If you sell products and services online and you're getting ready to maybe launch a promotion, what are you really selling? Are you really selling the product or service? Are you selling something else? That's what we're going to talk about today on the Resilient Faith Online podcast, Turning Features into Benefits. Welcome. I'm Arissa Shadrick, host of the Resilient Faith Online Show. I'm an online marketing coach and certified copywriter. In this podcast, you'll find a different perspective to the external and internal challenges we face as online content creators. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips as we create positive change online. To connect with me in my private Facebook group, go to MarissaShadrick.com forward slash community. Hello, hello. I'm so glad to be here today. We're going to be talking about copy and specifically how to turn our product and service features into a benefit. It's a common mistake, and I see it often that when people write the promotional material, they're just really nailing down on the features, features, features, features, and they're excited about their product or service. But sometimes, even if the prospect needs that particular tool, that particular service or product that you have, they may not buy. There's a disconnect. So this common mistake can cost you money and it's an easy fix. So I'm actually going to show you how you can change a feature into a benefit. And I've created a fictitious product to be able to demonstrate this to see if it'll help you. But let's talk first a little bit about turning features into a benefit. What is a benefit? Okay, so let's start there. What is a benefit? So let's just look at a Webster dictionary. What is a benefit? And by definition, it's something that produces good or helpful results or effects, or that promotes well-being. So now we're getting a little bit more personal, more human. It's about helpful results, it's about the effects, it's about well-being. So it's already implying that a benefit is more than just the thing itself. Think of a job. When you've looked for a job and you went on interviews, and maybe you had a couple of opportunities to maybe get two or three interviews and you were deciding which job you were going to take. Oftentimes we look at the benefits beyond the actual pay by hour, if it's salary, whatever it might be. We look to see if that company offers benefits. And so we think of that, we think, well, the benefits are important. And sometimes people will take less pay because the benefits are so great. Maybe they have health benefits. Maybe they have benefits where employees are able to work four days out of the week instead of five. Maybe they have a hybrid where some employees can work at home and they can work at the office. Maybe they have memberships, gym memberships for their employees so they can stay healthy. There's a lot of things that some companies offer these days. And when people are trying to make a decision who they're going to work for, they not only look at the pay rate, but they also look at benefits. So that kind of gets us in that direction of thinking about benefits. Because I'm sure you've all been there when you're looking at a job, you think beyond the salary, what are the benefits? As we think about that and we're positioning ourselves to be able to communicate a product or service, we want to make sure that when we start talking about the actual thing that we're going to sell, that we present it in a way that's going to seem appealing to them. So it's really important. We're really now talking about the psychological link between the desire that the prospect has and the product that you're offering. And that is the difference. The psychological link is so, so important. So we're getting back to that emotional connection, right? That we've talked about before. That's so important in copywriting. So when we think about this and we think about selling to someone a product or service, and we think about benefits, sometimes it gets a little cloudy. We think we're talking about a benefit, but we're not. So let's look at this fictitious company, clear and classy glasses. Now I just made this up. It is not real. I made up the features, I made up the benefits, and we're going to look at these features. We're going to think of the benefits of this product that's fictitious. So the clear and classy glassware that this company created are everyday glasses, but they're so beautiful that you can even use it during the holiday season or birthdays or so forth. And so their features are the first one is beautiful and elegant, the second one is unbreakable, the third one is dishwasher safe. The fourth one is variations of sizes, large, medium, and small. The last one, the fifth one, is lifetime guarantee. So that doesn't sound so bad, right? But it sounds like everything else, right? And we want to create that connection with people. So beautiful and elegant, that sort of sounds like a benefit, right? Maybe. Well, what if we changed it? And instead of just beautiful and elegant, we said something like, be the perfect host and set a beautiful table with these elegant, clear, and classy glasses. Now you're talking about the prospect being that perfect host who doesn't want to be a good host, right? Especially during the holiday season or if we're hosting maybe a birthday party or something. We want it to look nice. We want it to look perfect, right? And so now the benefit is more about image and appearance. It's not just about the glass, it's about the person. So now we're getting into the benefit about being that perfect host. Okay, let's look at another one. And I want you to be thinking about benefit as I call these out so that you can kind of start thinking in that direction and then apply it to your own product or service. So the second one is unbreakable. Well, that sounds pretty cool, right? Unbreakable. Well, what if we went a little deeper and we say something like, never worry about your child dropping a breakable glass and getting injured. Oh boy, now we're talking about safety. What mom wouldn't want safety for her children? So it's no longer just an unbreakable glass, plastic glass. It is now a safety issue where the mom is being responsible and she's buying something that's going to assure safety for her children. Totally different, right? Is it an untruth? Absolutely not. No, it's not an untruth. It's totally true. We're just pulling out the benefits, not just talking about the features. So let's look at the next one dishwasher safe. Um, how can we change