Writing Benefit-Driven Web Copy 4 Steps to More Sales by Glenn Murray

Writing Benefit-Driven Web Copy 4 Steps to More Sales by Glenn Murray

You've identified the benefits you offer your customers, but how do you turn a list of benefits into engaging web copy which converts visitors into customers?

Recently I wrote an article explaining how to identify the benefits you offer your customers (http://www.divinewrite.com/benefits.htm). That article challenged business owners and marketing managers to think in terms of benefits rather than features when writing their web copy.

What the article didnt discuss was how to actually write the web copy once they had identified their benefits. Thats what this article is about. (It even gives you a couple of templates you can use to make your job a whole lot easier!)

As a website copywriter, many of the projects I undertake are completely new websites. The client has some general ideas about what theyd like to convey, but they need someone who can fine-tune their message, and create web copy (and a web structure) which engages their readers. As a result, over the years Ive developed a process for doing this effectively. There are four main steps:

1) Identify benefits

2) Identify how you deliver these benefits

3) Prioritise your benefits

4) Write the content

Although this article touches on step 1, its mostly about steps 2, 3, and 4.

STEP 1IDENTIFY YOUR BENEFITS

Branding aside, most websites are about selling. Customers dont want to know what you can do; they want to know what you can do for THEM. That means the first question you should ask is, What benefits do I offer my customers? This is usually the first step toward identifying the key message to be conveyed.

Thats not to say that your website shouldnt describe your products and services. You just need to make sure it describes them in terms of benefits to your customer.

But benefits identification is outside the scope of this article. If youd like to find out more about how to engage your customer with benefits, go to http://www.divinewrite.com/benefits.htm.

STEP 2IDENTIFY HOW YOU DELIVER THESE BENEFITS

Of course, you cant just claim to deliver benefits and stop at that. You need to support that claim. On your website, youre going to need to convince your audience that you actually do deliver these benefits. Anyone can say they deliver benefits, but few can say it persuasively.

From step 1 youll have a list of benefits. Now you need to think about how you deliver each benefit in that list. This is where you start talking about featuresprice, product highlights, distribution channel, competitor weaknesses, external factors, USPs, etc. Its helpful if you draw up a table with one column for benefits and one for the features which deliver those benefits. (Click http://www.divinewrite.com/downloads/benefitsfeatures.doc to download an example Benefits-Features table20KB.)

Youll probably find this process much easier than identifying benefits. In fact, youve probably got most of this information written down already somewhere. If not, chances are you uncovered a good portion of it when you were brainstorming for benefits.

TIP: If youre having trouble identifying supporting features, before filling out the table, try listing everything you can think of which relates to what you do and how you do it. Dont worry about the order. Just braindump onto a piece of paper, a whiteboard, a Word document, anywhere Dont leave anything out, even if it seems unimportant. (Youd be surprised how important even the most insignificant details can become once you start assigning them to benefits.) If you start getting lost, think back to the question youre trying to answer: How do you deliver your list of benefits to your customer? Once youve done your braindump, read through it and decide which specific benefit each feature delivers.

STEP 3PRIORITISE YOUR BENEFITS

Now that youve identified all the things you COULD say, its time to figure out what you SHOULD say and where you should say it. This is where your benefits-features table comes into play. Read through your list of benefits and prioritise them according to how compelling they will be to your reader.

The reason for this? Priority determines prominence. The most compelling benefits will need to be prominent on your site.

TIP: Be aware that your list may include some benefits which everyone in your business category could claim. In other words, theyre not just specific to your company, but apply to the type of service you offer. For example, if you sell a Content Management System (CMS) for website creation, you may list Greater control for marketing managers and Less expense updating content as benefits. Every CMS vendor could claim these benefits, so youll need to question their importance. Will they differentiate you from your competitors. Generic benefits can be useful if none of your competitors are using them, or if you feel you need to educate your market a bit before launching into company-specific benefits.

STEP 4WRITE YOUR CONTENT

So now you know what youd like to say, its time to decide how to say it. This is about three things:

i) SubjectWhat is the subject of your site; features or benefits?

ii) StructureHow do you structure your site such that your customers will read your most compelling benefits?

iii) WordsWhat words should you use to best engage your audience (and the search engines)?

The remainder of this article is dedicated to Subject and Structure. For further discussion of Words, see http://www.divinewrite.com/webwriting.htm and http://www.divinewrite.com/seocopy.htm).

Subject

What is the subject of your site; features or benefits? The answer to this question lies in audience identification. If your audience knows a bit about the type of product or service youre selling, lead with features (e.g. processor speed, turnaround time, uptime, expertise, educational qualifications, wide product range, etc.). But make sure you talk about their benefits, and make sure the features offering the most important benefits are the most prominent.

Heres a simplified example

Cool Widgets offers:

-- Standard Operating EnvironmentSignificantly reducing the complexity of your IT infrastructure

-- System upgrades which are less expensive to licenseProviding excellent TCO reductions

In cases where youre selling to an audience who knows very little about your product or service, lead with benefits (e.g. if youre selling something technical to a non-technical audience).

Heres the same simplified example, reversed for a novice audience

Cool Widgets offers:

-- Reduced complexity of IT infrastructureWe can implement a Standard Operating Environment for your organisation

-- Reduced TCOWe can upgrade your IT to systems which are less expensive to license

Structure

How do you structure your site such that your customers will be sure to read your most compelling benefits? The answer is, keep it short n sweet. And make it scannable. This doesnt mean you have to cut features or benefits. You just have to structure your site to accommodate your message.

While every site is different, as a rule of thumb its a good idea to introduce your main features and benefits on your home page. Summarise thempreferably using bullet points, but at the very least, clearly highlight them so that your audience can scan-read (e.g. bold, underline, colour, link).

Then link from each summarised feature or benefit to a detailed description. Try to keep each page to approximately 200-400 words. You may need several pages to detail all your features and benefits. (Click http://www.divinewrite.com/downloads/pagestructure.doc to download a page structure template29KB.)

TIP: In cases where you need to introduce features and benefits which are generic to your field (rather than specific to your offering), your home page is generally the best place to do it. From there, you can lead to a second page summarising the specific features and benefits of your offering.

Conclusion

Web copy is about far more than just clever words. Its essential that you identify the benefits you offer your customer, and that you can convince your customer you actually deliver those benefits.

I hope that the guidance and tools provided in this article will help you on your way to engaging web copy which converts to sales.

Happy writing!

About the Author
* Glenn Murray is an advertising copywriter and heads copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.