Tell me the benefits not the features

You’re ready to launch your website or blog. You’re going to set up a Facebook page, a Twitter handle, a LinkedIn profile.

You will need some copy – your bio, a ‘what I do’ statement, a summary of your writing to date, a description of the services you offer.

The most common trap people fall into at this point is to start with the what, not the how or why.

How do I know? Because in my nearly 20-year career in marketing, I have sat with hundreds of individuals, entrepreneurs and business owners who have done just that. And it’s totally understandable. You have a great product to offer but it’s just that people don’t know about it yet. Surely this is where you start.

Features vs. Benefits

Actually, no. When someone buys a car they’re not buying four wheels and a metal encasement. If that were the case, they would pick up the first car they saw. They’re not even buying a certain size engine or heated seats. They are buying convenience, status, safety, speed, comfort. In marketing we refer to this as features vs. benefits. Features are the characteristics of your product or service – the four wheels, the heated seats. The what. Benefits are the experiences or advantages the consumer will have once they buy your product – the safety, the comfort. The how or why.

Let’s relate this to that copy you need to write. You could list the things you have done, the schools you’ve attended, the qualifications you’ve earned. You could list the books you’ve written. This is all necessary information and it needs to go somewhere on your website, Facebook page or LinkedIn profile but it’s not the best place to start.

Photo by John-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash

People don’t buy books.

They might think they do, but just like with car sales, they buy what a book promises to do for them, how it will make them feel, what it will make them experience, what it will leave them with that they didn’t have before. It might be escape, amusement, entertainment, revelation, education, encouragement, skill, confidence, or many other things besides.

Getting to the how

Something I do with customers is to take a piece of paper and split it into two columns. On the left-hand side list your features. In the case of a writer, the pertinent things are probably: your education, your qualifications, your publications, your services. On the right-hand side, next to each one, try and write down what that feature does for your audience. If you’re struggling, try completing this sentence:

I write/have/do/sell/offer x which means you will/can x

For example, I write children’s fiction which helps young readers grapple with challenging topics like social injustice.

Or try this. Picture your target reader, the one you wrote this story for. For me, it’s an eleven-year-old child. Why did I write this story for them? What do I want them to experience? Partly I want to make them laugh, but I also want to show them a character who learns that they don’t need to accept the labels others place on them. I haven’t told you the title of the book and I haven’t told you what happens in the book, but I’ve shown you what the book will do for the reader. And doesn’t that help you make a decision about whether this book is for you (or your child)? OK, so you’ll want a bit more information but for now we’re just interested in starting your marketing in the right place.

Help your reader make a decision

Sifting benefits from features isn’t easy, it takes practice. However, if you want to help your potential reader make a decision about whether your writing is for them or not, you need to articulate what they will come away with.