Your “purple cow” is also known as your unique selling position, or USP. It is a sentence or phrase that explains what makes you special. It gives your prospects a reason to do business with you rather than your competitors. A good USP that is properly used makes your marketing a lot more effective, because it gives you dominance over a market niche.
When developing your USP, it is important that you put yourself in your prospects’ position. Look at your product or service from the point of view of someone thinking about buying it. What is important to your potential customer and what would be a compelling reason for that prospect to buy from you instead of your competition? It is no good having a fantastic point of difference……that NOBODY cares about or is prepared to pay a premium for.
Your customers’ interest is focused on what your product or service does for them – the benefits. How using your product or service solves a problem or improves an outcome. The key to unlocking the decision to buy is offering benefits that outweigh what the competition offers.
So benefits are all about how your product adds value for your customer. While features relate to what goes into making the product or service and how it is delivered to customers. This is an important distinction. Because customers are really not interested in features. They are only motivated by benefits.
Seth Godin wrote a great mini book on the subject called “Purple Cow”. Download a copy HERE. Give me a call or email and we can talk about developing YOUR purple cow.
Andy Burrows