Emphasize Benefits, Not Features!

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What are features? They are descriptions of what qualities a product possesses.

• The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city.
• Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel alloy.
• Our glue is protected by a patent.
• This database has a built-in data-mining system.

And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your prospects.

• You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they don’t have!
• Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!
• Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!
• You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in data-mining system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son used it successfully right out of the box.

I just made up those examples, but I think you understand my point.

By the way, did you notice in the list of features where I wrote “steel alloy?” But in the benefits I wrote “steel-alloy” (with a hyphen). Not sure off-hand which one is correct, but I know which one I’d use.

Here’s why: you are not writing to impress your English teacher or win any awards. The only award you’re after is your copy beating the control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You want it to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!

But—back to benefits…

If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader that the face is 2 inches in diameter and the band is made of leather.

You show him how the extra-large face will tell him the time at a glance. No sir! He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone around him trying to read this magnificent timepiece.

And how about the way he’ll project success and charisma when he wears the beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band?

How his lover will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out, wearing the watch. Or how the watch’s status and beauty will attract the ladies.

Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a benefit?

Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you are selling to affluent baby boomers suffering from degrading vision.

They probably hate it when someone they’re trying to impress sees them squint in order to read something. It’s all part of their inner desire, which you need to discover.

And which even they may not know about. That is, until you show them a better way.

The point is to address the benefits of the product, not its features. And when you do that, you’re focusing on your reader and his interests, his desires. The trick is to highlight those specific benefits (and word them correctly) that push your reader’s emotional hot buttons.

How do you do that? Stay tuned by subscribing to this blog!

If I join your list what’s in it for me?

Focus on them, not you…

When a prospect reads your ListHero newsletter advertisement the one thing she will be wondering from the start is: “what’s in it for me?”

And if your copy (advertisement text) doesn’t tell him, it’ll be pushed to one side faster than he can read the headline or subscribe to your list.

A lot of advertisers (and other ListHero members make this mistake). They focus on themselves as a company (or business opportunity). How long they’ve been in business, who their biggest customers are, how they’ve spent ten years of research and millions of dollars on developing this product, blah, blah.

Actually, those points are important. But they should be expressed in a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once he’s thrown it in the garbage, the sale is lost!

When writing your copy, it helps to think of it as writing a letter to an old friend. In fact, I often picture a friend of mine who most closely fits my prospect’s profile.

What would I say to convince this friend to try my product? How would I target my friend’s objections and beliefs to help my cause?

When you’re writing to a friend, you’ll use the pronouns “I” and “you.” When trying to convince your friend, you might say: “Look, I know you think you’ve tried every widget out there. But you should know that…”

And it goes beyond just writing in the second person. That is, addressing your prospect as “you” within the copy.

The fact of the matter is there are many successful ads that weren’t written in the second person. Some are written in the first person perspective, where the writer uses “I.”

Other times the third person is used, with “she,” ‘he,” and ‘them.”

And even if you do write in the second person, it doesn’t necessarily mean your copy is about them.

For example:

“As a real estate agent, you can take comfort in the fact that I’ve sold over 10,000 homes and mastered the tricks of the trade”

Although you’re writing in the second person, you’re really still focusing on yourself.

Login to your ListHero account now and take a look at your newsletter advertisement on step 5 and take a look at how you’ve written it. Who does it focus on?

So how can you focus on them?

In the next post I’ll reveal the answer… so subscribe to this blog and stay tuned!

Don’t forget to post a comment below, let me know how you’re getting on, ask me any questions or just simply say “hello!”. Be sure to include the url to your website when you do which will get you more traffic and a boost in the search engines. 

How to build your list with better ListHero ads

Listen to this… it’s critical to your success with ListHero…

To succeed with ListHero you need to have a great advertisement for your newsletter otherwise no-one will join your list. What ListHero does is it gets an ad for your newsletter seen on many, many other websites who also have the ListHero “squeeze box” installed, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll get subscribers and will take some work on your part (there’s no such thing as a free lunch!).

To help you write better ads for your newsletter here’s the first of a few great ad writing training articles (learn how to write great ads and your online success is much more certain, so pay close attention, take notes ad apply all you learn.

What is advertising?

Is it something to be regarded as a work of beauty or art? Is it clever slogans or amusing prose? Is it workmanship to be judged for an award or recognition?

It’s none of the above.

