Features And Benefits: Selling Your Products The Right Way
Steve Beck
Today, we'll look at ways that you can increase your online business. Let's start by looking at your own website. Take a look at it now, and try to see it through the eyes of a new visitor. Remember, it doesn't matter that you can build stunning websites online. Your clients don't care about that - they only care about the benefits your product offers.
For now, I want you to read through your web site as a stranger asking only one question: "What's in it for me?" That's what your readers are asking. Now, I could tell you that my new home study course will have 3 CD-ROMs with over 6 hours of video tutorials, a getting started manual, over 8 hours of audio, 120 pages of transcripts, etc.
Big deal. Chances are, you don't care. And why should you? As a busy consumer, you want to know, "What can this course do for me? How will it improve my life?"
asking those questions, consumers are looking for benefits, not features. What happens if I try a different approach? I can teach you how to:
- Discover the most profitable niches for your business;
- Create a moneymaking website;
- Upload information to your website, and get it on the Internet;
- What kind of website works best for different kinds of products
- How to choose a domain name and web hosting
- How to get new visitors every day!
- Set up a shopping cart;
- How to make large commissions recommending other people's products
- How to give your website that professional look
Doesn't that sound better? Well, yes, but I'm still missing the point. I'm giving my clients good information, but I'm not truly giving them benefits. I need to put myself in their shoes.
Think about your customer and ask yourself these questions.
- What do your customers really want?
-How will listening to audios on the secrets of Internet marketing help them get out of the crushing debt they are facing every day?
- How will reading manuals and taking notes give them the freedom they desire?
If you take time to know your customers, you learn what drives them. For example, customers interested in my home study program want to be self-employed. They want to be free from debt, with enough cash to follow their passions. They want a better life for their children, teaching entrepreneurial skills for life long independence. You probably share some of these dreams.
So, what is the point of all this?
Many businesses list features on their webpage; that's fine, but you must understand your customers are not buying those features. They want to know the benefits, the ways that a product will help them. They are attracted to my home study course because they want financial independence. Listing the benefits will attract your customers' attention; they will read the list of features only after they understand the benefits.
Need another example? Take some time to watch commercials on TV. I know what I'm asking just watch for a few minutes. Car commercials are a perfect example of selling benefits, not features. Car manufacturers don't talk about the type of fabric on the seats, the undercoating, the gear ratios, or other features. They concentrate on the benefits of a particular brand. Check out the successful looking middle-aged man, burning along a winding coastal road in an insanely expensive sports car.
Do you see the difference? They're selling the feeling of driving the car, not the car itself. Those commercials tickle our fantasy, making us believe that we are richer and better looking when we drive that particular vehicle. Of course it's a fantasy, but for many buyers, that's the benefit. The image is often the thing.
Admittedly, car commercials are an extreme example. Your advertising doesn't have to go that far. However, those commercials do make the point. Your customers need to find the answer to the question, "What's in it for me? How will this course benefit me? What will I get out of it, and how does that make my life better?"
To succeed with your website, you must answer these questions. Show your clients, with clear examples, exactly how your product or service benefits them. My home study course, for example, helps people develop an income, which in turn helps them quit their dreaded day jobs, pay off debts, and work fewer hours so they can spend time with their families. Through my course, they learn entrepreneurship, skills that they can pass to their children. I help them find the money to pursue their passions, combining work and play. Those are all clear benefits, and my clients can relate to them.
Try this concept, and put these ideas to work for your business today!
Stephen Beck shows businesses how to (
http://www.buildingsitesthatsell.com/ ) build sites that sell . For a free CD explaining the steps for a profitable internet business, visit
http://www.familyebiz.com/ Start Home Business immediately. This article is available as a
http://www.uberarticles.com/?id=36665&b=79 unique content article with free reprint rights.
