Forget Benefits, And You Will Sell More

What’s the sin­gle, most impor­tant ele­ment in copywriting?

Let me say it another way.

You’ve done your research. You found a starv­ing mar­ket. Your prod­uct fills a need. And your sales copy shines with ben­e­fits. If every­thing is so per­fect, then why is your prod­uct still NOT sell­ing? Is it the price? The offer? The competition?

Maybe. But not necessarily.

The fact is, these things are not always to blame for being unable to sell an in-​​demand prod­uct, even with great copy. In my expe­ri­ence, I believe it has more to do with one thing:

FOCUS.

(Or the lack thereof.)

In fact, the great­est word in copy­writ­ing is not “free.” It’s “focus.” And what you focus on in your copy is often the sin­gle, great­est deter­mi­nant of your copy’s success.

In my expe­ri­ence, copy that brings me the great­est response is copy that focuses on:

1. One mess­sage
2. One mar­ket
3. One out­come

Here’s what I mean…

1. One message

The copy doesn’t tell mul­ti­ple, irrel­e­vant sto­ries. It doesn’t make mul­ti­ple offers. It doesn’t go on tan­gen­tial sto­ry­lines or pro­vide extra pieces of infor­ma­tion that don’t advance the sale.

It makes one offer and one offer only. Too many mes­sages con­fuse the reader. And as copy­writer Randy Gage once noted, “The con­fused mind never buys.”

It con­fuses them because they don’t know which offer pro­vides them with the best value for the amount of money they are ready to spend.

Prospects want to spend their money wisely, and that’s the point: lose focus, and it is harder to think clear­head­edly as to make a wise deci­sion in the first place. Remem­ber this axiom:

“Give peo­ple too many choices and they won’t make one.“

You don’t want to do what my teenage daugh­ter does to me. When we go shop­ping for a dress, after hours of flip­ping through hang­ers and racks, she finally pin­points one she likes, goes to the chang­ing room to try it on, looks at me and asks, “How’s this one?”

“Per­fect!” I say. “You sure, dad?” She asks. “Yes,” I add. “I’m pos­i­tive.” “OK, then.” So she puts her own clothes back on, walks out and we head to the cash reg­is­ter when, sud­denly, she stops, picks up another dress off the rack, and says, “How about this one? Or maybe this one? Oooh, look at this other one!”

2. One market

I don’t want to spend the lit­tle space I have for this arti­cle to extoll the virtues of niche mar­ket­ing. But it goes with­out say­ing: try­ing to be all things to all peo­ple is impos­si­ble. And when it is pos­si­ble if ever, then your mes­sage (your copy) must be generic enough to appeal to every­one, caus­ing the major­ity in your mar­ket to feel you’re not focused on them.

(There’s that word “focus,” again!)

Peo­ple feel kind of left out, because you’re too vague. You appear indif­fer­ent or focused on “some­one else’s” sit­u­a­tion, when you are able to cater to their spe­cific needs and goals, too.

If you cater to a large, diver­si­fied mar­ket, I would highly encour­age you to at least seg­ment your mar­ket. That is, write copy for each indi­vid­ual and tar­geted group of peo­ple within your mar­ket. If your mar­ket is made up of 2, 3, 4 or more iden­ti­fi­able mar­ket groups, write copy for each one — even if the prod­uct is the same for everyone.

3. One outcome

“Click here,” “read my about page,” “here’s a link to some tes­ti­mo­ni­als,” “call this num­ber,” “fill out this form,” “don’t buy know, just think about it,” “here are my other web­sites,” “here are 41 other prod­ucts to choose from,” and on and on…

Ack!

When peo­ple read your sales copy, and if your copy is meant to induce sales, then you want one thing and one thing only: get the sale! In other words, there’s only one thing your read­ers should do, and that’s buy.

Remem­ber K.I.S.S. (i.e., “keep it straight­for­wardly simple”).

You would be sur­prised at how many saleslet­ters I cri­tique where the author asks the reader to do too many things, to choose from too many things, or to jump through so many hoops to get the very thing they want in the first place.

Your copy should focus on one call to action only. For­get links to other web­sites or pages that are irrel­e­vant to the sale. Why invite pro­cras­ti­na­tion with too many calls-​​to-​​action?