Advertising is salesmanship multiplied.

Nothing more.

And advertising copy, or copywriting, is salesmanship in print.

The purpose of a copywriter’s job is to sell. Period.

The selling is accomplished by persuasion with the written word, much like a television commercial sells (if done properly) by persuading with visuals and audio.

As Claude Hopkins wrote in his timeless classic, Scientific Advertising:

“To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments one must start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman’s standards.

“Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.

“It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.

“The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman.

“A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.”

These points are as true today as they were when they were written nearly one hundred years ago!

So the goal then becomes: how can we make our advertising as effective as possible.

The answer is to test. Test again. And then test some more.

If ad “A” receives a two percent response rate, and ad “B” receives three percent, then we can deduce that ad “B” will continue to outperform ad “A” on a larger scale.

Testing takes time, however, and can be expensive if not kept in check. Therefore, it’s ideal to start with some proven tested known ideas and work from there.

For example, if testing has shown for decades or more that targeted advertising significantly outperforms untargeted advertising (and it does), then we can start with that assumption and go from there.

If we know based on test results that crafting an ad that speaks directly to an individual performs better than addressing the masses (again, it does), then it makes little sense to start testing with the assumption that it does not. This is common sense.

So it stands to reason that knowing some basic rules or techniques about writing effective copy is in order. Test results will always trump everything, but it’s better to have a starting point before you test.

So this starting point is the essence of this series of training articles…

The ten tips expressed here have been generally time-tested and known to be effective.

But I can’t emphasize enough that when using these techniques, you should always test them before rolling out a large (and expensive) campaign.

Sometimes a little tweak here or there is all that is needed to increase response rates dramatically.

Subscribe to this blog now and you’ll be the first to know when the next ad writing training article will be ready (just enter your email address in box in the top right hand corner of the page)…

Low-cost rapid online advertising methods that work! (part 4)

Press Releases

Submitting press releases (PR) about your new website or product is an excellent method of paid for advertising that can be very effective and a potentially great way to build your list too.

It’s important to remember that a press release MUST be written in the correct form. If you’re NOT familiar with this form, you might do well to have someone who knows the correct form to write your press release for you. There are companies that perform this service for a very reasonable fee which is well worth the expense because of the potential rewards.

In all these blog posts about advertising there’s one thing I’ve not said and that is advertising should be looked at as an investment and NOT and expense. Even if you make a mistake you still get to learn from it so each time you advertise you get better and better at it. Paying an expert to do this just gets you into profit quicker.

In the past I’ve used this PR service with good success…

http://www.prwebdirect.com/

Here’ there main page where you can read other people’s press releases to get ideas for your own… http://PRweb.com

You are usually asked to supply the information and the details and then a ghost writer will compose your press release and put it into the correct form. You can find these companies by using your favorite search engine and typing in the words, ‘press release writing’.

Many of the companies that can supply press writing services also distribute press releases.

You can also find a lot of information about how to write your own press release on the internet and there is even press release writing software available but even if you do write your own press release, you will most likely need to hire a company to distribute your press release for you and sometimes it is almost the same cost to have the press release written and distributed as just getting one written.

You can save a few bucks by writing your own press releases, but you will get better results if take this great course (as I recently did)…

Click here for a Dummy-Proof System To Reel in Immediate and Long-Term, Highly-Qualified, Super-Targeted Traffic by THE THOUSANDS

Press release distribution companies can get your press release published both online as well in hard copy newspapers and magazines that are relative to your business and to the products and services for which the press release is related to.

The press releases are also put onto RSS feeds that are related to your subject matter as well, which provides instant advertising for you as they feature on other people’s websites.

In my opinion web PR is a vastly underutilized method of growing your business.

Here’s a link to another of my blogs where you can find out what happened when I issued an online press release using PRweb.com!
http://pixelstoprofits.com/blog

Low-cost rapid online advertising methods that work! (part 3)

Banner and Website Advertising

Banner and website advertising sometimes gets a bum rap. There are those who tell you that it is a totally ineffective method of paid-for advertising but these folks are wrong. They probably just didn’t know how to use banner and website advertising effectively.

There is always a right way a wrong way and a better way of doing almost any kind of advertising whether it is free advertising or paid-for advertising and banner and website advertising is not the exception to that rule.

