Tonightʼs the night. You can feel it in your bones as you meet up for a drink with a friend you are keen to romance. You tell her that tonight, not only will you get to show off one of Londonʼs most fabulous restaurants but also her charming company too. You can't wait.
The evening starts off well - drinks are flowing freely from the moment she arrives at just after seven o'clock until nine pm when the two of you head into Sushi Samba's buzzing dining room in The City. The restaurant is bustling with customers both local and international all out for dinner before heading elsewhere afterwards; this is going to be fun. The menu is glorious: tempura prawn dumplings, steamed rice, edamame smoked salmon, nigiri sushi squid salad and a surprise for dessert.
Her smile disappears. "Whatʼs wrong?" you ask with a polite tone of voice. "You booked the best restaurant in town, secured the best seats in it too." You look genuinely surprised by her sudden change from joy to anger. She looks at you and furrows her brow before she replies solemnly: "I don't eat seafood," before standing up hastily and walking out of the place without looking back even once.
This might be drastic and sound like a silly story, but it happens to businesses all the time. You know that feeling when you're scrolling through the endless list of items on Amazon, and it feels like all they want to show is low prices? It's because we've conditioned businesses into thinking their customers only care about price.
My story is a little out there, but let me tell you what happened with one company who was deceived by these tactics. They highlighted features and specifications without considering whether or not their ideal reading audience cared; they focused on ease-of-use while completely ignoring how important attractiveness or trendiness can be for some people; again highlighting low costs but neglecting what the customer really wants or cares about.
You can rave about the exquisite taste of the sushi, but if a girl prefers meat to seafood, youʼre wasting your time.
How To Write The Benefits of Your Photography Service
Before you consider what your product or service offer is and how you want to sell it, think about who you want to sell to first.
When you can visualize your ideal customer, it becomes much easier to consider how your products and services can make their life better.
People want to know how you can help them to capture the photos they need, feel less nervous, look their best, or add beauty to their homes. Which problems do you solve? How do you help your customers? Those are the important questions you need to answer before you start writing the benefits of working with you as a photographer.
• Why you should focus on benefits and problems
• What the difference is between features and benefits
• Why people might not buy from you
At the end of this blog post youʼll find two worksheets to help you plan the writing of your own benefits.
Why You Need To Focus on Benefits and Problems
Of course you love to talk about your photography and your business. Your products. Your services.
Maybe youʼre excited about the recent improvements youʼve made to your service, or about the new photography skills youʼve learned. Or maybe you have spent many months developing new features for your products or a more fun atmosphere during your photo shoots.
Youʼre selling your product or service, so thatʼs what you need to write about. Right? No. The hard truth is that nobody is interested in you, your company, or your products.
Why not?
People are only interested in themselves. To sell your product or service, you need to address your ideal customerʼs self-interest.
Such as:
• Save time
• Make clients less nervous
• Guidance so clients get the best possible photographs
• Make your clients look better than they ever have in photographs
Famous direct response writers like John Caples, Eugene Schwartz, and Joe Sugarman have all said it: To sell your products, you need to focus on the benefits to your readers.
So, what about problems? Why are problems interesting for your reader?
Features, specifications, and even benefits are dull. Writing only positives slowly lulls your reader to sleep because nothing grabs his attention.
To keep your reader paying attention, introduce a few problems. A problem makes your readerʼs heart rate go up, gets him excited, and makes him pay attention to the solution you offer to deal with that problem.
You canʼt just talk about the benefits of working with you; you also need to mention the hassle you prevent, the headaches you cure, and the glitches you avoid. Tell a story or give examples from your past experience.
For instance: Youʼre a web developer in Austin who builds websites with WordPress. When customers work on their own website, they don't have to contact you for small changes like changing words or adding an image because the content is simple and easy-to-edit right from within your design program.
Most benefits can be reformulated as a problem you avoid. Your restaurant service is quick, so you avoid delays. Your cruise control keeps your eyes on the road rather than on your speedometer, so you prevent accidents. You automatically bring fresh flowers to your customers every week, so you avoid the hassle of re-ordering flowers.
Which is better? A straightforward benefit or the avoidance of a problem? That depends on your client. What interests your client more —gaining a benefit or avoiding hassle? If youʼre not sure, ask your customers or test different versions of your benefits.
The Difference Between Features and Benefits The distinction between features and benefits sounds simple enough: Features are facts about your products or service. Benefits are what your product does for your client. What can you do for your client?
But features often get translated into fake benefits. Fake benefits are benefits your readers arenʼt interested in. Or they are advantages rather than benefits.
Imagine youʼre selling an oven. One of its special features is a fast preheat system. The advantage of this system is that the oven heats up to 400o F (200o C) in just five minutes. The benefit is that a cook doesnʼt have to hang around until the oven is finally warm enough. It makes cooking less stressful and you have a much better chance to get dinner ready in time even if youʼre extremely busy.
Letʼs go back to the web developer example. Youʼre based in Austin, working with local businesses. The advantages of your location are that you can meet with your customers quite easily, you can gain a better understanding of their business, and therefore create a better website.
None of these advantages are real benefits. To find the real benefit, ask yourself, So what? For example: Youʼre based in Austin so itʼs easy to meet with local customers. So what? You can gain a better understanding of their business. So what? You can create a website thatʼs better aligned with their business. So what? The website can target the right audience, and your customer can make more money.
Thatʼs a real benefit. Making more money is something most of your customers are interested in.
Once you canʼt answer another So what? question, youʼve found a real benefit. In most cases, you can create a combination of a problem, benefit, and feature. For instance: Youʼre a coach helping small business owners take their business to the next level. You work one-on-one with clients. You offer a structured approach to developing a business strategy and action plan.
Below follow two examples of a problem >> benefit >> feature:
Example 1: Avoid getting stuck (problem) >> grow your business (benefit) >> structured coaching sessions (feature)
Example 2: Avoid business burnout (problem) >> a more balanced life (benefit) >> development of an action plan to improve your time management (feature)
Why People Donʼt Buy From You
You want to be persuasive because you want people to buy your products. But itʼs not enough to tell your audience how good you are and how much theyʼll benefit from working with you. You also have to anticipate their objections and overcome them one by one.
You need to reassure potential buyers.
Do they think youʼre too expensive? Do they hesitate because they donʼt think they need your service? Or are they concerned about quality?
If youʼre unsure, call a few customers and ask them: Before they decided to buy from you, why were they in doubt? What were the obstacles to buying from you?
Worksheets
Iʼve included a few worksheets to help you write out your own benefits. List all potential reasons why your ideal customer might be interested in buying from you, and match them with the features of your product or service. Donʼt worry whether these reasons are important or not. You can select the most important benefits after youʼve completed your list.
Download Worksheet #1
Download Worksheet #2
Download Worksheet #3
Photography is a unique profession, and as an entrepreneur you are equally special. Don't forget to think about what makes your business stand out and why people should work with you! Include on the list any benefits that come from working in this particular industry or categories of photography (for example: portrait photographers often benefit from having connections to reliable makeup artists). Think about how customers feel when they interact with your company - do they walk away feeling fulfilled? Remember these points because it's important for potential clients to understand how they will benefit from working with you.
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