Reach readers by leading with the benefits, substantiating with the features
I once reviewed an article for a company’s sales force with the headline:
Extraordinary customer experience: Be a customer advocate. Be Extraordinary
Learn to reach more readers with benefits … >>>
What followed was a reminder about the company’s guiding principles, an announcement of a new program, a bulleted list of tasks for participating in the program and a reference to a handout with all the rules.
Then, 228 words in, this oh-and-by-the-way aside:
Here’s the best part: Winners are treated to an amazing, all-expenses paid trip for two for four days in Las Vegas.
Here’s a simple tip for getting people to participate in your programs, buy your products and services and read more of your promotion. Stop writing about your programs, products and services and promotions. Start writing about what people can do with them.
If they might win a trip to Vegas, that’s your headline. That’s your lead.
It’s the easiest way to draw readers in and move them to act: Lead with the benefits. Substantiate with the features.
How to find the benefits
To lead with the benefits, first you have to find them. And that can be a tough, given that our assignments come to us in the form of features.
So start there.
Learn 3 ways to reach readers with benefits. >>>
How do you write messages that readers want to read?
If you want to Catch Your Readers, you need to think like a reader. Then you need to use the bait your reader likes, not the bait you like.
So what’s the bait the reader likes?
Learn a four-step process for making your message more relevant, valuable and rewarding to your audience at Catch Your Readers, our persuasive-writing workshop starting May 16.
There, you’ll learn the formula readers use to determine which messages to read. Discover two rewards you can use to boost audience interest in your message. And learn a magic word that focuses reader attention on your message.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.