What’s my USP? (Unique Selling Proposition)

In my local area my business is quite a niche one. I don’t meet too many other voiceover artists near where I live. This is great for me as I do a lot of networking locally, and I’m now well known in Northern Lincolnshire as ‘the voiceover lady’. In terms of a USP among local businesses, simply being a voiceover artist is enough!

However, there are hundreds of other British female voiceover artists out there, and if a potential client outside of my immediate network is searching for somebody who does what I do, why should they choose me over someone else?

The definition of a USP, according to WhatIs.com is this:

A unique selling proposition (USP, also seen as unique selling point) is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind. A USP could be thought of as “what you have that competitors don’t.”

For my business, the product is me and my voice. Now, everybody’s voice is different (which is why the banks are now using voice recognition as part of their secure phone banking log-in procedure), and it might be that my voice is just what a client is looking for. My pitch, tone, age etc. may fit perfectly with their brand and they don’t need to know anything else about me to know that they want to buy me. On the other hand, they may have found a few voices that they like who would all sound great for their project. So, how do they choose? What is it about me that would make a client pick me over another British female, 40-something voice?

This is where USP really comes into play. What can I offer that my competitors can’t?

There are some things I can offer which a less professional or less well established voice might not be able to. These could include:

• Quick turnaround times. As I’m a full time voiceover artist I don’t have another day job to fit my work around. I’m much more available than people who are doing this part-time.
• Good quality equipment such as an expensive microphone. I didn’t start out with this, I worked up to it, but the microphone I’ve been using for the last 5 years, (a Neumann TLM103) is an industry standard. To clients who know about audio, it says that I’m a professional, and my audio is going to sound great.
• A great recording environment. I have a proper vocal booth which enables me to record in a noise-free environment, and my audio quality is reproducible.
• I’ve had lots of training, and I continue to take classes and workshops on a regular basis to expand my skillset.
• I offer fantastic customer service, including free demos so clients can hear how I would sound for their project and ‘try before they buy.’

These things set me apart from less well-established and newer voices, but most other voiceover artists at my level can also offer all of the above. So what have I got that others might not have? Here are a few:

• Not all pro-voices have great looking recording spaces. Now, in some respects it doesn’t matter what the recording environment looks like as long as the audio sounds great. Plenty of people have home-made set-ups that work perfectly well. But, if a client ever wanted to see where I was recording I would be proud to show them, and the photos you see on my website are of my real studio.
• I have a mobile studio that I take with me when I’m travelling. Having a fold up Vocal Booth To Go, means I can still record great sounding audio when I’m away from home.
• Alongside lots of general voiceover training, and the usual corporate narration and commercial training that virtually everybody does, I’ve also taken specific training in a couple of areas. These include TV/documentary narration (which I love), and lip synching and dubbing (which I am still learning more about).
• I’ve been nominated for One Voice awards, local business awards, the UK Rural Business Awards, and in 2017 I was one of the Small Business Saturday’s top 100 Small Businesses.

So, now you’ve got a better idea of what I can offer as a professional voiceover artist, but there will still be plenty of others who can also offer all of the above. What is it that I have got that nobody else has? Well, that would be my unique blend of background and experience – nobody else has lived my life, and it’s this that makes me truly different. Here are a few examples of things I’ve done/do:

• I have a PhD in Archaeological Science, which included research on prehistoric chewing gum. (Now you’re intrigued aren’t you?!).
• I was the Archaeology correspondent for the News & Views section of the scientific journal ‘Nature’
• I’m from Northamptonshire originally and I’ve lived in the North East, West Yorkshire and now North Lincolnshire.
• I used to work as a TV presenter.
• I worked in a sixth form college for a number of years
• I am a trained community researcher and have worked for Voluntary Action
• I spent two and a half years living in America, which is where my voiceover career began.
• I’ve also spent a lot of time in The Netherlands as my husband lived there for two years before we got married.
• I sing with a ladies a-capella choir, and I play the violin (mostly folk music).
• I am an Authorised Lay Minister in the Church of England
• I enjoy acting and I belong to two local theatre companies. I’ve also written a few pantomimes and a murder mystery for them to perform.
• I like to keep fit by running with my dog, and taking various exercise and yoga classes.
• I like to cook and I make amazing chocolate brownies 🙂

All these things are what makes me different from my competition, and could be reasons that a client picks me. Maybe they are from a museum and need an audio tour recording, and they want someone who will be enthusiastic about the content – my background in archaeology might attract them to me. Perhaps they are producing something for the American market and want somebody who understands US culture – well, I’ve lived it! Or maybe they’re looking for somebody who understands young people – after 11 years at a college I’ve worked with a few of them.

Finally, they might just be looking for someone who they can connect with on a personal level – maybe they are a dog-owning, singing, brownie-maker too!

All of the things I’ve mentioned above are what makes me, me, and they all feed into my voice, and what I can offer my clients. There are lots of other things too that I’ve missed out or forgotten, but you get the idea.

So now I have two questions for you:

What are your USPs?

And who would like to hire me?! 🙂