It doesn’t matter if you’re writing copy for a squeeze page, a sales page, product reviews or adverts, you really want to focus on the benefits of what you’re selling, rather than the features.

What’s the difference?

A benefit is what your product can do to help your customers. A feature is something about the product itself. For example, if I want to sell a series of tutorial videos on article writing, I’m not going to focus my copy on what format the videos are in (MPEG, AVI, FLV etc.) or the resolution, or how long they are. What I am going to focus on is how these videos will help people write better headlines, choose better topics for their articles, or write faster.

The focus has to be on the customer – what we can do for them! Your customers don’t care about your product, only how it can help them. By focusing on the benefits, you’re telling your potential customer how your product can improve their lives… and who wouldn’t want to buy a product that improves their lives right?

Do you see the difference? It ’s a subtle difference, but once you get the hang of this it will have a dramatic impact on your copy writing skills. Now, there’s one more vital piece to this puzzle – what exactly do your customers actually want?

What your customers want

You need to find out exactly what your customers want – what their ‘hot buttons’ are. The best way to find out… is to ask them!

Find forums where your potential customers are likely to hang out, and ask questions. Look through old threads and find out what questions get asked again and again. Yahoo answers is a great place to do the same.

If you comprise a list of exactly what your prospect’s wants and needs are, and then focus your selling to address those problems, you’ll be on to a winner. If your benefits, align perfectly with your customers needs, and you also have a clear call to action (i.e. Sign up now, don’t delay, one-time offer! etc.) then you’ll be giving yourself the best chance of making a sale!