In fact, I truly believe that, with web copy, the goal is not to elicit action but to pre­vent pro­cras­ti­na­tion. Because if peo­ple hit your web­site, whether they found you on a search engine, were referred to you from some­one else’s web­site or email, or read about you some­where, then they are inter­ested right from the get-​​go.

So your job is not to get them to buy, really. They’re qualified.

So rather, it’s to get them not to go away.

Ulti­mately, focus on the reader. ONE reader.

This is prob­a­bly the thing you need to focus on the most.

The most com­mon blun­ders I see being com­mit­ted in copy is the lack of focus in a sales mes­sage, par­tic­u­larly on the indi­vid­ual read­ing the copy and the value you specif­i­cally bring to them.

In my expe­ri­ence as a copy­writer, I find that some peo­ple put too much empha­sis on the prod­uct, the provider and even the mar­ket (as a whole), and not enough on the most impor­tant ele­ment in a sales sit­u­a­tion: the cus­tomer.

That is, the indi­vid­ual read­ing the copy at that very moment.

Don’t focus your copy on your prod­uct and the fea­tures of your prod­uct — and on how good, supe­rior or inno­v­a­tive they are. And don’t even focus on the ben­e­fits. Instead, focus on increas­ing per­ceived value with them.

Why? Because per­cep­tion is per­sonal. It’s inti­mate. It’s ego-​​centric.

Let me explain.

When you talk about your prod­uct, you’re mak­ing a broad claim. Every­one makes claims, espe­cially online. “We’re num­ber one,” “we offer the high­est qual­ity,” “it’s our best ver­sion yet,” etc. (Often, my reac­tion is, “So what?”)

And describ­ing ben­e­fits is just as bad.

Ben­e­fits are too broad, in my opin­ion. You were prob­a­bly taught that a fea­ture is what a prod­uct has and a ben­e­fit is what that fea­ture does. Right? But even describ­ing ben­e­fits is, in my esti­ma­tion, mak­ing a broad claim, too.

The adage goes, “Don’t sell quarter-​​inch drills, sell quarter-​​inch holes.”

But holes alone don’t mean a thing to some­one who might have dif­fer­ent uses, rea­sons or needs for that hole. So you need to trans­late ben­e­fits into more mean­ing­ful benefits.

You see, a claim always looks self-​​serving. It also puts you in a pre­car­i­ous posi­tion, as it lessens your per­ceived value and makes your offer sus­pect — the oppo­site of what you’re try­ing to accom­plish by mak­ing claims in the first place.

There­fore, don’t focus on the ben­e­fits of a cer­tain fea­ture. Rather, focus on how those fea­tures specif­i­cally ben­e­fit the individual.

There is a difference.

A big difference.

The more you explain what those claims specif­i­cally mean to the prospect, the more you will sell. It’s not the fea­tures that counts and it’s not even ben­e­fits. It’s the per­ceived value. So how do you build per­ceived value?

The most com­mon prob­lem I see when peo­ple attempt to describe ben­e­fits is when what they are really describ­ing are advan­tages — or glo­ri­fied fea­tures, so to speak. Real ben­e­fits are far more per­sonal and intimate.

That’s why I pre­fer to use this continuum:

Fea­tures ► Advan­tages ► Benefits

Of course, a fea­ture is what a prod­uct has. And an advan­tage (or what most peo­ple think is a ben­e­fit) is what that fea­ture does. But…

… A ben­e­fit is what that fea­ture means.

A ben­e­fit is what a per­son inti­mately gains from a spe­cific fea­ture. When you describe a fea­ture, say this: “What this means to you, Mr. Prospect, is this (…),” fol­lowed by a more per­sonal gain your reader gets from using the feature.

Let me give you a real-​​word example.

A client once came to me for a cri­tique of her copy. She sold an anti-​​wrinkle facial cream. It’s often referred to as “micro­der­mabra­sion.” Her copy had fea­tures and some advan­tages, but no ben­e­fits. In fact, here’s what she had:

Fea­tures:

1. It reduces wrinkles.
2. It comes in a do-​​it-​​yourself kit.
3. And it’s pH balanced.

Advan­tages:

1. It reduces wrin­kles, so it makes you look younger.
2. It comes in a kit, so it’s easy to use at home.
3. And it’s pH bal­anced, so it’s gen­tle on your skin.

