The Best Copywriting Article about Writing Killer Product and Service Benefits
I just got done reading Clayton Makepeace’s blog article:
Make your product’s benefits SPARKLE!
Although it’s written specifically about finding product benefits, the tips he provides work equally well for selling services too.
In case you aren’t familiar with Clayton, he’s been a successful direct response copywriter for 35 years and is credited with helping multiple businesses make millions of dollars. His is one of the handful of online newsletters I subscribe to and read regularly.
This post is so valuable I just had to share. Because, like Clayton, all too often I see people trying to use really general benefits to get their prospects attention—if they use benefits at all.
You know your prospects want to know what’s in it for them and why they should buy before they plunk down any cash. But somehow you forget to tell them. Or you explain it in a way that doesn’t get at the core of why they want or need what you’re selling.
Writing compelling benefits requires listing all your features, then asking yourself, “So what? Why would they want this feature?”
For example, you might want a dual core processor in your computer so you can run multiple programs without crashing your computer.
That’s your general benefit. But you aren’t done yet.
The real key is figuring out the benefit of the benefit. Not just the first thing that comes to mind. So you have do dig down another layer and ask why that benefit would be important…What problem does it solve or need does it fill?
In this article, Clayton gives you an easy-to-follow, step-by-step formula for digging deep and writing irresistible benefits.
Plus, he also gives you a list of questions you need to ask—either yourself, or your client if you’re a professional copywriter) before you ever set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be).
If you don’t have a set of basic questions you ask before you begin writing, try using the ones in his Comprehensive FEATURES Inventory as a starting point. You can (and should) add a few more to that list to be sure but you absolutely need these as a basis.
Frankly, I can’t believe he’s given away so much valuable info in one article. And I couldn’t have said it all better myself.
Check it out here:
http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/clayton-makepeace/make-your-products-benefits-sparkle.html
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Great work.