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Knowing Your Features & Benefits

So now that you know your unique selling proposition, it's time to get to know your features and your benefits on dh I know a lot of people have trouble with this. I know when I started my t shirt business and my product description, I would just say, you know, one hundred percent organic cotton pre shrunk, you know, pink or something like that, so those are all features but that's now my people were buying them. So once I realized that it's the benefits of my t shirts and how it's going to make people feel or how it's going to make them look, then I started to incorporate that into my product descriptions on my website and also when I was reaching out to the media, because I wouldn't just say this is a t shirt that's made out of organic cotton and, you know, everyone loves organic now so that's what you should write about it, but it went beyond that and why that was important and how it was going to benefit them. So your features are often going to be really identical to what your com...

petitors are offering, but your benefits is what's going to help to differentiate you so there's a ton of other tech guys that are people helping people with their techniques you know about what's going to make it different or there's the from tons of baby baby clothing companies out there wise years different and that's because of the benefits and the other interesting thing about the benefits is that it allows you to present a solution and not not a product. So again a solution is a story and everyone loves stories it's not about the product it's about what the product could do for you and what that solution is that's going to be able to sell it to your customers but also to the media as well. So start thinking about it from two angles there's the benefits to your customers and those are the things that are going to be listed on your website things there that are going to be in your marketing materials. But then there's also benefits to the media so what's in it for them because when you're reaching out to the media it's about the media it's not about your customers right and it's about their readers and their audience, not your readers and your audience so start thinking about, you know, features versus benefits someone you reaching out instead of thinking about where your product or service is or does so is that one hundred percent organic cotton is that handmade is a made in the usa those are all features, but the benefits are is how are those important and how can they benefit you on? This is what the media cares about they care about okay what's in it for me and what's in it for my readers because they know their readers really well because they've done their homework they know what their readers love to read and what they need to cover in order to appeal to them and to increase their subscriber base. So I want to give you a couple of examples of features and benefits so features answered answers questions like what is it it's a t shirt it's I don't know a mattress it's ah piece of jewelry that's a feature what the product is what is it made from organic cotton organic ingredients things like that that's another feature it's not a benefit how much does it cost? We all have a price for all of our products again featuring out of benefit and where is it made? I think a lot of times people think about you know I'm made in the usa, so that makes me different but again that's a feature of what your product is but what are the benefits of that? You know the benefits are die, you're impacting the local economy or supporting the local economy. You can feel good because you're buying something from here so yes it's made in the usa but how does that benefit the person that is actually using it or buying it and benefits are things like how does it impact you and why does that matter? So for example with my t shirt business okay, so I planted a tree for every shirt that I sold how does it impact people will it impacts them because they know that was every purchase there making a difference and people love to make a difference especially when they're buying something because they know that ok, so I'm not just buying this and supporting an entrepreneur, but I'm also planting trees somewhere in africa and you can feel good about that. So when you're buying a t shirt, you're not only feeling looking good in it hopefully, but you're also feeling good about the impact that your purchase has on other things that are beyond you. So those are all things that magazines love to write about. I can't tell you how how many times when my t shirts will be featured in the magazine? Almost every single one would mention that my company plans a tree for every t shirt that I sell and that's because they know that their readers love to feel good when they're supporting companies so that's really important to get out there when you're reaching out to the press on then what does it d'oh? Does it save your time? Does it save you money doesn't make you look good doesn't make you feel good doesn't make you an expert there's a ton of things that your product khun d'oh four people and those are all of the benefits, so I wanted to give you a couple of examples here and these are all from apple, so this is about their latest iphone and I want to see if you guys can tell what's the feature and what's the benefit I don't know if someone in the audience or someone in the internet audience but if you could look at this and tell me what the features are and then what the benefits are yes um one feature is the color yep and then the benefits is everything else that they talk about, right? So you'll see that they use the word you aa lot, so it says with all new design this is the iphone as you've never seen it, so it talks to them exactly about what they're going to get out of having this feature, which is a design it's like something you've never seen before, right? Who doesn't want something that they've never seen before? We always old you want that, so they didn't just say, you know, they didn't just a brilliant design, brilliant color and brilliant construction, they said, why that's important and also on the same thing they go on to talk about the cases that they use so it talks about one phone and multiple personality so those air all features but then what's the benefit this is how it says you can create thirty fund possibilities maybe you want, you know, a pink iphone case today and a yellow one tomorrow, this is something that allows you to change your mind and maybe match whatever outfit you might be wearing when you're using the phone. So they're brilliant at this. Andi, if you could sort of take their example and think about ok, yes, it's a great case, but why is it a great