First let me explain that there are two basic ways in which banner and website advertising is charged for. There are PPI (Pay Per Impression) and PPC (Pay Per Click).

PPI means that you are charged each time your banner is displayed. That is anything that a web surfer visits the website where your banner is being displayed he will see you advertisement and whether he clicks on your advertisement or nor, you are charged.

PPC means that you are charged each time your banner is clicked on. That is when a web surfer visits the site on which your banner is displayed, sees the banner, clicks on it and is taken to your website there is a charge.

Now…the trick to making banner and website advertising effective is first to choose the websites where your banner will be displayed carefully. The websites that you choose must be DIRECTLY related to your products and services.

The copy that is on the home page of the website that you choose to display your banner advertising must be relevant to your products or services as well.

Unless there is an obvious connection, your banner ad will not be effective and you will simply be wasting money….maybe a lot of money. So the secret to effective banner advertising is all in the choices of websites that you make.

Low-cost rapid online advertising methods that work! (part 2)

E-zine Advertising

Paying for advertisements in E-zines is maybe one of the most cost effective methods of paid advertising that is available on the internet today.

There are a great many free methods of advertising available to webmasters but the best kind of advertising (paid for OR free) is the kind that is delivered to an audience that is interested in what you are selling. A TARGETED audience will always produce the best advertising-dollar to sales ratio.

You can find a list of E-zines that are published by searching for them on the internet. No matter what the topic of your website is or the kind of products or services that you sell, you can rest assured that there are many, many E-zines being published everyday that are related in some way.

People subscribe to E-zines because they are looking for information related to a specific subject that they want to stay abreast of. That is the basic idea of all E-zines. They are not general publications like your daily newspaper or like many hard copy magazines.

They are subject-specific and the people who subscribe to them are focused on that one narrow subject so the mailing-list of the people who will receive your paid-for advertisement that you place in an E-zine that is related to your product or service is a mailing-list of your very best prospective customers. Now THAT is targeted advertising!

Advertising in E-zines that are being sent out to a list of your best prospective customers is very low. You can spend fewer dollars on this kind of target advertising and get better results than with just about any other kind of advertising.

The average cost of placing an advertisement in an E-zine will be between twenty and thirty dollars ($20-$30) per mailing and your results might just be spectacular.

It’s well worth making note on this one because E-zine advertising can be a great way to help you build your list. It does rely on you writing a great classified ad to get people to join your list. In future posts I’ll be showing you how to do this, so stay tuned!

Get started today by building a list of ezines you can advertise in (don’t forget they must relate to the subject of your own newsletter that you’re publishing, your list is just a list of those subscribers who subscribed to your newletter).

Here’s where you’ll find a list of ezines covering just about any subject you can imagine…

http://directoryofezines.com

Or just search Google for this term: “newsletter + your niche keyword” (include the quote marks either side and be sure to add the keyword for your chosen niche in your search term. Then contact each publisher to find out what their list size is and what their advertising rates are. Why not create a spreadsheet containing a list of these ezines and their advertising costs (rates). This gives you a great resource to go back to when you need a new place to advertise.

Low-cost rapid online advertising methods that work! (part 1)

Pay-Per-Click Programs

“It pays to advertise” is only half the story. The rest of the story is that you have to “pay to advertise”. I had a very wise friend once who told me that you always must ‘pay something for something’. He was right. Free advertising methods all cost time and the paid advertising methods all cost money. The idea is to get the most bangs for the buck, so to speak.

Your advertising budget is no doubt limited as most advertising budgets are. So you want each advertising dollar to produce as many conversions as possible.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) has proven itself to be an extremely effective paid for method of advertising. It’s been around a long time now and it shows no signs of lessening…as a matter of fact, it grows stronger by the day.

The two best known pay-per-click programs are Google Adwords and Yahoo Search and Google Adwords is the one that seems to be gaining the most market share at the moment.

The trick to using pay-per-click advertising effectively is your key-word strategy in Adword campaigns and just how well you can analyze the results as the campaign progresses.

All pay-per-click advertising campaigns need to be set up so that the keywords that aren’t working can be filtered out and the ones that are really effective and are producing sales can be enhanced or improved upon.

One of the better things about pay-per-click advertising campaigns is that you are given the opportunity to set your own advertising budget so you do have control over how much money you will spend.

This is an extremely important feature for those who have limited advertising budgets and want to get the most they can out of a pay-per-click campaign and spend as few dollars as possible to do it.

