Thursday, December 27, 2007

List Features, But Sell Benefits!

List Features, But Sell Benefits!

I want you to pull up your web site and read through it with new eyes. Your job in an online business is not to build stunning websites online.

Strangers have only one question about your website -- "What's in it for me?" If your website does not explain the benefits of your product or service, your customers will move on without a second glance. Let's use an example from real life - a home study course. I could go on for hours about all the features of my new home study course, including the audio and video tutorials, the CD-ROMs, the manual and transcript, and more.


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?"

Then I could say it will teach you how to:

- Discover the most profitable niches for your business;

- How to create a profitable website

- Upload information to your websit! e, and get it on the Internet;

- Choose the right website;

- Register a domain name and find a web host;

- How to get new visitors every day!

- Create a shopping cart to make buying easier;

- Recommend other products, and make large commissions doing it;

- Develop a professional look and feel for your website.

Doesn't that sound better? Well, yes, but I'm still missing the point. I'm giving my clients good information, but I'm not truly giving them benefits. I need to put myself in their shoes.

Who is your customer? What do they want? Ask yourself a few questions about them:

-How will watching video tutorials about building web sites help them spend more time with their families?

- How will audio tapes on Internet marketing techniques help them escape from overwhelming debt?

- How will reading manuals and taking notes give them the freedom they desire?

If you take time to know your customers! , you learn what drives them. For example, customers intereste! d in my home study program want to be self-employed. They want to be free from debt, with enough cash to follow their passions. They want a better life for their children, teaching entrepreneurial skills for life long independence. You probably share some of these dreams.

So, what is the point of all this?

Many businesses list features on their webpage; that's fine, but you must understand your customers are not buying those features. They want to know the benefits, the ways that a product will help them. They are attracted to my home study course because they want financial independence. Listing the benefits will attract your customers' attention; they will read the list of features only after they understand the benefits.

Think of a commercial for a sports car. Do they ever talk about gear ratio, horse power, bucket seats, CD players, under coating or all that stuff? No, those are features. Car commercials sell benefits. You usually see a middle-age man lookin! g 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.

They are not selling the car. They are selling how you will feel in the car. They are selling how you will look in the car. The only thing missing in those commercials is the man driving up to his high school reunion and getting gawked at by all the beautiful women that wouldn't go out with him 20 years ago!

I'm not saying you have to go that far. But I am saying that your website better answer the question, "What's in it for me? How will this e-book benefit me? How will this course benefit me? How will this video benefit me?"

I can show you how to make a web site, but so what? I have to show you how that course will benefit you. How it will create passive income so you get out from under that mortgage. How it will create a stream of income that may replace your day job over timet o that you can have more choice ! in when you spend time with your family. Or how it will teach ! your chi ldren a skill that will allow them to pursue their passions in life, combining work and passion.

That's more like it!

By: Steve Beck

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Stephen Beck teaches businesses how to www.buildingsitesthatsell.com/ "> build sites that sell . For a free CD discussing the steps for a profitable online business, visit Start Home Business right now.

By: Steve Beck

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

!

Stephen Beck teaches businesses how to www.buildingsitesthatsell.com/ "> build sites that sell . For a free CD discussing the steps for a profitable online business, visit Start Home Business right now.


Source: http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/List-Features--But-Sell-Benefits-/387565
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