“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” – Theodore Levitt
In most things in life and even work, we always talk product specs and features (the quarter-inch drill) and not so much on the benefits and hopeful outcomes (the quarter-inch hole). We tend to assume it’s obvious but most of the time, it is just the lack of patience to go down to the specifics. Specifics and Benefits work. Hard work works.
Your Advertising & Marketing needs to marry Features with Benefits. Features fulfill immediate needs. We need to find out about the Needs behind the Needs.(In sales, we will focus on the keywords from clients and keep asking questions to find out the real why from the prospect). It builds rapport and it surfaces their inner fears and wants.
For example, you are looking for a nice apartment at the high floors. Would a good property agent focus on the specifications of the invisible frameless window grills (the features)? Unlikely. The clever agent will probably paint you the picture of how you can have a great view of nature, the sea, and water horizons or perhaps a nice pool view where you can watch your kids play from your balcony (the benefits). Then add that your kids are safe with the “Glass Curtains” feature
Benefits shed light on Value. A mediocre (lazy) salesperson will often just give a discount without helping the client to understand the Value and worse, he may be reluctant to spend more time to understand the client’s needs and business. This is a sure step to failure. B’cos Discounts are useless unless people understand and appreciate the real value of what you are selling. If you are having such salespersons, you probably should fire the worst one and reinvest to get more leads for the better ones.
Asking more WHYs can help us to get to the specifics of things.
For example… Why do people want to make more money, save costs and conserve time?
Why? People work very hard so that they can stop working eventually, and they want to improve their family’s quality of life and then have the time to spend with loved ones. But what are the specifics of the things they want to do? (go to the beach, learn how to bake, go travel the world, do a bungee jump) What are their fears if they are not able to do so?
Asking questions will uncover more about each industry, each company, each client and understand how to prepare a better Marketing Plan. People always like to say marketing in B2B or B2C is different. I think it is just another excuse in marketing. Frankly today, we are all still marketing to humans (at least robots are not the decision makers for purchases yet) Behind Every B(usiness) there is always a C(onsumer) or a group of Cs.
In doing so, you get a lot more specific into their challenges and you are more likely to prepare a better proposal, and have compelling copywriting about the specifics to surface actual real fears to encourage a response or an action. Good Marketing and Copywriting is beyond good English and vocab. That’s the easy part. The hard part is being real and getting passionately into the specifics to achieve the “WOW you read my mind”. 🙂
“Your customers need to take an action before your business can profit.” – Jackie Lee
I will like to quote an example of how linking a Feature to a Benefit can improve the Headline of a campaign.
Feature: 8-week raw vegan meal plan
Benefit: Lose 20 pounds in 8 weeks and lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Feel better about yourself.
What typical advertisers do is to focus on the feature. However, by linking up the Feature with the Benefit, a more informative copy can be created:
“Get the 8-week raw vegan meal plan that will help you lose 20 pounds in 8 weeks. Lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. Feel better about yourself.”
Then imagine your prospective customers reading this headline copy on your mobile responsive landing page combined with a kick-ass video of the ingredients of the meal plan being prepared. Will this combination get your customers to take action?
I would bet that the leads will flow in (and that is what our Better Leads Platform can do).
61% of all money spent on Google AdWords does not result in a single conversion. Let us help you avoid this!
If you want marketing that gives you leads and ROI , click on this link! Not ready to meet, I suggest further investment into yourself via our 35 minutes webinar recording below.