It can be useful to understand some of the psychology behind how people make decisions to buy. Basically, people reach a point where they make a decision to buy. The sole objective of your marketing material is to help people to get to the point where they make that decision. No matter how good your product and/or service is, people will not get to the point in their heads where they want to buy from you until they have clearly understood how they are going to benefit from what you are offering them.
It is, therefore, imperative that you understand the difference between features and benefits. This is best explained by way of an example:
Saying that a TV is capable of producing a high definition picture is a feature. The fact that the picture will give amazing clarity that will greatly enhance your viewing experience is the benefit.
A good way to turn a feature into a benefit is to place the phrase “which means that….” after the feature. The resulting phrase will be the benefit. For example, a computer manufacturer may say “our XYZ model comes with a 500Gb hard disc drive, 10Gb of memory and a super fast processor, which means that you will not only be able to store thousands of high quality movies, music and huge amounts of data, you will also be able to access it quickly”
Try it for yourself. Take a careful look at all of your marketing materials including brochures, adverts, direct marketing material and even your web site and identify every phrase that refers to a feature and turn that feature into a benefit using the “which means that” phrase. Please note that you not actually have to write that phrase, just use it to help you to identify the benefits. Believe me, I have tried this myself and it is very powerful and revealing. If you are anything like me, you find that you have been focusing on features and not the benefits those feature give potential customers.
It can also be useful to look at your competitors marketing materials. There is a good chance that they will have fallen into the same trap and, if they have, you will give yourself a big advantage by reviewing and updating your material to focus on the benefits.
You must to continually and forcefully tell your prospective customers how they are going to benefit from using your product and/or service. So, having reviewed your marketing materials and changed them to focus on benefits you should review them again to ensure that they do not go for two or three lines without mentioning a benefit. If they do then rework them so that they constantly reinforce how your prospective customer will benefit from your products and/or services.
When writing new marketing material, remember it needs to address their needs, desires and fears and it needs to constantly communicate the benefits of what you are offering.
Remember, nobody will buy anything from you until they have explicitly understood how they will benefit from what you have to offer. So here’s a useful tip. When you’ve written your marketing material, look at it from the perspective of your prospective customer by imagining stepping into their shoes. Ask yourself (or others) if it clearly communicates the benefits of your products and/or services. If it does not, go back and fine tune the ad until it feels right.
This may mean that it takes a little longer to create your marketing materials but believe me, it is time that will pay back many times over.
