-notch customer service, a code of ethics and a newsletter privacy policy build trust.

5. Ask your webmaster to name each of your pages using a keyword you have supplied him/her with.

6. Offer added values on your website that make sense to your business and target market/s. This can include affiliate programs, books, and recommended links to websites.

7. Add a ‘favorites’ or ‘bookmark this site’ script to some of your website pages.

8. Add a ‘Recommend This Site’ on your website. If someone visits your website and knows someone else who may like it, this feature will e-mail the page’s link to a recipient.

9. If you have pages you update monthly on your website (such as products, an articles page or recommended links page), mention this on the page.

10. Participate in a few Web rings and connect your site with other sites in your niche. For additional information, visit WebRing and Bravenet.

11. Provide an e-mail subscription box, to your e-zine or business announcement list, on your most viewed website pages.

12. Create a newsletter. Ask your visitors to sign up for your newsletter, and encourage them to send it along to people they know. Send a newsletter regularly with teasers or lead-ins to your in-depth new articles or with special offers and the latest products.

13. Give away free items. Offer something on your website that people want. Give them a reason to come back and get more. Offer free downloads and update them regularly. Offer coupons or discounts. Content is definitely king.

14. On more content rich websites, create a ‘What’s New’ page and consider asking your web designer to design a ‘Site Map‘ for your visitors.

15. Make sure your website is ‘search engine friendly’. Search engines look for certain things such as titles, headings, and meta tags so this is crucial.

a. Title tags: Title tags should be approximately 60 characters and should include some keywords.

b. Header tags are numbered from 1 to 7: some search engines recognize header tags, so be sure to use these tags for each of the titles on your page.

c. Keyword Meta tags: Add no more than 15 to 20 keywords to keep the search engines from flagging your site for keyword spamming. Prioritize your words. The best way to submit to search engines is to submit to each search engine individually.

d. Use keywords in the text area of each page. They are especially important at the beginning of sentences and higher up on the page.

e. To learn more about meta tags and choosing keywords, read How to Choose Your Meta Tag Keywords by David Carter

16. Search engines do not find your site unless you submit your site’s information to them. Below are ways to submit your website to search engines:

a. Get listed in search engines by submitting your website to all major search engines. Even though it is time consuming, it is often recommended to submit to key search engines individually.

b. Submit your site to get it listed in all the major web directories. This will generate traffic directly from the directories themselves and will also help to improve your link popularity. That helps you win on Google.

c. Utilize a search engine submission service or program. Two good search engine submission services are Submit Express and Scrub The Web. You can also pay for a program that will assist you to submit and critique your site such as WebPosition.

d. Lastly you can hire an expert Internet Marketer or Search Engine Optimization as a member of your staff or as a consultant to handle your search engine submissions. Your goal should be to come up high on search engine results when people search for keyword phrases related to your products or services.

17. Visit these search engine information sites: Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Guide to keep up with search engine technology.

18. Find easy and secure ways for your clients to pay you. A shopping cart with an SSL certificate and a secure way to accept checks and/or credit cards such as Paypal work very well.

19. Check your business web site’s links regularly to make sure they all work. Use a free link checker such as Xenu’s Link Sleuth.

20. Provide monthly chats or online bulletin boards (forums) on your website or linked to your website to build relationships and community.

21. Conduct periodic contests (e.g. photo contest or essay on how I used your product or service) and announce the winners on your site. Stage regular giveaways and spread the word about it.

22. Offer a free e-book or e-report (e.g. white paper) on your site. The size doesn’t matter if you’re providing it for free and it’s specifically tailored for your ideal client. Provide permission for the e-book to be forwarded to others for their personal use.

23. Design some quizzes or surveys. Surveys can be created for free on SurveyMonkey. Statistics show that visitors love quizzes and assessment tools.

24. Participate in online forums including LinkedIn groups as an expert in areas related to your business. You get to ‘quietly’ promote your business in your three or four line signature. Leave insightful comments, and people will click on your profile, and then visit your website. However, spamming unrelated areas is not recommended. Participation should be content oriented and not just a sales pitch.

25. Place your business web site address on all your printed literature — business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead, e-mail signature, license plates, signage, ads, paint it on your business vehicles – Buy newspaper and yellow pages ads with your URL. Put up flyers and stickers. For businesses that want to promote locally, sponsor a local youth sports team. Do anything and everything to spread the word.

26. Promote your web address in your signature for e-mails (change it regularly to highlight something new you’re promoting).

27. Teach classes or speak to groups about subjects relating to your products.

28. Network locally to bring people to your site.

29. Get links to your site. Get people with complementary sites link to yours. If you offer real estate closing services, ask a local realtor and others to link to you and offer a reciprocal to link to them. Links lead to clicks onto your website and help to improve your search engine rankings.

30. Buy sponsored links on other websites. That means more people visiting your site, and many sites offer a pay for performance model.

31. Buy banner ads on other websites. This helps to build brand recognition.

32. Participate in a banner exchange program. This won’t cost you anything, and will lead to a few extra visitors. You also will be spreading your brand all over the place.

33. Pay for clicks to your site- pay for clicks or inclusion on the search engines enable people to see your site in the sponsored links section of the search results when they search for keyword phrases related to your products or services.

34. Set up an affiliate marketing program. With affiliate marketing, you can either pay per click, pay per lead generated, pay per sale, or pay per customer acquired.