This is what peo­ple will think a ben­e­fit is, such as “younger,” “easy to use” and “gen­tle.” But they are gen­eral. Vague. They’re not spe­cific and inti­mate enough. So I told her to add these ben­e­fits to her copy…

Ben­e­fits:

1. It makes you look younger, which means you will be more attrac­tive, you will get that pro­mo­tion or recog­ni­tion you always wanted, you will make them fall in love with you all over again, they will never guess your age, etc.
    
2. It’s easy to use at home, which means you don’t have to be embar­rassed — or waste time and money — with repeated vis­its to the doctor’s office… It’s like a facelift in a jar done in the pri­vacy of your own home!
    
3. It’s gen­tle on your skin, which means there are no risks, pain or long heal­ing peri­ods often asso­ci­ated with harsh chem­i­cal peels, surg­eries and injections.

Now, those are benefits!

Remem­ber, copy­writ­ing is “sales­man­ship in print.” You have the abil­ity to put into words what you nor­mally say in a person-​​to-​​person sit­u­a­tion. If you were to explain what a fea­ture means dur­ing an encounter, why not do so in copy?

The more benefit-​​driven you are, the more you will sell. In other words, the greater the per­ceived value you present, the greater the desire for your prod­uct will be. And if they really want your prod­uct, you’ll make a lot of money.

It’s that simple.

In fact, like a face-​​to-​​face, one-​​on-​​one sales sit­u­a­tion (or as we say in sales train­ing, being “belly to belly” with your prospect), you need to denom­i­nate as specif­i­cally as pos­si­ble the value of your offer to your readers.

In other words, express the ben­e­fits of your offer in terms that relate directly not only to your mar­ket, but also and more importantly:

1. To each indi­vid­ual in that market
2. And to each individual’s situation.

Don’t focus on your prod­uct. Focus on your read­ers. Bet­ter yet, focus on how the ben­e­fits of your offer appeal to the per­son that’s read­ing them. And express how your offer ben­e­fits your prospect in terms they can inti­mately relate to, too.

Look at it this way:

• Use terms the prospect is used to, appre­ci­ates and fully under­stands. (The mind thinks in rel­a­tive terms. That’s why the use of analo­gies, sto­ries, exam­ples, metaphors and tes­ti­mo­ni­als is so impor­tant! Look at “facelift in a jar” I men­tioned ear­lier, as an exam­ple.)
   
• Address your reader directly and for­get third-​​person lan­guage. Don’t be afraid to use “you,” “your” and “yours,” as well as “I,” “me,” “my” and “mine.” Speak to your reader as if in a per­sonal con­ver­sa­tion with her.
   
• Use terms that trig­ger their hor­mones, stroke their egos, tug their heart­strings and press their hot but­tons. You don’t need to use puffery with superlative-​​laden copy. Just speak to your reader at an inti­mate level. An emo­tional level.

Because the worst thing you can do, sec­ond to mak­ing broad claims, is to express those claims broadly. Instead, appeal to their ego. Why? Because…

… We are all human beings.

Eugene Schwartz, author of Break­through Adver­tis­ing (one of the best books on copy­writ­ing), once noted we are not far evolved from chim­panzees. “Just far enough to be dan­ger­ous to our­selves,” copy­writer Peter Stone once noted.

He’s not alone. My friend and copy­writer Paul Myers was once asked dur­ing an inter­view, “Why do peo­ple buy from long, hypey copy?” His short answer was, “Human beings are only two feet away from the cave.”

(Speak­ing of Eugene Schwartz, lis­ten to his speech. It’s the best keynote speech on copy­writ­ing. EVER. Click hear to lis­ten to it. You can also get a copy of his book, too, called “Break­through Adver­tis­ing.” I read mine sev­eral times already.)

Peo­ple buy for per­sonal wants and desires, and for self­ish rea­sons above all. Whether you sell to con­sumers or busi­nesses, peo­ple are peo­ple are peo­ple. It’s been that way for mil­lions of years.

And nothing’s changed.

Your mes­sage is just a bunch of words. But words are sym­bols. Dif­fer­ent words mean dif­fer­ent things to dif­fer­ent peo­ple. Look at this way: while a pic­ture is worth a thou­sand words, a word is worth a thou­sand pictures.

And the words you choose can also be worth a thou­sand sales.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

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