You asked for it! You’ve got it!… more ListHero promo tools

Before I hand over the keys to some great ListHero promo toos I need to ask you… have you joined ListHero yet?

If you’re serious about list building ListHero is a “must have” tool that helps you build your list (and profit as you do). Just go here to sign up: http://ListHero.com (it’s 100% free to use).

Several people have asked me: “what other ListHero promo tools do you have I can plug-in to my marketing?”

Great question!

Below I’ve got 4 emails and 3 sig files you just copy and paste direct from the page, change the dynamic tags (the funny code text) to match your autoresponder system, add your affiliate links, copy to your autoresponder or email program and you’re in business.

Email 1:

subject: a listbuilding riddle: rhymes with “sea”

{!firstname},

see if you can finish these sentences…

(hint: the answers all rhyme with “sea”)

1. It builds your squeeze page for ______.

2. It gives you thousands of highly
targeted subscribers for ______.

3. It sends you cashable checks
as it builds your list for ______.

What is it?

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

–{your_name}

P.S.
Watch out for the “Secret Upgrade”–if you see it,
you’ll only get one chance to take advantage of it–
and it’ll increase your listbuilding power tenfold.
definitely well worth it!…

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

Email 2:

subject: why I’ve got a bigger list than you

{!firstname}, Don’t cry, but…

There is one reason and one reason only
why my list is bigger than yours…

it’s called ListHero, and if you want to get your
list building in next to no time, you’ve got to see this…

it has got to be the fastest, easiest, way to build
your list that exists in the online universe…

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

It took me just 5 minutes and 45 seconds to get
it up and running for me…(see if you can beat that!)

and my list is literally building itself on autopilot
as we speak..

Jealous–? Don’t be–get one for yourself

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

whoever thought of this is a genius!…

{your_name}
{your_email_address}

P.S.
watch out for the “Secret Upgrade”–if you get the chance,
definitely take advantage of it. It’ll instantly make your version
of ListHero MUCH better than everyone else’s…

Email 3:

subject: the fish thing

{!firstname},

you know the saying about
the fish thing?

You know…

“Give a man a fish, and he’ll
eat for a ____________,
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll
eat for a ____________?”

well, have you seen this
new listbuilding tool called
List Hero?

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

(It’s been all over the net lately
and I just got it for myself)

they have a really cool twist
on that saying–

it goes:

“Build a man a list, and he’ll
eat for a day…

Build a man a freakin’ HUGE
list, and he’ll eat for a lifetime!”

go see what I’m talking about–
it’s actually exactly what it says
it is, and it really works!

==> {aff_link}

(it’s all about the viral factor)

I’m totally psyched about it,
myself…it works like a charm

–{your_name}

==> hthttp://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

P.S.

watch out for the “Secret Upgrade”
–if you get the chance, definitely
take advantage of it. It’ll make your
version of List Hero MUCH better
than everyone else’s…

==> {aff_link}

Email 4:

subject: Jealous–?

{!firstname},

you’ve got to see this…

it has got to be the
fastest, easiest, way to
build your list that exists
in the universe…

==> {aff_link}

It took me just 5 minutes
and 45 seconds to get it
up and running for me…

(see if you can beat that!)

and my list is literally
building itself on autopilot
AS WE SPEAK…

Jealous–?

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

whoever thought of this
is a genius…

–{your_name}

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

P.S.
watch out for the “Secret Upgrade”
–if you get the chance, definitely
take advantage of it. It’ll make your
version of List Hero MUCH better
than everyone else’s…

Here are 3 signature files you can use, just add them to every “personal” email message you send out. You could even add them to the end of your autoresponder email messages when you’re not directly promoting ListHero!

To find out how to set up signature files click here then read the blog post and watch the video I created that shows you everything you need to know.

Just copy and pastes any of these 3 signatures below..

Email signature 1:

–{your_name},

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

P.S.
watch out for the “Secret Upgrade”
–if you get the chance, definitely
take advantage of it. It’ll make your
version of List Hero MUCH better
than everyone else’s…

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

Email signature 2:

–{your_name},

==> {aff_link}

P.S.

Watch out for the “Secret Upgrade”
–if you see it, you’ll only get one
chance to take advantage of it…
and it’s definitely well worth it

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

Email signature 3:

–{your_name},

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

P.S.

