Want To Sell More, Easier? Here’s What To Focus On In Your Ads:
Every business is created to offer benefits to its customers. Whether you offer a service, a product, information, or any combination of these three, your business is here to make someone’s life easier and to make you money. These two intentions intersect in the features and benefits of your business.
What is the difference?
Features are what your business does, benefits are how those features make your customer’s life better. Why should they buy this? How will it make them feel? How does it improve their current processes? Does it make life easier? All your marketing messaging should focus on one or both of these aspects of your business, but primarily on the benefits.
Imagine you’re speaking to a five year old. You describe a new feature on your truck that you are really excited about. What is the first question they will ask? “Why?” So you explain one benefit of this feature. They ask again, “Why?” and you explain another. After about the third “Why” you’re probably tired of the conversation, but those three answers are exactly what your customers want to hear first. Not all the product specs and why you are proud of it, just how it can make their life better.
If you are a product-based business then make sure to keep all the technical specs easy to find but place the benefits front and center. If you are a service-based business then give space to both, but make sure it is balanced- for every feature, a matching benefit.
Examples
Still uncertain? Here are some of our customers who excel at benefits-based marketing:
What’s the first thing you see on Altru’s website? “Protecting Homes…” Now that is a compelling reason to learn more about who they are and what they do. Being a service-based business, AltruRoofing does go into a lot of specs when you look at their list of services, but they keep the focus on protecting your home and your time when working with them.
Here’s another service-based business example:
The StudyHub puts the primary benefit of their tutoring front and center on their home page. By the time someone gets to your website or social media page they have already chosen to click once, so make sure the first thing they see is one way you make their life or business better.
Implementation
Ready to try it? There are two different ways you can approach benefit-oriented ads. You can focus on what the customer is gaining or what they are avoiding.
Start with one of your products or services. List the top 5 benefits that your customer gains. Next, list the top 5 reasons they might be frustrated and looking for that product or service in the first place.
If you are the roofing company above, the gain they’ve chosen to focus on is protection. The problems their customers are avoiding by getting a roof inspection or installation can be as practical as avoiding a leaky roof; emotional, like sleeping with peace of mind throughout a storm; or financial, by increasing the value of their home.
Hitting all three sectors (practical, emotional, and financial) helps you reach people with a variety of mindsets and concerns. Not every ad has to address all three. In fact, many powerful ads choose one and really lean into it. Try them out and see what your customer base responds best to.
Looking to find out more about who your customer base is so you can do this most efficiently? Here’s an article to help you identify who you are selling to. Want help curating benefit-focused ads and strategically placing them online? Contact us here to find out how our marketing and social media packages can help manage your online presence, boost sales, and give you more time to focus on the things you love. (See what we did there?)
