Features are NOT Evil
This is a guest post by Tracy Needham of Compelling Communications, LLC
2 Reasons You MUST Include Features in Your Copy
I was reading Robert Plank’s Time Management on Crack 2.0 this past weekend and was thrilled to see a comment in the sales page section about remembering to include features in your bullet points.
Because features have apparently become the Chucky doll of copywriting.
It started out innocently enough. Well-meaning copywriters started spreading the word that you need to stop focusing on features and focus on benefits. And that’s true–far too many companies think their tech specs, coaching process or whatnot is going to dazzle the masses into buying from them…while most buyers have no clue what those things mean and could care less.
But like the “small” hamburger that’s now dwarfed by all the super-sized-Whopper-Thickburgers in fast food land, we tend to take everything to excess. To the point that now I often see strident proclamations from pseudo-copywriters that you should NEVER talk about features in your copy.
Um, there’s one teensy problem with that…
Most people have this “odd quirk” about wanting to know what they’re actually, physically getting for their money.
I was considering a product recently from a well-known marketer and while there were tons of benefits and teasers about what I’d learn, there was nothing about how it would be delivered. A manual? CDs? Smoke signals? I was mystified.
Don’t make me play Nancy Drew. Tell me EXACTLY what I’m going to receive–how many pages the manual is, how many CD’s there are, or how long the videos or teleclasses are.
It just takes a sentence or a quick set of bullets toward the end of your sales page to enlighten your prospects but it’s important because it makes what you’re asking them to shell out money for more tangible…creating that “thud factor” in their minds.
(“Thud factor” refers to the weight of a book or package when it’s dropped on a table. People usually feel they’re getting more for their money when they’re buying something with a big thud factor.)
For information products and courses, the sections and lessons you plan to cover are important features as well. Prospects want to see how much will be new to them and how well it’ll solve the problems they’re facing right now.
Just inserting your table of contents from a product or giving the titles of the classes in the teleseminar series is a good start. Of course, I’d recommend taking the opportunity to highlight several important things they’ll do or learn in each one as well…
In short, wow prospects with lots of bullets showing how they’ll benefit. But don’t forget to tell them what they’re actually getting as well.
Tracy Needham, founder of Compelling Communications, LLC, helps small business owners boost their business through compelling copy and marketing strategies that make the most of their time and money. Sign up for her FREE Special Report: The One Press Release You Can Write to Get Thousands of Dollars Worth of Free Publicity at http://www.compellingezine.com
Technorati Tags: copywriting, sales copywriting, sales letter
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Joseph White on Sun, 23rd May 2010 12:18 pm
Teleseminars are really very helpful and i always look for it on the internet.“`