dishwasher safe and make it more interesting? Well, I know for myself, we have some special glasses that we've bought at different places. Like they're either my daughter, she works for Vans and she has some uh collector's glasses from that company. Um, you might have collector's glasses from Disneyland or something. There are different companies that sell collectors. We have a few like collector type glasses, and we're afraid to put them in the dishwasher. So what happens? They stack up on the kitchen counter, and then I have to go and wash them all by hand to make sure that the decal, whatever's on it, won't get ruined. And so, you know, it's a lot of time to wash all those by hand, and then you gotta wait till they dry and then put them away and everything. So here when we say dishwasher safe, we can say to them the benefit we can switch and say, no hand washing. Think of the time you'll save throwing these elegant glasses in the dishwasher that never have spots. They remain beautiful and ready to use. So now you're talking about saving time. What woman or man wouldn't want to save time and just throw them in the dishwasher, not have to have them stuck up on the counter, right? We just change that feature into a benefit. The next one is that they can buy large, medium, or small sizes. They have different sizes, so they don't have to buy those sets of glasses. Have you ever bought those sets of glasses that you have all these different sizes and you don't you end up with too many big glasses and not enough juice glasses, and everybody uses a medium one, nobody uses the big tall ones, and you just got a mishmash of stuff, and then they just end up cluttering your cabinet because nobody uses all the glasses, right? So now, because they offer these different sizes that you can order how many uh you want, you can order as many of medium size or small sizes, you can change that to a benefit and say, save money and be a savvy shopper by customizing your order. So now it's about being smart and savvy and saving money, right? You're talking about how intelligent your buyer is. It's not just about being able to order to various sizes. So you see how we're changing the feature into a benefit. We're not exaggerating, we're just presenting it to the prospect's point of view, how it's gonna benefit, improve their well-being, right? Like we said earlier, how it's gonna be helpful, how it's gonna affect them. So that's what's important to them, and that's what's gonna help them click and buy. The last one was lifetime guarantee. Well, everybody likes a guarantee, right? I remember Tupperware days, you'd buy Tupperware and they'd promise to, you know, replace a lid or whatever, and you had this like lifetime guarantee. They probably still do, but then you you end up losing the Tupperware before you need to replace it, right? So with lifetime um guarantee, it's just a matter of giving that person confidence with the buy, right? So you can easily just say, buy risk-free, you know, um, leave all the risk to us if for whatever reason you're not happy with this product, you can return it at any time, no questions asked, and we will refund your money 100%. It gives that prospect complete control. They feel in control and they feel like there is no risk because whatever they spend on it, they know if they're not happy, they'll be able to return it. So I just took that silly fictitious company, Clear and Classy Glassware, to try to show you how to change a feature into a benefit. Just keep thinking, just by definition of benefit, what is going to be the helpful result, the effect? How is it gonna improve their well-being? And you're gonna be able to pull those benefits out of those features of the product or service that you offer. When you think about it, you know, it's silly to even connect it to scripture, but I tell you, uh, when I look at scripture, it is full of benefit. I can think of so many scriptures where it is all about benefit for us. Christ doesn't really ask us for a whole lot other than to come to him and follow him and accept him, but everything else is benefit for us. I think of some scriptures like in Matthew 11, 28, it says, Come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. That is a benefit, my friend. Who doesn't want rest? And I think of another one in Isaiah 40:31 that is so poetic. I love this one. It sounds so good. It says, But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength, they will soar high on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. Can you hear the emotional connection of that? That is a benefit, and that is a promise. That is a promise. So just know that when you're preparing to write promotional material for your products and services, you are ultimately helping someone achieve something, feel better, accomplish, maybe gain something. You are helping someone. This is totally human to human, right? And so your products and services are going to help change someone's attitude or circumstance because it's going to alleviate the struggle or the pain that they have. So when we think of it that way, we can really start pulling the benefits out of the features and it's going to make your copy look so much stronger. And all you're really doing is letting people know how it's going to help them. That's it. So it's pretty simple. Once you get the hang of it and you start pulling those benefits, it's going to come more naturally to you. At first, it seems so foreign and so hard to do that. We're not embellishing, we're not exaggerating, we're just really going deep into how it's going to affect this person and how it's going to change their circumstance. So I hope that helped today. I know that I have lots of content going on in the private Facebook group. I would love it if you would join it. I'm sharing content there that I'm not going to share necessarily in other places. Like this coming week, when you hear this particular podcast, the following Wednesday, I'm going to be doing a live stream, five ways to promote your products without social media. And those I actually appear live and I can take questions. And if you want to, you can go ahead and join my private community and join me there. And you can watch the replay there if you want. If you can't join live, I'd love to have you. So until next time, take care and I'll talk to you soon. Wait, before you go, if you found this podcast helpful, subscribe so you never miss an episode. Every subscription, review, or rating means so much to me. Remember, cultivate resilient faith online to create positive change in the world.