Capture Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

Perhaps the biggest challenge small businesses face is building name recognition, and with about 28 million small businesses in the country, the competition is fierce.

A well-crafted promotional video is a great way to introduce your business to target audiences. However. A video isn’t effective unless it clearly conveys your unique selling proposition, or USP. As it suggests, your USP should communicate unique aspects of your product or service—what sets it apart from other small businesses that offer a similar product or service. Unless you show potential clients that you can deliver what no one else can, your video will be ineffective and likely forgotten.

If you’re new to the world of entrepreneurship and marketing, and are unsure how to define your USP, below are some references:

• Entice customers with a demonstrative USP by Delux.
• How to Identify Your Business’ USP, and Why It’s Important by BrewtonMos.

Once you've defined your USP, here are some things to consider when producing your promotional video:

Get Literal. It may sound simplistic but the best way to convey your unique selling proposition is to just say it! That’s one of the most effective tactics in marketing communications. Like a commercial, you only have a short window of time to capture your audience and relay your message so get straight to the point.

Spell it out for your client within the first few seconds of your video. State exactly what your business does and why it is different than similar businesses. With this approach, you also show that you selling your audience’s time by not beating around the bush. Now that your USP has been clearly communicated, prospects can decide to keep watching your video or shop somewhere else.


Solve Their Problem. Draw your audience in by demonstrating how you can help them. Identifying a problem and providing a solution during the video may make your customer feel more confident in your product or service.

For example, if you’re in the burgeoning pet accessories business and you sell rain boots for dogs, your goal should be to connect with “Pet Moms” and “Pet Dads” by addressing a common problem that your dog rain boots can solve. For instance, it is typically difficult to keep doggie boots on the dog’s paws. So if your boots actually stay on, you’d want to point that out. 


Show How Your Business Works. There’s only so much a potential customer can take your word for. As a society, Americans tend to subscribe to the “I’ll believe it when I see It.” philosophy. As such, your target audience will need to see your product and/or service in action. A video is the perfect marketing tool to accomplish this. Potential clients are more willing to believe that your service will work for them if they can see it with their own eyes. So make sure that your video clearly illustrates what your product does. If possible, include customer testimonials. Having existing customers rave about your product or service gives you instant credibility.

Keep it Simple. Although you want to give your customer as much information as you can about your business, you don’t want to overload them. Before you start shooting your video, think through your presentation to ensure that it is brief, but effective:

• Identify a specific goal for the video. Your goal should be realistic and appropriate for video communication. For example, your goal may be to simply introduce your company’s brand by providing a corporate overview or demonstrating a product or service.
• Organize your thoughts. Write an outline of what you want to cover in the video.
• Create a storyboard. Convert your outline to a short storyboard and specify images, footage, testimonials, etc. that will be included in the video. Storyboards are vey helpful in the video planning stage. They allow you to think through how your video should flow, and enable you to gather feedback from others involved in the project. Note that it doesn’t have to be professionally developed. Laying out your storyboard in with stock images PowerPoint will do.
• Keep it brief. A few main points are typically enough to cover in a brief video (5 minutes or less). If your customers want more information, they can visit your website, which you should include in your call-to-action at the end of the video.

In summary, your promotional video can be instrumental in your ability to build brand recognition and communicate your company’s unique selling proposition in an impactful way. Used strategically, a promotional video will allow you to put a friendly face to your company, show what you can do, and most importantly, demonstrate how you can solve potential clients’ problems.