So we’re going to talk about FAB here, not the Federation of awarding bodies, or anything to do with Thunderbirds. We’re going to talk about the features and benefits of your products and services.

And why is this important? Because you may just be selling the wrong thing, you may have the wrong marketing messages, you may be irrelevant to your ideal clients and you may be boring the pants off of everyone! And we definitely don’t want that!

Have a think about your past marketing campaigns, any posts you’ve done on your products, and emails you’ve sent out. Have you been letting your customer know what your product does and opposed to how to will their lives? (no jokes here!).

What are features of your product?

The features of your products are the elements that you’ve created to make your product or service absolutely fantastic.

So it might be:

·        2x4 hour one on one sessions

·        Double stitched zipper

·        Cognitive therapy

·        Organic cotton

·        High Definition lashes

·        1-hour creative art class

·        Yoga stretching exercises

·        3-blade razor

These features are needed somewhere in our marketing copy, but they aren’t what make people buy products and services?

What makes customers buy products and services?

The benefits!

And these are the benefits of the product to your ideal customer. What is the value of the product to them? What is the experience like?  What’s in it for them?

The benefits are what’s happening when they’ve bought your products. The results it brings them. The nirvana they experience when they are using your products and services.

Why do people buy Louboutin shoes? They are just shoes, they go from AtoB. But people pay around £700 for a pair.

Listen to this description of shoes on Louboutin’s website of a tassel loafer ‘recall the comfort of slippers worn at home’ or a ‘heel evokes the opulence of an Italian palazzo’ – are you a little more enticed to spend £700 on shoes?

Compare this to a £6.25 pair of shoes ‘synthetic upper, man-made sole, imported’

Which description makes you want to buy? The Louboutin review also told us about the leather or the UPVC used in his shoes, but in an exotic sexy tone.

Do you want your business to be Italian palazzo or synthetic upper?

‘If you just sell the feature , you’re making the customer do all the work to figure out why they want the feature’ https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/34942

So let's look at some of the examples above and turn those features into benefits:

·        2x4 hour 121 sessions could be – get private coaching to bring you clarity in your business

·        Cognitive therapy – discover how to relax in any situation

·        Organic cotton – feel glorious in the clothes you wear

·        Yoga stretching exercises – feel brighter and more youthful

·        3 blade razor – kissable skin!

What are the benefits of your products?

You’ll have to know your ideal customer, to understand what is important to them. Maybe organic cotton isn’t feel glorious, maybe it’s looking after the planet.

What demographic is your ideal customer, what’s their age, their viewpoint, their political leanings? All this information can help you to pinpoint the benefits for them.

What is it that they need? When you know the pain your customer is in, why they are looking for you, and what success looks like to them, you can focus on the benefits and less of the features.

What results do your customers want? What are they looking for in a product like yours?

Being able to answer these vital questions will help you to craft your marketing messages to really speak to your customers and get them to understand how your products and services can help them get where they need to go.

Interested in learning more about creating amazing marketing that gets your products flying off the shelves in a community with fabulous women in business? The doors to the Indie Freedom Seekers will be back open in August - make sure you're signed up to my newsletter to be the first through the doors!