As you’re signing up, you
may get a glimpse of the
“Secret Upgrade”…
If you do, you should grab
it–you won’t get another
chance for the price…

==> http://www.listhero.com/{your_affiliate_id}

Don’t forget to change where it says {your_affiliate_id} for your ListHero affiliate ID number and change {your_name} for your name.

So there you go, a couple of extra email promo tools to get you moving and your list growing.

This list building blog is for you so feel free to leave a reply or two, let me know how you’re getting on or ask me some questions, I’m here to help. Speak to you soon?

What’s the quickest way to build your list and profit from ListHero?…

This is a great question! and the answer I have can be applied by anyone, in fact this one idea works even if you don’t have a list, don’t have a newsletter, don’t have an autoresponder and don’t have a website!

So what do you need?

All you need is the ability to send and receive email, no I’m talking about sending out messages to everyone in your address book or anything even close. What I’m about to reveal is so deceptively simple and so deadly powerful that you’d wish you thought of this one before.

What is it?

Simple… it’s an email signature file.

So every time you send an email message to someone at the end of your message as a P.S. there’s a personal recommendation from you for ListHero.

Here’s all you need to do…

Step 1: Watch this quick video…

Step 2: Copy and paste this text as shown above…

P.S. I’ve just discovered the fastest, easiest
and simplest way to build my list for free…

check this out…
==> (add your ListHero affiliate link here)

So there you have it! it’s ever so simple to set up and over time your results will snowball …but only if you use it regularly.

What I like about this is you just set it up and forget about it because in most email programs the signature files are added automatically.

Go ahead, login to your email program and add the ListHero sig file with your affiliate link.

By the way… I’ve just set up a blog post with 4 ListHero promo emails and 3 more ListHero sig files you can use. Click here for more promo tools.

List building made simple with a blog

Building a list with your blog couldn’t be simpler or easier (especially when you’re using ListHero to help you!)

Here’s all you need to do step-by-step…

1. Make sure you have a newsletter created, in this blog you’ll find out where to get content from and I also give you a newsletter template you can use.

Here are a few of those posts I’ve made that’ll help you with this…

Pick up a free newsletter or ezine template here

Here you’ll find out where to get your newsletter or ezine content from

2. Make sure you have an autoresponder that allows subscriptions via email, I recommend using GetResponse.

3. Make sure you have a blog installed on your website. This does assume you (a) have a subject to talk about (b) know how to purchase a domain name (c) know how to post to a blog (d) know how to add some code to your blog template.

If you don’t know anything about (a) through to (d) then I recommend starting out here:
http://BigSellingNiches.com …get the free niche marketing ebook and also picking up your copy of the Niche Checklist Workbook where you can find out what subject you should be focusing your blog (and your newsletter on).

To find out anything else you need to know I recommend joining this forum where you’ll be able to get lots of free advice and help in getting started:  http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/

Ok, let’s move on…

4.  What you need to do next is to create a free ListHero account which you can do here:
http://ListHero.com

Follow all of the 7 steps you’re given (this is critical) watch the videos you’ll find on each step (if you get stuck). Make sure you write a really great advertisement for your newsletter (this gets you more subscribers). Think of your ListHero advertisement as a classified ad that you might see in a newspaper. It needs to grab attention, generate interest, create a desire and make people want to take action.

5. Copy the ListHero code you’re given on step 4 to a text file and save it to your computers desktop.

6. Go here and create a ListHero popin window for free:
http://popinbuilder.icoder.com/

7. Add your ListHero code and adjust the settings so that your popin window appears as you want it to. Then take the code you’re given from the Popin builder website and add it to the most appropriate page template for your blog.

8. So now whenever someone visits your blog you’ll be building your list because they’ll see your popin window appear containing your ListHero squeeze box. Then over time as you build up more ad exposure credits your list building goes to autopilot as you newsletter or ezine ad is seen on countless other websites (thanks to ListHero).

Here’s a video that explains how ListHero can work for you…
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/who-is-listhero/

If you’re unsure as to how to do any of this technical work the best thing to do is to ether learn how to do it yourself or find someone to do  it for you.

The short cut is to pay someone to do this technical work for you, here’s where you can find an entire army of technical people standing by ready to help you with anything you need at a moments notice: http://elance.com

I hope this helps.

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