Do You Know Your KSP?

What’s a KSP?

Your Key Selling Proposition should appear on your home page. It tells, in perhaps ten to fifteen words, what you offer and why the visitor should deal with you. The KSP is intended to persuade–quickly!–the sort of visitor you want to stay on the site and explore further. But the KSP is more than that, and can–and should!–be used to unify the marketing message that your employees convey and deliver on.

Examples

Who has a KSP? Successful companies that market effectively have KSPs. And a lot of work goes into developing them. Here are some examples that you’ll recognize:

Burger King: Have it your way
Enterprise: Pick Enterprise. We’ll pick you up.
Bounty: The Quicker Picker-Upper.
McDonald’s: I’m lovin’ it
Ford: Go Further
Chrysler: Imported from Detroit
Domino’s Pizza: Fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less–or it’s free.
M&M’s: The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.

Each of these attempts to catch the principal benefits of the brand in a few words that can be remembered by people who see any of the firm’s advertising. The best KSPs also encapsulate important company goals and help employees get together behind company goals.

How Can I Develop a KSP?

A good KSP is usually the result of considerable work. It isn’t the result of an hour’s work. This four-step process, based on recommendations that are commonly given, is a good way to develop your KSP:

Identify the Need: Understand your target audience, which is a group of people with some particular unmet need. Just what individual needs and challenges do these people face, needs and challenges that you are uniquely positioned to resolve?
Identify Your Strengths: From the perspective of your customer, what do you offer that your competitors don’t? What particular benefits do you provide? And most important, what benefits do you offer that your competitors don’t?
Identify the Promise: It’s important to make some specific promise to your prospect that encapsulates the key needs the prospect has and your unique way of meeting them. Combine the need from step 1, and strengths from step 2 and the promise into one concise paragraph.
Boil it Down: Take the result of step 3 and reduce it to a single statement, that is both simple and specific. Strive for the simplicity and directness of the example KSPs above, and the effectiveness of the best KSPs in expressing your goals for the benefits you will deliver.