“There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.”
Paul Gauguin
Advertising, it is said, is just good salesmanship multiplied by a mass medium. But what does this mean in practice?
During my years as a marketing consultant I’ve spent a lot of time involved in training people in the art of selling. In my experience, the main quality that distinguishes a successful sales person is the ability to translate features into benefits, and to do so in a believable and engaging way. The same principle applies to writing effective sales copy.
A hefty proportion of all sales copy is feature driven. That’s why it doesn’t work especially well:
“The BGZ 640 clothes dryer has a 7.5 kg capacity, a built in condenser and an alternating tumble function…”
So what?
“The BGZ 640 clothes dryer has a massive 7.5 kg capacity, enabling you to dry 50% more clothes in a single load. The 640’s built in condenser means there’s no need for an inconvenient ventilation hose, and its alternating tumble function means your laundry will be crease-free…”
Ah, now I see…
The second version of the copy translates feature into benefits, and benefits sell products. Why? Because they appeal directly the reader’s self-interest:
People don’t buy a faster drill, they buy a quicker hole.
People don’t buy a titanium tennis racquet, they buy a superior volley and serve.
People don’t buy a 1gb memory card for their digital camera, they buy the capacity to take and store 1,000 pictures.
You get the idea…
Instead of stating simply and clearly the benefits of what they’re selling inexperienced sales people will frequently become bogged down in a mire of facts, figures, statistics and irrelevancies.
But there’s no point in telling someone, for example, that the car you’re selling has a hybrid engine if it doesn’t mean a thing to them. And it certainly doesn’t pay to presume that just because you happen to know that a hybrid engine emits less CO2 and gives more miles to the gallon your prospect will be equally well informed.
And even if your prospect does get the drift of what this barrage of features implies for them, it will have nothing like the same persuasive impact as being immersed in the benefits firsthand.
As with the ace sales person, the ace copywriter will paint a picture for their prospect, they’ll transport them in their imagination to a place where they can actually envisage themselves as the owner of this indispensible product. They’ll create a sense of urgency and desire; they’ll tap into their emotions and make them wonder how on earth they ever got by without the product. And they do this by driving home the benefits.
When features become benefits - a note of caution…
Once you’ve got to know the rules, only then can you break them. And so it is with extolling benefits. Because there is a certain type of prospect who is going to be immediately turned off by being hit over the head with a list of benefits. For want of a better term, I’ll call this person the ‘industry insider’. This is the targeted business-to-business prospect, usually a specialist in his field, who is able to read between the lines without having it spelled out for him.
If, for example, you’re writing a sales letter addressed to mining engineers and you’re attempting to sell them a new type of pump that outperforms other models on the market. You’re going to consider very carefully how you present the benefits.
The wrong way:
“The Acme Super-Fast 490z pumps at speeds of up to 5,000 litres a minute, which means an end to waiting as your mine shaft slowly drains of water while you lose valuable productivity. The Acme 490z pump will drain your mineshaft in hours – not days!”
OK, I exaggerate for effect, but you see where I’m going.
In most cases this type of prospect is ‘feature orientated’, meaning they understand the jargon of their business better than you do, and they certainly don’t need to be told that your 5,000 litre a minute pump is going to drain their mine shaft faster than their 2,000 litre model, and that it’s going to have an impact on their productivity. They’re perfectly able to work it out for themselves, and must be allowed to do so.
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Marketing – Kent Austin
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