Your target market and prospective buyers love to read about the specific benefits they get from your products and services. This content excites them and gets them ready to buy from your company. Even though people crave this content, they don’t usually get it because most marketers write about features or simply miss the mark on benefits.
It’s easy to write about features because it’s what you see, however writing about benefits is what drives marketing success. Companies writing effectively about the benefits of their services or products gain a competitive advantage and are more successful at digital marketing.
Here are a few tips to improve how you communicate and write about your company’s benefits.
The best marketers on the planet know how to do this, average marketers can’t get outside their own heads. All marketers should strive to write content loaded benefits. They do this best by understanding what it’s like to walk in the shoes of their customers.
A very select group of high-performing marketing professionals are able to understand the benefits behind the benefits, things their prospective customers may not even know they wanted. Many times there are more benefits than we know.
The Golden Rule of Marketing
In order to write effectively about marketing start with this essential rule: You get what you want by giving people what they want. This is the Golden Rule of marketing!
You can only give prospective customers what they want by getting inside their heads and fully understanding the benefits they crave from your products and services.
The best marketers on the planet know how to do this, average marketers can’t get outside their own heads. All marketers should strive to write content loaded benefits. They do this best by understanding what it’s like to walk in the shoes of their customers.
A very select group of high-performing marketing professionals are able to understand the benefits behind the benefits, things their prospective customers may not even know they wanted. Many times there are more benefits than we know.
Benefits Come in Layers
There is always more to the story when it comes to benefits. What you think is a key benefit for your target market often goes deeper. Some benefits are very clear to people, like saving money or time, but others may not know what they want until they can experience the benefit.
Here are a few examples and a brief overview of how benefits can be seen in layers. Notice how features are on the surface and easily perceived as generic. Your communication, especially written content and videos, must connect with the first level of benefits and deeper levels whenever possible.
Financial Services Firm
FEATURES
This firm is a source of great information and very knowledgeable. They offer excellent customer service and are conveniently located. It’s a family run business for the past 25 years.
BENEFITS
You get peace of mind and security knowing your investments will provide a fair and safe return. This helps you sleep at night and feel good about the choice you made.
DEEPER BENEFITS
You are less stressed and healthier knowing your money is going to investments that will benefit you in retirement. It will also benefit your family and create a legacy for years to come. All this comes in working with a financial firm you can relate to and one sharing your life’s values.
Car or Truck Dealership
FEATURES
Buy a car or truck that works for you, whether it is the car of your dreams or basic transportation. This is a purchase you can feel good about at a fair price.
BENEFITS
Reliable transportation getting you from one place to the next. If the car or truck does break down, the dealership is here to help provide excellent customer service. The clear benefits are peace of mind, safety and security.
DEEPER BENEFITS
A reward and a badge of success, the admiration of others and building your self-esteem and confidence by owning the vehicle of your dreams. It is a part of who you are and a personality fit for you. The car is an expression of your core values.
IT (Information Technology) Consulting Company
FEATURES
Reliable IT support and equipment from an experienced, knowledgeable and responsive team of professionals.
BENEFITS
Save time and money by being more efficient and running a smoother workflow and business operations. This allows you to focus on what you do best by outsourcing your IT needs.
DEEPER BENEFITS
Major quality of life improvements from having a successful business leveraging technology to provide peace of mind, security at home and work and a more satisfied and enhanced life. The security knowing any emergency will be handled correctly, keeping your business up and running.
Digital Marketing and Website Design Agency
FEATURES
Get a professional website at a fair price and have it maintained and hosted in a secure environment.
BENEFITS
Grow your business with effective digital marketing, branding, lead generation and increased sales.
DEEPER BENEFITS
Live the life or your dreams with a successful business or marketing career knowing your company is in good hands with a team of specialists to drive business growth. The results of their work enable you to live your mission and reach your personal and career goals.
Casual Dining Restaurant
FEATURES
Great tasting food at a fair price.
BENEFITS
A great time with friends and a social experience.
DEEPER BENEFITS
Build your ego and status by eating out and not having to cook or clean the kitchen. Tell others about your experience and feel good about yourself and look forward to more meals away from home.
Home Cleaning Services
FEATURES
Your home is clean, at a fair price and you saved time not doing the work yourself.
BENEFITS
You save time and like the feeling of living in a clean home you can show off to friends and family.
DEEPER BENEFITS
A status symbol and sense of accomplishment for being able to afford to pay someone else to do a job you did in the past.
Find the deep benefits in your product and service. One way to do this is through seeing your marketing messaging as a story. This is one way people will relate best to your content about benefits.
Use of Story Brand to Understand Benefits
An excellent resource for understanding how to write about benefits is the book Story Brand by Donald Miller. Story Brand explains how to write and cover your key benefits in a way people can understand and are most likely to remember. This happens because people remember the fundamentals of a great story including the hero’s journey, overcoming a villain, the wise words of a guide and more.
With Story Brand you will learn to do the following:
- Clarify your message so it gets heard
- Place your customer as the hero
- Make your offer the guide to help the hero
- Develop a plan to help the hero and provide specific call-to-actions
- The end result is the hero getting what they want and need
The tasks coming out of Story Brand include the following:
- Creating taglines to summarize and communicate directly
- Build a great email list of customers and qualified prospects
- Automate your email list with tools like HubSpot
- Tell customer stories that people remember
- Create a referral and incentive system to drive qualified inquiries
Tell stories, write case studies and use concrete examples to best reach people’s deeper levels of benefits.
Aligning Values
At the core of what is most important to your target market are their values. Values drive perceptions and heavily influence the choices we make. How well these values align with your company’s values are at the core of how you communicate about benefits.
Your company values will come through in your strategic messaging and attract like-minded people to your company. They are more likely to buy from you and become loyal customers if they share your values. This comes through in how you write about benefits.
Benefits are at the Core of Content Marketing
Consistently writing about benefits in your digital content is critical. Write about benefits in your emails, social media and blog posts. These content areas are central to your marketing plan and must be in your content marketing schedule.
Social media posts and email content will constantly need new content ideas including benefits. Blogs are also part of this content marketing and will be viewed on your website for as long as you are in business and your website is live on the Internet.
The best way to verify these benefits is to develop relationships with your customers allowing you to understand them as real people and listen with full attention to what is important to them in their lives.
Summary
Effective communication of the key benefits you provide your target market is a key to successful digital marketing. You can only do this by understanding what it’s like to be inside the head of your target market, to walk in their shoes and share their struggles. You do this to best understand what it is about your services and products that benefits them, even if they don’t know.
Make writing about benefits concrete and very direct. It will feel so basic to you, but that is because you are so close to your company’s services and products.
Writing about benefits is how you communicate your strategy to the world. Your effectiveness in this area determines digital marketing success.
Action Items
- Make a list of five benefits with real meaning for each of your products and services.
- Put yourself in the mind of your prospect as you write content.
- Talk to prospects and customers on a regular basis to better understand them.
- Always remember you get what you want by giving people what they want.
- Research your competitors and know your competitive advantages.
- Review your current content efforts and make sure you speak in the language of the reader and your prospective customer.
- Be direct and keep it simple.
