So What's In It For Me?

Make sure that the words you use on your Web site arebenefit-oriented rather than feature-oriented. Instead oftelling your potential customers what your product can do(features), tell them what it can do for them (benefits). Inother words, describe the product in terms of the result itoffers rather than the product itself.

Here's a simple way of writing benefits, which I've used veryeffectively for myself and for clients.

Whenever you write a benefit, you can test whether it's a realbenefit by imagining your reader asking the question, "So what?"If it's a feature or a weak benefit, answering that question cangive you a stronger benefit.

Here's an example ... Suppose you're selling a digital camerathat has a resolution of 24 megapixels. That's obviously afeature, not a benefit, but you'd be surprised how many cameraWeb sites advertise their products that way.

Imagine a conversation between you and a customer who has onlyever used non-digital cameras in the past:

YOU: This camera has a resolution of 24 megapixels.

CUSTOMER: So what?

YOU: Well, that's the highest resolution of any digital cameraavailable today.

CUSTOMER: Yeah, but so what?

YOU: It means your pictures have very little loss of quality.

CUSTOMER: But what does that mean?

YOU: Your photos will be as bright and clear as if you wereusing ordinary film.

CUSTOMER: Ah, now I understand!

Can you see how that process of asking the "So what?" questionleads to strong benefits? What we started with ("24 megapixels")is vastly different from the result ("as bright and clear asordinary film").

Note that I framed the example in a particular way. You weretalking to a customer who had a history of using traditionalcameras, so the benefit was relevant to them. If your customerwas, say, a professional photographer, then you might end upwith a different benefit - e.g. "This is the only cameraresolution that is accepted by National Geographic".

Here's a quick way to get the "So what?" answers ...

Start by listing all the features of your product or service.Yes, that's right - start with the FEATURES, which should beeasy for you to do.

Then take each feature in turn, ask the "So what?" question,find an appropriate answer, and add it to the end of the featurewith the words "... so that".

An example will help ...

In the example above, the feature:

* It has a resolution of 24 megapixels

becomes:

* It has a resolution of 24 megapixels ... so that your photosare as clear and bright as with your old camera.

OK, now it's your turn ...

Look at the products and services you're advertising on your Website. Are you talking about benefits, or only features?

Go through the process I've just described to (a) list all yourfeatures, and (b) convert these features into benefits