case? And how can that impact you and benefit you when you're actually using it? Um and I have two more examples this one is about they're chip, right? So not that interesting, but they make it interesting. They talk about how you know they talk about launch your favorite aps again, you and your and they're talking directly to how people can use this product. So when you're reading their description here, you can already imagine yourself what you'll be doing with their phone when you have it. So if you can start thinking about how do you convey what people can do with your products and how it can benefit them on your website and beyond that, to the press and to the media, they're going to be a lot more likely to listen. And lastly, they talk about all of their aps that are already built in with their phone so you can save time because you don't have to download an app. Saving time is a huge benefit. Everyone wants to save time, so you already have them all loaded up there, so you don't need to go out into all of this work to upload more absent to your phone, so those are just some examples from apple, but I wanted tio give you some examples here as well. So if you make jewelry, focus on how your customers are going to feel when they were your jewelry, you know, will they feel super fancy? Or will they feel like down to earth, or will they feel good or better about themselves and how they look? And this is why people are going to buy your jewelry, as opposed to another piece of jewelry that's, that's similar to yours, or, if you're a photographer, focus on how your cap clients can capture memories that are gonna last forever, so don't talk to them about what camera use and what angles you have and how you can give them their photos. Talk to them about you know, this photo that I'm going to give you you're going tohave forever, and this is going to capture your memories, whether it's your wedding or your engagement or anything what of whatever event you are shooting for them think about how is that going to benefit them? Because they don't care about the equipment that means maybe some people might but they're not going to buy your services because of the camera and the lengths that you have they're going to buy a services because of how you make them feel and how your products are or your services are going to make them feel um and one more example, I actually have two more examples if you're marketing coach, think about how your clients are going to save time by getting access to your already tested strategy. So with me when I launched my business launch grow joy, I didn't just say, you know, I could help you to get your products in magazines, but I talked about okay, I've been doing this for the last four years and I learned so much stuff that I want to share with you. So by working with me, you're going to get access to all of these strategies that took me, you know, thousands of dollars to learn and four years to learn and you're going to have them right away so who wouldn't want to hire me? Hopefully, you know, if I'm already going to be saving them four years worth of work, so do you see how how this has such a big impact when people choose were to spend their money and when companies choose what or magazines she was what products and service isis to feature and lastly, if you designed an app focused not on necessarily what the ap is but what it couldn't do for people so is it going to save you time is going to save you money is it going to help you lose weight? Is it going to help you stay organized and those are the reasons people are buying it for me so I know I gave you guys a lot of examples here but I wanted tio get you thinking about what it is that your products can do for people or your services could do for them instead of what you d'oh or what your product does for you or if that's making any sense so just think about what impact is this going tohave and why should they care? So any time you approach the media think about why should they care what's in it for them and what's in it for their customers and you're going to go a long way just keeping that in mind so a couple more examples so for example of feature of your product could be that it's open twenty four hours the benefit of that is that it's really convenient so if you want to go out the middle of the night by something, you can buy it twenty four hours super easy convenience or if you sell something online one click access again saves you time you don't have to go through five different screens to check out and access your materials and actually buy it you can save time by having access it would just one click so full focus on that in your marketing in your product descriptions and on your website if you have handmade products I know some of you here doing the audience and on the inner as well but if you have a handmade product what's the benefit of that well it's the fact that no one else has it it's unique to you you're the only person who has that specific product even though they're you know all the same or you try to do it all the same there are unique differences and no one else has exactly what you have if you use organic ingredients one of the reasons to do that or one of the benefit is that you can stay healthy so you don't have to worry about putting something in your body that's going to make you sick because you can use this product and stay healthy with it without having to worry about it so these are all things that people look for when they buy products and I can't stress how important this is and this is going to be the difference between why somebody buys from you as opposed to from your competitors and a couple of other reasons and let's say you have your health coach and you have a thirty minute workout instead of just saying this is a thirty minute workout that's going to get you in shape, talk about how you're going to have more freedom to do all of the other things that you love to do because you don't have to spend an hour and a half working out, you can just find thirty minutes working out, and you're gonna have plenty of time to do the other things that you love to d'oh. And lastly, if your product is made in the usa, the benefit of that is that you support your local economy and you're giving back to the local economy, which feels good, right? Who couldn't dispute that they can feel good when they're supporting something local, and here are a couple of other benefits that might or might not fit with your products on dh I'm not going to read them all. You guys convene them, but take all these into account and think about which ones of these apply to my product, and I guarantee at least a few of these will apply to you regardless of a product you guys sell or you're planning to sell if you haven't already started your business.