11.08.2012

What's in it for me?

Your marketing message should always be highlighting how your product will help your customers. Although it should be obvious, this marketing fundamental often gets forgotten. All of your promotional material should answer the customer's most salient question: "What's in it for me?"

At Harbortouch, we sell hardware and software so it's easy to get caught up on a particular product's specs or a comprehensive feature list, but this isn't always the best way to present our products. Remember your audience. You will quickly lose a potential customer's interest if they can't relate to your jargon or see how your product will benefit them. 

Don't include a laundry list of technical specifications. Instead of focusing on features, focus on what those features actually mean to the customer. Show different use cases that will resonate with the audience, illustrating ways in which they would actually use the product. Show the prospective customer how you can help improve their life. Instead of listing cold technical specifications, give them the "warm and fuzzies". Identify their pain points and deliver a solution.


To illustrate this point, let's take a look at the processor specifications listed for a smartphone on Verizon Wireless's website:

"Processor: 1.5 GHz dual–core processor with 1 GB of LP DDR2 RAM"

By the time you get to "1.5 GHz," your eyes have probably already glazed over. The problem is that this approach doesn't answer the vital question, "What's in it for me?"

On the other hand, Apple focuses solely on the benefits to the user. In fact, they don't even divulge the exact speed of the processor in their newest iPhone:

"With the new A6 chip, just about everything you do on iPhone 5 is noticeably faster... So apps launch, web pages load, and email attachments appear almost instantly. The A6 chip also offers graphics performance that’s up to twice as fast as the A5. So you can power through graphics-intensive apps and games. And enjoy higher frame rates for smoother, more realistic gameplay."

After reading this passage, it is easy to see why you would want the A6 chip because the text relates the speed of the processor to the tasks you use your phone for on a daily basis. If a potential customer doesn't understand how a particular feature will benefit them, then all the megahertz and gigabytes in the world aren't going to get them to buy your product.


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