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Sell the Benefits in Your Advertising
By Stuart Lisonbee
Ignoring a product or service's benefits, choosing instead to focus on features, is considered by many marketing experts to be one of the most widely committed sins in advertising.
Features are important, no doubt. Features are the things that create the benefit. For example:
Feature: Powerful 250 hp V6 engine.
Benefit: Go up hills without losing speed and getting other drivers mad at you.
Feature: The most powerful graphics processor.
Benefit: Never again get fragged by your friends due to low frame rates.
Notice that I try to cater the benefits directly to the target market. For the graphics processor, I didn't say that the benefit was "faster rendering of 3D maps in AutoCAD". My target market for the graphics processor is video gamers, not map builders. I also spoke in their language ("frag" is common terminology among gamers that means to have your game character kill or be killed by an opponent.)
If my target market was map builders, I might choose the benefit of "increase productivity by substantially lowering the rendering times for all your 3D computer models!" (In this case, "faster rendering" is just a feature. The benefit of that feature is the increased productivity.)
A winter coat may be water proof. How does that benefit the person who wears it? An air mattress may be self inflatable. How does that benefit the person who has to fill it?
Are you getting the idea? Sell the benefits without forgetting the importance of the features. How do you do that? Take a look at this example:
The XQ-342 winter coat's inner lining is made from improved NASA technology and has a water proof outer lining [features], ensuring that you'll remain warm and toasty even on the wettest, coldest days. [benefits]
or:
Save your lungs -- and time -- [benefits], with this self inflatable mattress that can fully fill itself in under 60 seconds! [features]
Do see what I'm doing? In the first example I stated the features, then the benefits that those features provide. In the second, I first listed the benefits followed by the features that make those benefits possible.
If selling the benefits is so important, why bother stating the features? Let's look at the example of the coat. It keeps you warm. But why? Because it has improved NASA technology. Now when your potential customers go to look for a warm coat, they'll remember that they want the one with the "improved NASA technology".
Here's an exercise to get the feature/benefit juices flowing. Make a list of all the features and benefits of your product or service. When you have a good list going, categorize each item as a feature or benefit. Then, start drawing lines connecting each feature with the benefit(s) it provides.
Now go forth, repent, and sin no more. Sell the benefits!
About the Author
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/28819.html
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