Before we begin, go to your website. Go ahead, pull it up right now. Try to look at it with the eyes of the newcomer. Remember, they don’t care if you can build stunning websites online; they want to know the benefits of your product.
As you look at your site, imagine you are visiting it for the first time. If you are like most visitors, you have only one question – what’s in it for me? That’s what your visitors want to know. Let’s take my new home study course as an example. I could go on about the three CD-ROMs, the great manual for getting started quickly, all of the tutorials, including six hours of video and eight hours of audio training, and on and on through the whole list of features.
Big deal. Chances are, you don’t care. And why should you? As a busy consumer, you want to know, “What can this course do for me? How will it improve my life?”
To sell effectively, you must highlight not only the features of your product but also the benefits that customers will enjoy. For more guidance on growing your business, visit All Business Ideas, where entrepreneurs can explore strategies to improve sales.
By asking those questions, consumers are looking for benefits, not features. What happens if I try a different approach?
I can teach you how to:
Find profitable niches
Create a moneymaking website.
Get your website on the Internet.
Choose the right kind of website for your product.
Register a domain name and find a web host;
Find new customers every day.
How to set up a shopping cart
Make Money recommending other products;
Develop a professional look and feel for your website.
That sounds more appealing, doesn’t it? Even then, though, I’m missing the main point of my sales letter. I’m offering good information to my clients, but I’m not telling them how this course will help them.
Who is your customer? What do they want? Ask yourself a few questions about them:
How will my audio and video tutorials on building websites help them reach their goals?
How will these tutorials on websites help your customer to spend more time with his or her family?
How will taking notes, following along in a transcript, help them gain the freedom they so desperately desire?
You might have come up with these answers about your own customers. Having the freedom from nagging financial worries. The freedom from that 9-5 job they don’t like. Freedom to pursue things that truly interest them and the things they have a passion for. The freedom to teach their children entrepreneurial skills so that their children won’t have to work at a job that they dislike, working with people that do not have the same priorities, making just enough to get by, and taking vacations when they are given permission. And lastly,y you can make $200s in an internet business.
So, what is the point of all this?
While you may list features on your webpage, it’s important to understand that your customers aren’t buying features. They buy benefits. If you’re selling a wedding e-book, you may list certain features on your website – you may mention that the book is 67 pages long, featuring interviews with pastors, florists, caterers, wedding coordinators, and more. You may even talk about the great money-back guarantee you offer. But that won’t sell your e-book to customers. They want to know the benefits – a beautiful wedding that doesn’t cost a fortune, reflects their personality, and makes them the talk of the town. Do you see the difference?
Think of a commercial for a sports car. Do they ever talk about gear ratio, horsepower, bucket seats, CD players, undercoating, all that stuff? No, those are features. Car commercials sell benefits. You usually see a middle-aged-looking, very successful, even smug, and he’s burning down the highway. Of course, the highway’s always winding along a mountain road down the coast.
Now, really, are they selling the car or the image? Bingo! It’s the image. The only thing missing from the commercial is the image of that same man being admired openly at his high school reunion, chased by beautiful women, and envied by all the men.
Admittedly, car commercials are an extreme example. Your advertising doesn’t have to go that far. However, those commercials do make the point. Your customers need to find the answer to the question, “What’s in it for me? How will this course benefit me? What will I get out of it, and how does that make my life better?”
Anyone can be taught to create a website. It’s no big deal. The real trick is in showing your clients how your product or service will make their lives betterToto sell my course, I have to show you the benefits – how you can make 2000 dollars in an Internet business to get out from under that mortgage; how to create a steady income that lets you leave your day job; how you can earn money and still spend time with your family; and how you can teach your children entrepreneurial skills for a lifetime. These benefits tell customers exactly what they can expect from my online training course.
