Hoffman is arguably one of the smartest investors out there; he is the co-founder of LinkedIn, an investor in online companies such as Facebook, Zynga, Flickr, Digg etc.

His first rule judges startups based on their ability to reach a massive audience. I’ve covered this rule and ways to achieve it in my earlier post: Is Your Business Idea Worth Investing In? - Build a Massive Audience.

His second rule, concerns the startup’s ability to identify and market its USP. We will discuss some of the most common USPs in this post. 

Remember, every business is different and can (and should) have a selling point that’s unique - that differentiates it from all its competitors. (Feel free to tweet that.)

Is your USP speed? Can you deliver in two days what your competitor can in ten? Often, prospects don’t mind paying a premium if it means getting the finished product delivered faster. Now, this product need not be tangible. Of course, if you are a direct competitor to Amazon, ‘Speed’ will entail delivering the ordered products faster than Amazon can.

However, this is just as applicable to services. For instance, I am a freelance writer and if I can accommodate clients that need faster turnarounds, I am differentiating myself from other freelance writers who can’t.

So, if speed is your USP, it has to be fast enough to be considerably better than that of your direct competitors.

There is a catch: Choose speed as your USP only if you can keep up. Don’t forget to account for unexpected delays. If you don’t keep your speed promises, you’ll lose customers.

You could choose quality as your USP. The products you sell could be healthier, packaged better or of a quality unmatched by your competitors.

Similarly, if you provide services, not products, you could provide higher quality service, ensure excellent pre and post-sales customer support and consequently give your clients an experience that they’d be willing to pay a premium for.

Both the USPs discussed above are cost-independent. If you are giving your customers either speed or quality unlike what they’d receive from your competitors, you don’t need to compete for price anymore. However, if you can’t deliver either of those USPs, you can choose to compete on price.

This is one of the worst USPs you can choose, because it generally gets you neither quality customers, nor loyal ones. It additionally, tends to affect your profits.

Price, as an USP, should be chosen only and only if you can’t compete on any other parameter. 

With the rise in social networking, some brands are choosing to define their USP as likability and it is a smart move. If you show a prospective investor that you have the means to drive droves of genuine fans to like your facebook page or follow you on Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, that hints at a huge following that’d be willing to buy your products or service.

So, Likability as an USP may be unusual, but if your brand, product or service lends itself to attracting a huge number of followers, than you may want to pursue and cash in on it. 

Investors want to know what you’d be using to market yourself to the masses or your target audience. What will set you apart from your competitors?

I’d like to reiterate at this point, that the four USP options given above aren’t the only ones to choose from. Your business is unique. Analyze your offerings, your staff, your way of doing things and then decide what benefit you can give your customers/clients and your investors – this will be your USP.

Feel free to share other USPs that successful businesses are using, your business’ USP and your thoughts on the importance of having one, in the comment box below.


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Author: Urooj Kazi is a professional freelance business writer. To hire her to write content for your business, visit this website's Contact Urooj page. 

I’ve read a lot about startups, established businesses and what goes into creating a successful firm. And here’s what I think all those tips, theories and observations boil down to:

A successful business is characterized by two things: a good idea and a good strategy. Feel free to tweet this statement.

So, if you think you have an awesome business idea, what you need next is an awesome strategy to make it a success. 

In this three-part series we will discuss three questions you need to answer to draft a workable strategy for your business.

These questions come from Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He has revealed the ‘The Three Rules of Investing’ that he applies to any startup he wants to invest in. 

These three rules are just as applicable to businesses that want to understand how they can make a strong case for their business model to investors.

Here’s the bitter truth: 


No matter how wonderful your product, how fantastic your service and how much you’ve spent in getting your business off the ground, unless you reach a “massive” audience, you will fail. 

This is especially true of online businesses.

By massive, I don’t mean 1,000, 10,000 or a 100,000 different individuals. I am talking in terms of millions. How will you do that?

There’s a lot of difference between the number of people you reach, and the number that actually buys from you. So, if you want to earn substantial profits, you need to reach a massive audience. 

And, today, when you have businesses vying for consumers’ attention left, right and center, how will you make your presence felt?

Here are some suggestions:

I am assuming your business will have a website. If not, you really need to reconsider your marketing strategy.

Use your website to land you clients by search engine optimizing (SEO) it. Technicalities aside, SEO refers to optimal usage of keywords, quality back links and fresh, quality content. 

Update your website with quality content regularly to ensure that your website ranks better in search results.

Hire a professional writer to write content for your website, if you feel you won’t be able to do justice.

Initial advertising can help increase exposure and boost sales. However, it can cost quite a bit.

You could invest in on-ground or online advertising methods. On-ground advertising includes billboards, flyers, television advertisements…they’ll cost you a pretty penny.

Online advertising includes marketing via social networks (promoted tweets, Facebook ads, Youtube ads etc) and online advertisements (Google ads and ads on high-traffic blogs or websites).

Here’s a small anecdote I heard a while back. Three women were participating in a contest, which involved raising money for a nonprofit. They were given a week to raise money – the one with the highest donations would win. 

The winner collected $12,000! How?

Email marketing. That’s how.

To do effective email marketing, you’ll need to invest not in terms of money, but in terms of time. Building an email list takes time, nurturing it with quality information takes even more time. 

But, the more you share useful content with your email subscribers, the more loyal they’ll grow. Feel free to tweet this statement.

These loyal subscribers will be the ones most encouraging of your business idea, your products and services and will be willing to make a purchase when you request them to – for they feel they kind of owe it to you.

The best way to build a massive audience is to make smart use of social media. Again, this needs perseverance. 

