Benefits are verbs; features are nouns
Remember Verb, the superhero on “Schoolhouse Rock”? He was great because he could do so many things.
His theme song went like this:
Think Like a Reader
And … action! Benefits vs features copywriting
Write in verbs, not other parts of speech
Talk about painting a picture. In City of Bohane, Kevin Barry brings the titular town to life in sentences like this:
“Amputee walnut sellers
croaked their prices
from tragic blankets
on the scarred tile floors …”
And:
“The tottering old chimneys were stacked in great deranged happiness
against the morning sky.”
… Read the full article Catch a reader: Features and benefits examples
Focus on the reader’s needs
If you were giving away a Hawaiian vacation to people who signed up for your webinar, which would you lead with?… Read the full article
How to find feature, benefit
Ask the right questions in the interview
Having trouble finding reader benefits? Maybe you need to ask different questions.
Ask your subject matter experts:
- What happens if our customers buy this product or service?
Features vs. benefits: Avoid fake benefits
No ‘Pat yourself on the back for choosing us’
“Clean your face,” demands a hotel soap wrapper. No, YOU clean YOUR face! I want to respond.… Read the full article
Sell benefits, not features, in lists
Make benefits lists parallel, verb-based
When Mr. Wylie’s Writing Tips had a hip replacement recently, he had to take a break from grocery shopping. I went searching for my new BFF, an online grocery delivery service.… Read the full article
Make it F-A-B: features, advantages, benefits
Reach readers, potential customers by leading with the benefits
I once reviewed an article for a company’s sales force with the headline:
Extraordinary customer experience: Be a customer advocate.
… Read the full articleTo reach readers, avoid writing in the first person
Stop We-We-ing on the reader
It feels so good to talk about ourselves.
Talking about yourself activates the same pleasure centers in the brain as food, money or sex, according to Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir and her colleague Jason Mitchell, whose research on the topic was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.… Read the full article
Second person writing works for all audiences
Use you in marketing, employee comms — even PR
You. It’s a power tool of communications.
The second person increases readability, boosts opens and clickthroughs and is the most retweeted word in the English language.… Read the full article
How to persuade like Dale Carnegie
Writing tips from the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People
I was coaching a communicator for a California health insurance plan the other day.… Read the full article