35. Make public relations (PR) an integral part of your web traffic building strategy. Get news coverage of your business and your site. When your launch or update your website, send a press release to the media, your clients, and friends and associates, too. Approach online and traditional media; this will often lead to others placing links pointing tomyour website, which leads to more clicks and also to improved search engine rankings. Promote to editors in your target markets in your business. Reach out to print and online editors and also TV, radio, newspapers and business news media where appropriate. Coverage can be local, national or international depending on your market.

36. Use E-mail marketing. E-mail your special offers driving traffic to your site, but also provide other useful information so you can keep the open rate up and minimize opt-outs. If your e-mails are always salesy, they could lose their impact.

37. Write articles for publication on other websites that focus on your target market and get published. The author profile will link to your site. The article will show that you’re an expert. Also submit to article banks.

38. Write articles for your own website regularly and publish yourself. This will help you to win on the search engines and gives your visitors a reason to visit your website again and again.

39. Ask for reviews. Ask for reviews of your self-published articles on other webmasters’ websites. Ask for reviews of your website, your products, your software, your services. These will usually include links to your articles. Also, reach out to influential bloggers that write about your target market.

40. Write briefs. Write daily or weekly news briefs focusing in on your industry or specialty area. This keeps your site “fresh” in the eyes of the major search engines and helps you to spread a wide net when fishing for top search engine positions.

41. Create a newsletter. Ask your visitors to sign up for your newsletter, and encourage them to send it along to people they know. Send out a newsletter regularly with teasers or lead-ins to your in-depth new articles or with special offers and the latest products. Concentrate on the content of your newsletter instead of flashy formatting.

42. Give awards for excellent sites in your niche. This builds more links back to your site and establishes you as a credible reviewer, an expert in your space.

43. Join your local business organizations. Chambers of Commerce and other organizations will often add your site to their member directory. That’s an added advantage over the obvious business-building and networking opportunities.

44. Create an RSS feed of your website. Give people another way to interact with your content. Subscribers to your website via RSS feed are often a receptive audience.

45. Be accessible. Build your site so that it is accessible to all browsers and on the Iphone/iPad and Android platforms. People with disabilities can be great customers, so make your site Section 508 compliant. Online tools are available to test the Section 508 compliance of the website.

46. Have a company Wikipedia page. This can drive traffic to your website and sections of your website. Visit it regularly to make sure updates from those outside your company (allowed on Wikipedia) are accurate. Wikipedia pages can be added for specific products and services.

Even if you don’t have the budget or resources to do all of the above to drive traffic to your website, doing a portion of these and doing them well should take you a long way on your quest to maximizing your website traffic.

Mark Gottlieb is an accomplished, out-of-the-box thinking marketing professional with broad digital, print, B2B, B2C, and global marketing experience, who has been known to increase campaign profits by as much as 800% during the worst economic times since the 1930s, negotiate 80% cost reductions on key lists and other costs, and develop creative tests that beat profitable controls by 50%.  To learn more visit: Mark the Marketer.

Marketing is the life blood of any business – without it you simply won’t generate the revenue you need to STAY in business.  However, marketing can be a scary process for some mompreneurs. It requires time and money, something we are often short of!

Lately, I’ve been collecting ideas on how to build and market my own business, and I thought I’d start sharing tips on free marketing and educational opportunities on this site. Here are a few I noticed over the past week. Check back soon for more!

Have A Story You Want to Share With Other Moms In Business?
Maybe you learned something you think others should know, or maybe you are an expert in a specific area and want to share your advice with other mom business owners. Write for Marketmommies.com! We are looking for moms to contribute to Marketmommies.com. We already have a great group of moms already at work – but would love to hear your story. Email: info@marketmommies.com, if you are interested in contributing!

Is your company Buzz Worthy?
Do you have a product/service that you feel is filling a niche in the market? How is your product different from your competition? For my Daily Buzz free PR newsletter, I write a post every Tuesday called Buzz Worthy. I’m looking for companies to showcase so let me know if your company has the right stuff to be featured on Buzz Worthy. And it helps if you are a Daily Buzz member. Sign up at here and shoot me an email once you receive your first Daily Buzz by simply replying to it. And spread the word about Build-A-Buzz.

Win a Trip to the Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference & Expo
The Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference & Expo will be held on 10/30/10 in NYC at The New Yorker Hotel.  Whether you are an experienced mom entrepreneur, one who is just starting out, or a mom entrepreneur to be, this conference has got you covered.

In an effort to give more mothers an opportunity to experience the inspirational and transforming event, conference speakers and mom entrepreneurs Mindee Doney and Julie Pickens, the co-inventors of Boogie Wipes, are offering an all expenses paid trip to one lucky mom entrepreneur. All interested moms, whether they have a successful business, are a new start-up, or are thinking of starting a business down the road, are eligible to enter.

To be considered, visit the Boogie Moms’ blog between July 1st and September 1st, fill out the form and tell them a bit about your business or business idea, your goals, and how the Super Mom Entrepreneur conference would benefit you. The winner will be chosen by The Boogie Moms and will receive an all expenses paid trip, including airfare to the conference (from anywhere in the Continental US or Canada), lodging for two nights, conference registration fees, and two hours of business consulting time with Mindee and Julie, The Boogie Moms.