If you have competitors, then you should have at least one Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The more REAL ones you have, better - for your Branding, your business recognition, and your sales!

We all have competitors, and more you have, more important it is that you have a Unique Selling Proposition (at least one).

Allow me to explain. Let's use a recent example of a company that sells laser toner cartridges... Do you think they have competition online? You bet they do, another category that is swamped with resellers. Sound like yours?

The task of coming up with a USP can sometimes be tough. But every company needs this, it sets you apart from your competitors. Let me stress this again, it is one or more reasons why prospects should work with you, or buy from you, or do business with you, instead of your competitors, period.

Let me narrow this a little further, it used to be if you had best price, - you got business. Although still a minor USP, price alone should not be only consideration, it's not really that unique... Yes, you still need to be competitive, but I don't want to be cheapest guy... we're in this to make a profit, right? So don't make price your 'only' USP. Combine it with more value, something your competition doesn't do, or doesn't offer.

O.K., back to our example. This company needed more than price, their product pricing is right inline with everyone else, so now what?

First of all, you need to know what your competitors do offer.

This is not a new concept. You can't compete if you don't know what you're up against. So take a little time and check out what they have. Do some research, you'd be surprised what you might find - or not. Special offers, free shipping, a contest, great customer support?

Take a step back, imagine you are customer and you do buy toner from someone a few times a year. If they do not get great service or it's just average, then chances are you can sway them your way. This references "customer loyalty" another chapter, but it follows first getting customer. So, let's get prospect as a customer first.

Now, what do we do to sway these prospects? We offer them what competition doesn't. This can be discovered with your competitive research. Oh, and if you still haven't found a USP or a few - then Hyperformance Media can help you with this as well.

Write down every idea that you and your team come up with. Please don't worry about how silly they might seem (at time), just brainstorm with data you have gained. The reason I say to include silly ones, and others is because sometimes those little ideas that you laughed at can actually be morphed to create your USP. No idea is too far fetched at this point, and usually ideas you laughed at are, in fact, some things your competitors don't offer. That's where we go next.

On toner company we came up with all kinds, some were already offered by competitors, some were not. The idea is to initially come up with as many as possible. Here are some of what we narrowed field to (we started with about two dozen);

* Price (of course) * Free Shipping (varied by quantity/price) * Great Customer Service (so everyone says) * A Contest / Promotion (a what?) * Free Gifts (vary) * Referral Savings (with parameters) * Reminders? (to buy)

The next step is again to nail down our list, get creative, really think here. This alone still makes us more competitive (once implemented), even if others use same approach. Why? Because before we did this, there was a ton of competition, and as we add these USP's we now narrow list of our 'real' competitors. We are now more competitive within our industry, because we now offer things that (most) of our competitors do not!

We are getting more competitive immediately by implementing some simple offerings. Let's take each one in this example and see how we can use it or discard it to our advantage.

* Price - Still very important in any market, but very tied to customer value (or perceived value). If your product or service is not competing here - it does not necessarily rule you out, more on this later. However, this is usually where a shopper starts (because it's easy), and you want to be considered with this group. In this example, we agreed that (based on our research) we were in market on price. So our price is competitive and that's great, but not unique enough to get business.

However, marketers need to respect that online media and print media present different hurdles in achieving this goal. Some of these hurdles will require that copy be written differently for each media. And some not.

Here is a list of 14 things you should remember when writing copy for Internet Direct Mail. And how each one relates to Traditional Direct Mail.

1. FROM and SUBJECT are very important. During anthrax scare in America, these two items became very important in TDM because any given envelope could contain a deadly poison. And while this fear has passed for TDM, it is still very present in IDM. That's because any given e-mail could contain a computer virus. Prospects are more apt to simply delete a message they are unsure of nowadays than risk opening it and ruining their computer.

Here are a couple of tips to solve this problem:

- FROM line should display someone readers will trust

- for house lists, prospect has presumably bought from company before and would trust them. So include some company identifier: "FROM: Macromedia FLASH Team"

- SUBJECT line should be treated like envelope teaser copy. You have to give prospect some reason to open e-mail to see what is inside. "SUBJECT: Try The New Update For Your Macromedia Product!"

2. Your first paragraph or two should contain a mini-version of your whole e-mail. So instead of carefully spreading out your 4 P's (Promise, Picture, Proof, Push) or AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), you should try to get all these elements in early. Online users have little patience in general and they need to know your whole offer fast.

3. For readers willing to spend time to read every word of your e-mail (God bless them), you can expand on your opening later. Just remember that less people will read right to end than will scan your first couple of paragraphs. So include all your best stuff up front.

4. Avoid using "hard-sell" techniques in IDM. These tend to produce poor results. Readers on internet expect to see information. The information can be on benefits of your product and how to order, but tone must remain helpful. If it's slick, your email will be trashed.

5. You should include multiple response options for your prospects. But ALWAYS remember to have a web-based response form. Many online users prefer to keep entire transaction online. That way user keeps control and does not have to worry about more sales talk or being upsold when they phone in.