most reliable package carrier. Although other players have entered the overnight space, FedEx is still top of mind when we want speed and reliability.
“Wonder Bread helps build strong bodies in 12 ways”
Wonder Bread wanted to differentiate itself as the most nutritious choice for growing kids and sold its bread to moms in practically every major city in America. Wonder Bread is still considered a pantry staple for families everywhere.
Obviously these are corporate USPs. As an author, depending on your genre, your USP might look like one of these:
1.Series of books with a character people will love: “Joe McAwesome is a guy you hate but can’t help wanting to read about.”
2.King or queen of romances: “Romance stories that make you fall in love over and over again.”
3.Historical fiction with a fantasy element: “Where history and fantasy collide and create a new legacy.”
4.Self-help: “Expert advice based on exclusive research.”
5.Financial self-help: “Financial secrets from a five-time millionaire.”
Note: Keep in mind, these are not meant to be commercial slogans, but rather competitive statements. Their purpose isn’t to be clever, but to communicate what you have to offer that no one else does.
Finally one last consideration: In addition to establishing your uniqueness, you should think about the lifespan of your USP and ultimately your brand. Is it timeless or will it go out of style like bell bottom pants and leopard print? While you can evolve and refine your USP over the years, you don’t want to pigeon hole yourself or build it around a character you’ll lose interest in writing about down the road. So, make sure your USP has the flexibility to grow with you.
I know this may seem like a tedious exercise, but once you have established your USP, it will make all of your branding, your marketing and communications so much easier and effective.
Once you have considered everything, and are happy and excited about your USP, write it down and etch it into your brain. Your USP should be the foundation of everything you do to brand and promote yourself from now on. Your books may change over the years, but your personal brand should stay basically the same—it will bring comfort to your readers and recognition in the marketplace.
Communicating Your Personal Brand
When it comes to promoting yourself and your books, you must communicate your USP in everything you do. It is the way you will describe yourself to others, how you will personify yourself in bios, be the basis of any personal slogans, the undercurrent of your website, everything. It is your marketing theme and it needs to be consistent at all of your communication touch points.
While there are endless opportunities to communicate your brand (LOTS more about this in future chapters), here are a few of the most basic ways to really show your prospects who you are so you can see what I’m talking about:
Your Work
As a writer, nothing will be more important in communicating your brand and building a following than the consistent quality of your books. As I stated earlier, customer trust is incredibly important when it comes to selling a product of any kind. If you want to build readers’ trust and loyalty, so they will buy again and again, you better write a quality book and deliver on your promises. You can spend hours tweeting or tons of money on advertising, but nothing will build a reputation as quickly as gaining readers’ trust. In fact, readers will not only buy from you repeatedly, but they will become your biggest fans and spread the word to everyone they know.
On the flipside, nothing will destroy your reputation faster than not giving your readers what they expect. If you sell readers on the idea that you are an expert and then deliver a lot of fluff, they are going to feel cheated and may even get angry. And who can blame them? Reading takes time and when readers invest time from their busy schedules and money from their wallets to read your story over someone else’s, they deserve a good experience. Overstating what you have to offer, making false promises or overcharging will not sell your books and may ruin your chances of being successful. Unless you have a long list of pen names, you really need to get it right the first time and deliver on your promises.
Color & Design
Words say a lot, but so does color and it communicates a lot faster than any other tool you have in marketing and design. Carefully select art work, website and logo colors that communicate your personal brand and keep it consistent in everything you do. For example, if your personality and subject matter are very serious in tone, you should use heavier colors and possibly stronger lines and more serious imagery in your designs. If you are wacky, perhaps bright, random colors combined with funny pictures would best reflect your personality. And while your design style may get updated along with the trends over the years, your color palette should stay the same. We’ll talk about strategic design (and content) in more depth in later chapters.
Voice and Tone
The two most important components in communicating your brand in copy are voice and tone. Good marketing and advertising people spend a lot of time on voice and tone—so should good writers who want to sell books. The good news is, if you did the USP exercise, you’re halfway there.
Voice is the personality of your writing. It should be an extension of your personal brand. If your brand is funny, the copy you use in ads, descriptions, etc., should be funny and make people laugh, too. If you are positioning yourself as an expert, your communications should include relevant industry terms and showcase your knowledge.
Tone is usually a lot more subtle, but can be a very valuable in differentiating yourself. Where voice represents your “personality,” the tone reflects the “mood” of your personality. For example, if you want to convince people you’re a mobster, you might choose to use concise and business-like phrases with a tone that is very serious and ominous. Sarcasm would be another example of tone. To me, your tone is your “edge.”
No matter what combination of voice and tone you select for yourself, it must reflect your personal brand and like everything in marketing, must be consistent in all that you do. Voice and tone may seem like a small, nitpicky thing, but it is HUGE when communicating and perpetuating your personal brand.
Headshots
When communicating your personal brand, the same thing goes for headshots. I can’t tell you how many writers (and professionals for that matter) haven’t taken the time or money to have a professional picture taken. In a visual world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, reader sites like Goodreads or Shelfari and others, a mobile phone picture isn’t going to cut it—in fact, it will be a brand detractor. A good photo on the other hand is an opportunity, all over the Internet, to show people you are a pro. Depending on the site, your photo may be the one and only opportunity you have to represent your brand. I recommend using a professional photographer and getting a good solid headshot to use everywhere, and then a few extra shots that are more stylized that you can use on your website or various promo materials. If money is tight and you just can’t hire a professional photographer, read up on the basics of photography, find a friend with a good camera and try to capture a good, professional-looking shot.
If you are someone who really doesn’t want your picture all over the world for privacy or other personal reasons, you do have other options. Instead of hiring a photographer, hire a graphic designer and ask them to create an author logo that is designed to be uploaded in place of your profile picture. Make sure the dimensions and file size will fit the requirements of various sites.
Good examples:
The following are the links to what I consider really good examples of a properly developed and communicated USP. As you peruse the examples, pay attention to how the brand is communicated both in word and visual imagery—how each component supports the other. Obviously some sites have a lot of money dumped into them in the form of functionality and custom photography, but the most important components, the brand relevancy, copy and images don’t have to cost much. And, while some of these sites are huge, as an author, you only need one that reflects your