Long copy works! Better copy for your leaflets in 7 easy steps. Part 2: Focus on them, not you!
When someone reads your leaflet the one thing he will be wondering from the outset is: “what’s in it for me?” Although you’re writing in the ‘second person’, you’re actually still focusing on yourself. And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your prospects. I just made up those examples, but hopefully you understand my point.
And if your leaflet doesn’t immediately tell him, it’ll land in the recycling bin within seconds.
A lot of people make this mistake. They focus on themselves rather then the reader. They bang on about how long they’ve been trading, who their most impressive customers are, how they’ve spent years of research and thousands of pounds on developing their latest product, blah, blah, blah. In actual fact, those points are important. But they should be expressed in a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once he’s thrown your leaflet in the bin, the sale is lost!
When you sit down to write the copy for your leaflet, imagine you’re writing to an old friend. Picture the friend who most closely fits the profile of your target audience. What would you say to convince this friend to try your product? How would you target your friend’s objections and beliefs to help your cause?
When writing to a friend, you’ll use words like “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…”
Beware though, even if you do address your prospect as “you”, it doesn’t necessarily mean your copy is about them. For example:“As a leading estate agent, you can take comfort in the fact that I’ve sold over 10,000 homes.”
So how can you focus on them? Glad you asked. One way is to…
Emphasize benefits, not features
What are features? They are descriptions of the qualities a product possesses...
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’re not writing to impress your English teacher or win any awards. The only goal you are aiming for is to create a more successful leaflet than any of your competitors, so you can take some liberty in grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. You want it to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!
Anyway, back to benefits…
If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader that the face is 15cm 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. He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone around him as he reads this magnificent timepiece. And that’s not all. He’ll project success and charisma when he wears the beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band. Women will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out, wearing his stylish watch.
Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a benefit? Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you’re 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.
My point is that you should 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? Read on!
Long copy works! Better copy for your leaflets in 7 easy steps:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
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