When I started learning marketing it seemed as though the first thing you had to do was build a marketing plan and to do that you had to identify your Unique Selling Point and build everything around that.

But that’s a hard place to start.

Just Start

I’d suggest, starting with the content you want to create that allows you to “set out your stall”. Content that is core to what you think about your niche, industry and approach.

This creates a base foundation on your social media platforms and blog i.e. it is the initial content that support organic traffic.

You might not know what makes you different, but if you are, and you are talking from the heart when you create content then your USP and honesty will shine through. Even though you don’t know what it is.

Remember: branding is what you want people to think of when they think of you, but it is also what they think of you (regardless of whether you want them to or not). Your honest early content is helping you define your brand.

Competitor Analysis

Rather than build an USP from the start, I’d start with a competitor analysis.

• identify your competitors
• perform a competitive analysis
• now… what makes you stand out?

In order to evaluate your competitors you’ll have to identify Quality Attributes to support the comparison. The attributes you choose are part of your USP. They are the things that you consider important.

The way that you model the actions of your competitors and how you evaluate those actions will help you identify which actions you think are important, which ones you want to take, and which ones you want to reject.

By analysing your competitors you’ll start to see how you are different, and you can start to codify what makes you different, and then you can generalise that into your USP.

And then that can guide you as you create more content aimed at branding you for the USP actions and attributes you want people to associate with you.