Forget Benefits!

[Raydal]

Many years ago, as a high school teacher, I sold snacks to the
students in order to raise money for a sports club. When the
need to help the club expired I decided to continue selling the
snacks and keep the profits for myself to help my meager
teacher’s salary.

There was one kid nicknamed Chalky who was not very gifted
academically, but was a master salesman. I remember once he
approached the principal of the school to try to sell him a snack
to which he declined. The principal claimed that he had no need
of the snack because he didn’t eat that kind of kid’s stuff.

Chalky immediately fired back with, “But you have two daughters,
why not buy for them?”

The principal was speechless. He didn’t have a comeback for that
one. His objection was nuked.

As an observer I was impressed by this 12-yr kid who never read a
sales book like I had done and how ‘natural’ he was at selling.
I still think there’s such a thing as a ‘born sales person’.

Now copywriters can often get sucked into the mechanics of the
language and layout of a sales letter and forget that copywriting
is really selling. This is the reason why I listen to sales
seminars and read books on how to sell, along with reading great
copywriting books by the masters. Copywriting is really selling
with the written word. The task comes down to persuading people
to part with their hard-earned money for your product or
service.

Now one of the big tenets of copywriting and selling in general
is the WIIFM rule. When writing a sales letter you are told to
answer the prospect’s question, “What’s In It For Me?”
This usually leads to the other ‘rule’ of emphasizing benefits
and not features. So a drill bit is a feature but the hole is
the benefit.

What is often missing in a sales letter is giving the prospect a
reason to buy that is outside of a direct benefit he would
receive. As in the incident with Chalky, it was the father’s
love for his daughter in getting them a gift. Chalky was able to
turn the question from himself to his daughters.

Now it could be argued that the satisfaction this father would
get from making his daughters happy is a ‘hidden’ benefit to
himself, but most copywriters do not think about these subtle
benefits.

But still outside of these hidden benefits comes the fact that we
often buy based on emotions and justify our decision afterward
with logic. So a prospect needs a REASON to buy. And these
reasons can often be very strange indeed. Why strange? Because
they are far removed from the benefits of the product or
service.

A few examples may help to illustrate this point.

Often times my wife would go shopping and return with a product
that I judge useless. When I question her on why she bought this
item, she tells me that it was on sale.

So let’s see: “You have no need of the product, but you bought it
simply because if was on sale?”

Now before you go thinking that I’ making fun of my better half
this is a general HUMAN trait. Maybe you have done the same
thing as well. Yes, bought that late night TV special because it
was on sale?

In fact, I did once. (Well, maybe more than once.)

I recall I was in a motel, lonely, missing home and decided to
watch some late night TV. There was that infomercial for the
vacuum packer. I was immediately mesmerized by it’s capability
and its ability to store foods for longer periods of time. So I
pulled out my credit card and ordered, accepted the “one-time
special” up-sell for more packing bags and eagerly awaited the
arrival of my new kitchen tool.

I used that machine once to make sure it was working and it’s
still packed away. Maybe I should sell it on eBay. I guess I
really bought that machine to surprise my wife, rather than for
its practical use.

The “damaged goods” sales letter technique is also very effective
because people are given a reason to buy, even apart from the
direct benefit of the product. The same applies to ‘fire sales’
as well.

So many marketers complain about the ton of eBooks they have
rotting on their hard drives. Why? They bought for some other
reason than the direct benefit.

Now how can a copywriter use this common human trait to make more
money? Always give a reason to buy apart from the direct
benefit.

Reasons such as, money from the sale will go to the buyers
favorite charity, you are going out of business, owner is
retiring, it’s your birthday, anniversary, Friday! The reason
could be, for all practical reasons, foolish and contradictory.

People need a reason to buy.

I recently had a sale based on the fact that I needed to raise
money for my move from Michigan to Florida. Of course the
product is no way related to my move but buyers need a reason to
buy and it’s best if you can suggest a few.

And that’s my suggestion.

-Ray Edwards

[Intrepreneur]

I've been working on this just now and came here to read what you've said.

I think people like to buy to be different rather than to benefit, so I chose to put the stress factor on them being different to everyone else.

[TSDMike]

I read this on your blog the other day. Good stuff.

Taking the focus in a different direction other than the obvious message sounds tricky. I'll give it some thought when applying it to my sales page I am working on.

