benefits copywriting
Why no MP will ever make an award-winning copywriter
Copywriting is about benefits, pure and simple. That’s why there isn’t a politician anywhere in the world that could cut it as a copywriter.
Why?
Let me as you this – are you as fed up as I am of their constant wrangling? I mean, the idea is that we have different political parties to represent the differing opinions within the country.
Rather than debating the benefits of their beliefs, politicians take chunks out of each other.
Take Brexit as an example. No one wanted to be in Boris’s shoes over that one. But rather than the parties working together for the country’s good, they just had a socially distanced bunfight.
It’s the same with the handling of the pandemic. The man with the bad hair (i.e., Boris) was left with an impossible decision: close the economy or let people contract Covid. Of course, the opposition told the world his decisions were wrong – but how would they have handled it?
In both cases, all parties should have pulled together. However, once again, they didn’t.
So, what’s all this got to do with benefits copywriting? I’m getting to that bit.
Benefits copywriting will win you fans
Chances are, you are not the only company that operates within your niche. You do things your way, and your competitors do them their way.
Now, if you focus your marketing on how crap your competitors are, how expensive they are (compared to you), or how inferior their product or service, you won’t win any fans.
Believe it or not, that is now what your audience wants to know.
That can be summed up like this. Your audience wants to know:
- What you can offer them
- Why you make/provide it
- How it will make their life easier/better/richer
Of course, they’ll want to know the cost as well, but the main things they’re interested in are the benefits of your offering.
How to master benefits copywriting
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll quote a very wise copywriter (that would be me).
When it comes to the features and specification of what you’re offering, you’ve got loads to write about, but the benefits? That’s a whole different ball game.
Before you start writing, you need to work out who is your ideal customer.
Who are you writing for?
If you could pick your ideal customer, what would they be like?
Think about their age, occupation, likes and dislikes, what keeps them awake at night and what they want to get out of life.
Once you know everything about them, you’ll be able to write to them with passion to engage them in what you’re saying, to convince them their lives would be so much better with your product or service.
What about the benefits?
Once you know whom you’re writing to, it’s time to do some research to work out what the benefits are.
The first stage is to list all the features and specifications of what you’re offering.
Then, take each of these in turn and decide how they benefit your customers.
The next step is to think about the problems you will help them avoid backing up your benefits.
Finally, write down all the buying objections you can think of (e.g., about cost) and how you would address them using the benefits you’ve already identified.
Copywriting isn’t as straight forward as you may think. If you want people to buy, you must:
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Address them directly
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Appeal to their needs and wants
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Demonstrate how your product/service will benefit them directly
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Address all potential buying objections
Copywriting and marketing should never be a slanging match
I’m sure you would never stoop as low as to market your business by dissing your competitors. But it does happen, hence the need for this post.
When creating your marketing materials, forget about the other companies out there. Concentrate on your customers and the benefits they’ll receive by using your product or service. That is the only way to genuinely show people how great your company is (without saying it.)
Sally Ormond only ever writes benefits-led copywriting. Best get in touch with her to make sure your audience gets what they want.