Writing Benefit-Driven Web Copy - 4 Steps to More Sales
You've identified the benefits you offer your customers, but
how do you turn a list of benefits into engaging web copy which
converts visitors into customers?
Recently I wrote an article explaining how to identify the
benefits you offer your customers (http://www.divinewrite.com/benefits.htm).
That article challenged business owners and marketing managers
to think in terms of benefits rather than features when writing
their web copy.
What the article didn't discuss was how to actually write the
web copy once they had identified their benefits. That's what
this article is about. (It even gives you a couple of templates
you can use to make your job a whole lot easier!)
As a website copywriter, many of the projects I undertake are
completely new websites. The client has some general ideas about
what they'd like to convey, but they need someone who can
fine-tune their message, and create web copy (and a web
structure) which engages their readers. As a result, over the
years I've developed a process for doing this effectively. There
are four main steps:
1) Identify benefits
2) Identify how you deliver these benefits
3) Prioritise your benefits
4) Write the content
Although this article touches on step 1, it's mostly about steps
2, 3, and 4.
STEP 1 - IDENTIFY YOUR BENEFITS
Branding aside, most websites are about selling. Customers don't
want to know what you can do; they want to know what you can do
for THEM. That means the first question you should ask is, "What
benefits do I offer my customers?" This is usually the first
step toward identifying the key message to be conveyed.
That's not to say that your website shouldn't describe your
products and services. You just need to make sure it describes
them in terms of benefits to your customer.
But benefits identification is outside the scope of this
article. If you'd like to find out more about how to engage your
customer with benefits, go to http://www.divinewrite.com/benefits.htm.
STEP 2 - IDENTIFY HOW YOU DELIVER THESE BENEFITS
Of course, you can't just claim to deliver benefits and stop at
that. You need to support that claim. On your website, you're
going to need to convince your audience that you actually do
deliver these benefits. Anyone can say they deliver benefits,
but few can say it persuasively.
>From step 1 you'll have a list of benefits. Now you need to
think about how you deliver each benefit in that list. This is
where you start talking about features - price, product
highlights, distribution channel, competitor weaknesses,
external factors, USPs, etc. It's helpful if you draw up a table
with one column for benefits and one for the features which
deliver those benefits. (Click http://www.divinewrite.com/downloads/benefitsfeature
s.doc to download an example Benefits-Features table - 20KB.)
You'll probably find this process much easier than identifying
benefits. In fact, you've probably got most of this information
written down already... somewhere. If not, chances are you
uncovered a good portion of it when you were brainstorming for
benefits.
TIP: If you're having trouble identifying supporting features,
before filling out the table, try listing everything you can
think of which relates to what you do and how you do it. Don't
worry about the order. Just braindump onto a piece of paper, a
whiteboard, a Word document, anywhere... Don't leave anything
out, even if it seems unimportant. (You'd be surprised how
important even the most insignificant details can become once
you start assigning them to benefits.) If you start getting
lost, think back to the question you're trying to answer: How do
you deliver your list of benefits to your customer? Once you've
done your braindump, read through it and decide which specific
benefit each feature delivers.
STEP 3 - PRIORITISE YOUR BENEFITS
Now that you've identified all the things you COULD say, it's
time to figure out what you SHOULD say and where you should say
it. This is where your benefits-features table comes into play.
Read through your list of benefits and prioritise them according
to how compelling they will be to your reader.
The reason for this? Priority determines prominence. The most
compelling benefits will need to be prominent on your site.
TIP: Be aware that your list may include some benefits which
everyone in your business category could claim. In other words,
they're not just specific to your company, but apply to the type
of service you offer. For example, if you sell a Content
Management System (CMS) for website creation, you may list
"Greater control for marketing managers" and "Less expense
updating content" as benefits. Every CMS vendor could claim
these benefits, so you'll need to question their importance.
Will they differentiate you from your competitors. Generic
benefits can be useful if none of your competitors are using
them, or if you feel you need to educate your market a bit
before launching into company-specific benefits.
STEP 4 - WRITE YOUR CONTENT
So now you know what you'd like to say, it's time to decide how
to say it. This is about three things:
i) Subject - What is the subject of your site; features or
benefits?
ii) Structure - How do you structure your site such that your
customers will read your most compelling benefits?
iii) Words - What words should you use to best engage your
audience (and the search engines)?
The remainder of this article is dedicated to Subject and
Structure. For further discussion of Words, see http://www.divinewrite.com/webwriting.htm
and http://www.divinewrite.com/seocopy.htm).
Subject
What is the subject of your site; features or benefits? The
answer to this question lies in audience identification. If your
audience knows a bit about the type of product or service you're
selling, lead with features (e.g. processor speed, turnaround
time, uptime, expertise, educational qualifications, wide
product range, etc.). But make sure you talk about their
benefits, and make sure the features offering the most important
benefits are the most prominent.
Here's a simplified example...
"Cool Widgets offers:
-- Standard Operating Environment - Significantly reducing the
complexity of your IT infrastructure
-- System upgrades which are less expensive to license -
Providing excellent TCO reductions"
In cases where you're selling to an audience who knows very
little about your product or service, lead with benefits (e.g.
if you're selling something technical to a non-technical
audience).
Here's the same simplified example, reversed for a novice
audience...
"Cool Widgets offers:
-- Reduced complexity of IT infrastructure - We can implement a
Standard Operating Environment for your organisation
-- Reduced TCO - We can upgrade your IT to systems which are
less expensive to license"
Structure
How do you structure your site such that your customers will be
sure to read your most compelling benefits? The answer is, keep
it short 'n sweet. And make it scannable. This doesn't mean you
have to cut features or benefits. You just have to structure
your site to accommodate your message.
While every site is different, as a rule of thumb it's a good
idea to introduce your main features and benefits on your home
page. Summarise them - preferably using bullet points, but at
the very least, clearly highlight them so that your audience can
scan-read (e.g. bold, underline, colour, link).
Then link from each summarised feature or benefit to a detailed
description. Try to keep each page to approximately 200-400
words. You may need several pages to detail all your features
and benefits. (Click http://www.divinewrite.com/downloads/pagestructur
e.doc to download a page structure template - 29KB.)
TIP: In cases where you need to introduce features and benefits
which are generic to your field (rather than specific to your
offering), your home page is generally the best place to do it.
>From there, you can lead to a second page summarising the
specific features and benefits of your offering.
Conclusion
Web copy is about far more than just clever words. It's
essential that you identify the benefits you offer your
customer, and that you can convince your customer you actually
deliver those benefits.
I hope that the guidance and tools provided in this article will
help you on your way to engaging web copy which converts to
sales.
Happy writing!