REVISITING THE 'BENEFITS' FACTOR

If you are in the business of making sales (as mostonline marketers are, in one form or another) then youknow that it is a basic tenet that you must appeal toone of people's basic NEEDS if they are going topurchase your product or service.So what are those basic needs, anyway?Well, the most obvious needs are for shelter, food andwarmth. But there's a different kind of 'warmth' thatmany people need, too, and that's where you come in.People need to feel needed, or they need to have comforts,or they need to have their problems solved, or they needto BELONG - these are all needs for a different kind of'warmth' that we can appeal to in our sales campaigns,in our advertising materials, and on our websites.The bottom line is that potential customers are onlyinterested in what your product or service can do forthem - what NEED your offering will fill. Period. So youcan try to convince them that your widget is prettierthan someone else's widget, or faster, or whatever...but only if that can be shown to benefit them.I'm not talking about features, here. There's a bigdifference between 'features' and 'benefits'. A bettermousetrap might have the 'feature' of a more reliablespring-loaded mechanism - but that makes it a bettermousetrap because it has the 'benefit' of being ableto get rid of more mice! See the difference?We've all heard the phrase 'to keep up with the Joneses.'Ad agencies have long used our need to belong, to fit in,to be a 'part of' rather than apart from, to sell us onvarious products or services. You can take advantage ofthis human drive to sell your offering, too.The important thing, then, is to make a point of addressingthe benefits right up front. On the front page of yourwebsite, or in big letters on your ad copy, make sure youtell the reader 'what's in it for them' if they purchaseyour product or service. Which basic human need will itmeet? Figure that out first, and the whole rest of yourmarketing campaign will come so much easier to you.If you can discover what 'problem' your product or serviceis the answer to, then you're on your way to success. Willyour product make your customers sexier, allow them moreleisure time, make them lots of money..? Will it give themone of the many kinds of 'warmth' that we all crave?Make sure you say so, loud and clear, and prospectivecustomers will be sure to hear you!