[Jon Steel]

all this steps right in line with the "copy machine" experiment - where using the word because can go a long way...thanks ray -

[CopyMonster]

Damaged goods... Reasons such as, money from the sale will go to the buyers
favorite charity, you are going out of business, owner is
retiring, it’s your birthday, anniversary, Friday!

Seem to me the distinction between

1 - why buy and
2 - why buy now (special offer, oto, limited time/qty etc)

Also interesting in your post Ray

I was immediately mesmerized by it’s capability
and its ability to store foods for longer periods of time. So I
pulled out my credit card and ordered, accepted the “one-time
special” up-sell for more packing bags and eagerly awaited the
arrival of my new kitchen tool.

I used that machine once to make sure it was working and it’s
still packed away. Maybe I should sell it on eBay. I guess I
really bought that machine to surprise my wife, rather than for
its practical use.

Use of "mesmerized", "I guess" seems like you're not that sure about why you really bought and that the informercial was just that good. The advertiser seems to have created such a state of excitement in you in that ad that all critical judgement had been suspended - anything that seemed logical was something that was planted there to satisfy any such need. All they needed then was to amp up excitement (smiling demonstrators, sounds of surprise, incredible shots of stored food looking like it was fresh off the cooker, more testimonials of satisfied users... yadda yadda) and before you knew it - credit card in one hand, phone in the other and $X extracted from your account. Badda-bing. Now that's some skillful selling!

And that's why come copywriters recommend watching the salesmanship in infomercials because when it works, it works so beautifully.

Back to benefits - that's why it's important to be that sales detective and uncover every benefit the lies beneath (on top and in between) in the product. The one that will sell is not always the one that is the most obvious. If you know your market well, you have a good start in identifying the right one compared with anyone that doesn't.

[Raydal]

This is a technique that Frank Kern uses in his emails and
videos a lot. The promotional emails he sends out have
little to do with the products that he is promoting.

Of course there is attention getting and providing an
entertaining angle to his marketing, but they are not
direct benefits from the products.

So you are asked to "click here to see this wacky video"
and not "click here to see how you can make a ton of money".

Dan Kennedy believes in following a marketing calendar where
you send out a promotion based on the time of the year and
special holidays.

The point here is that you don't have to always think about
WIIFM benefits to get a response to your offer.

In fact, when you use these "side-way reasons" it makes
your selling more subtle and less "in your face".

-Ray Edwards

[CopyMonster]

Originally Posted by Raydal

This is a technique that Frank Kern uses in his emails and
videos a lot. The promotional emails he sends out have
little to do with the products that he is promoting.

Dan Kennedy believes in following a marketing calendar where
you send out a promotion based on the time of the year and
special holidays.

The point here is that you don't have to always think about
WIIFM benefits to get a response to your offer.

In fact, when you use these "side-way reasons" it makes
your selling more subtle and less "in your face".

-Ray Edwards

Funny you should mention Kern and Kennedy.

Kern has a new video out which is a great example of what you're referring to. It's a combo of entertainment + value + offer and in that order. The value part of this particular video actually explains what he's been doing in his video marketing (for anyone interested it's on his blog under "sneak attack" I think and as an added bonus for those inclined it has a cameo by John Reese).

In one of Kennedy's courses he mentions that it's a hard task for consultants/info-marketers including himself to keep clients for years on end that you have to have something additional to the product. That something he points to is the personality of the individual. If you just go banging on about the product, it gets tired fast.

I get what you're suggesting that you can do a kind of "plus one" benefit. It's similar to the invitation to the party with guest plus one. Here it's direct benefit plus the indirect benefit. If you make the indirect more prominent then by virtue of that the direct becomes less so and less in your face. Interesting.

[Raydal]

Originally Posted by bf68

I get what you're suggesting that you can do a kind of "plus one" benefit. It's similar to the invitation to the party with guest plus one. Here it's direct benefit plus the indirect benefit. If you make the indirect more prominent then by virtue of that the direct becomes less so and less in your face. Interesting.

It could be argued that it is no benefit at all, but a subtle reason
given for the prospect to buy. If I gave you a special price on
my copywriting because today is my birthday, my birthday brings nothing
new to the product except a reason to give you to buy.

I could just give a discount but people would wonder WHY I am
doing this so I give a reason the satisfy this need.

-Ray Edwards