Your customers don’t care how cool you are. They don’t care about your years of experience or about how many amazing features are packed into your product.
Harsh, I know.
You may already be thinking about companies whose marketing messages list tons of features. Apple, for example.
I’ll get back to them in a minute.
Many companies make the mistake of focusing their marketing message on their own amazing attributes. You’ve seen the claims:
“Packed with 23 essential vitamins and nutrients.”
“Made with our mom’s secret recipe.”
“A combined 80 years experience”
As a company, those features sound great. You’re proud of them. They are, after all, the things that make you different. You might even think they make you better than the rest.
But the way you phrase them might leave your customers saying, So what?
Why should I care how many vitamins are in there?
How do I know your mom was even a good cook?
OK, you’ve been around a while – so?
Your customers are not buying a product or a service. They’re buying a result.
Benefits > Features
At the end of the day, your customers want to feel good about themselves. That is the basic driver behind nearly all our daily actions.
Your customers are not buying a product or a service. They’re buying a result.
Back to Apple. Who remembers the debut of the iPod?
Apple didn’t say, “5GB hard drive that can store up to 1,000 songs.” (So what?) They said, “1,000 songs in your pocket.” (Clear benefit.)
Next time you’re tempted to list a shiny feature, step into your customer’s shoes and ask, So what? Then write that instead.
“Better sleep, more energy, and fewer sick days in one daily pill.”
“We’ve been sworn to secrecy about what makes our mom’s rich, tangy sauce so irresistible.”
“In our 80 years of combined experience, we’ve seen – and fixed – everything that can go wrong with a furnace.”
Will it be longer? Maybe. It’s better to use more words and show a distinct benefit than make a short, vague statement that doesn’t explain why customers should buy.
That would be a real waste of space.
Is your website heavy on features and light on benefits? Do you even know? Never fear. Schedule a website audit. I’ll check for that and any other areas where your 24/7 salesperson isn’t pulling its weight.