Reaching millions with little to no investment is a very real possibility with social media networks, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Youtube.

Encouraging people to follow your business brand, like your FB page, view your videos on Youtube and spread the word about your services is not easy. 

But, quality content, quick responses and building interactive relationships with your target audience will get you a response and reach that conventional advertising cannot.

What are your currently using to reach a massive audience? Which method have you had success with? Share it with the rest of us in the comments below.

Share, tweet and spread the word. Also, subscribe to this blog's feed (see the subscribe option in the sidebar) to receive an update when I add another useful and awesome post for your business.

Author: Urooj Kazi is a professional freelance business writer. To hire her to write content for your business, visit this website's Contact Urooj page.  

Enter LinkedIn. Contrast it with Facebook and Twitter. While the latter are primarily ‘personal’ social relationships oriented, the former is completely professional. You have decision-makers, business owners and executives dotting its pages.

On LinkedIn you get quality clients. Everybody means business (spammers excluded). This isn’t true for  Facebook and Twitter.

In this post, I’ll show you how you can attract new quality leads on LinkedIn, without spending a penny. All you’ve got to do is…

If you are a sales executive, a small business owner or an entrepreneur, the ten profile improvement tips given below will help you improve sales and increase your customer base. 

Implementing these tips won’t take long, two hours tops. But, it will create a perpetual source of quality inbound leads. Moreover, the best customers are those that approach you, without you having sought them out. Feel free to tweet that statement.

What does your current LinkedIn profile photo look like? Is it professional enough? When potential clients land on your profile, your photo is one of the first things they see.  Will they think: ‘Here’s someone I can trust with my business!’? If not, change your photo today.

Here are some pointers that’ll help you make a good first impression:

• Upload a good quality headshot (no full-lengths).
  
• Formals work best.
  
• Be wary of what is in your surrounding. It’s funny how random stuff turns up in the backdrop of images. A blank, white wall or something equally safe is a good idea.
  
• Get a professional photographer to take your photo, if you feel the need.

LinkedIn allows you to include upto 120 characters in your headline. Use as many as you can. Here are three reasons why:

• Descriptive headlines tend to make a greater impact. For instance, ‘Consultant’ doesn’t have the same punch as ‘Social Media and Content Strategist, Keynote Speaker, and Bestselling Author’.

• Keywords used in your headline help you show up in search results. More the keywords you use, better your chances of showing up in searches.

• Based on a heatmap study done in 2011, your headline gets more attention than your photo. In other words, your headline on LinkedIn is the most important part of your profile - use it to sell yourself. Feel free to tweet that statement.

LinkedIn allows you to set a custom URL for your profile. By default, your link is a long alphanumeric entity. You can, however, change it to anything you wish – preferably your name. 

See the screenshots for help. This customization will allow you to share your LinkedIn profile in your email signature and on your business card.

LinkedIn allows you to share up to three website links on your profile. Most people use just one (or none). I’d suggest using the first one for your business website. You are free to use the second and third as you see fit.

From a sales perspective, I’d suggest changing it often. For instance, if there’s a survey your company’s running, use one of the links to link to the survey page or you could add your newsletter subscription link there. 

Also, use these links as call to actions, by giving your potential customers something to do. ‘Download a case study’, ‘Take our small business survey’, ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’…you get the drift?

Use the summary section of your LinkedIn profile to showcase your expertise. Again, don’t be afraid to be descriptive and use keywords liberally (don’t compromise on readability, though). 

A great LinkedIn summary generally covers your background, your current position, your passion and ends with a call to action. Feel free to tweet this nugget of advice.

Most people forget to include a CTA. If someone has invested time in reading through your summary, they’ll be more inclined to answer your call to action. Ask them to connect with you or contact you for more information – use a CTA that’d drive sales.

Fill in your past and present positions in the ‘Experience section’. Describe your responsibilities and successes at each position. People want to know that they'd be dealing with a person they can trust.

P.S. Don’t forget to use keywords. 

Showcase your education. Include any extra courses you've taken along with your vanilla degree. 

The biggest benefit of including your education is the ability to tap into your alumni network. Chances are that most of your institute’s alumni are placed in companies, or have businesses that could use your services. Adding them is a great way to attract and approach qualified leads.

Recommendations on your profile increase your credibility to a prospective client who’s dropping by. 

Most people have recommendations from colleagues and classmates and while these are good to have, the best recommendations come from clients. If you can get good recommendations from satisfied clients on your LinkedIn profile, you are golden. Feel free to tweet that statement.

LinkedIn allows you to add 50 skills to your profile. Adding skills to your profile helps you showcase your expertise. Don’t overdo it, though – adding 50 will make you look spammy. Skills also serve as keyword additions to your profile, thus improving your chances of showing up in results.

Another huge advantage of adding skills to your profile: you show up on the skill’s page. Every skill has its own page on LinkedIn and it features users who’ve added that skill. So, that’s another way to get found by prospects.

This one ties into point no. 9. LinkedIn recently introduced the Endorse feature, wherein LinkedIn users can endorse each other for their skills. 

Endorsements are a great alternative to recommendations (though not as powerful). Go ahead and endorse others and they’ll surely reciprocate. However, be honest with your endorsements and only endorse people for the skills you know they possess. 

What are your thoughts on these pointers? Is there anything else you do to improve lead generation via LinkedIn? Share it with other readers in the comment box below. 


Share, tweet and spread the word. Also, subscribe to this blog's feed to receive an update when I add another useful and awesome post for your business.

Author: Urooj Kazi is a professional freelance writer. To hire her to write content for your business, visit this website's Contact Urooj page.