How to Write Copy with Features and Benefits

How to Write Commercial Copy

Don't expect to be a successful copy writer unless you learn how to write features and benefits of your clients' products or services.

You need to mention the features of a product in your commercial copy. But if you do not stress the benefits, your conversion rate will suffer. Your sale numbers will drop if the benefits are not emphasized.

However, writing the benefits is not an easy thing.

Anyone can write the features of a product. It's a list that you can get from your client and just publish as is.

But to write about the benefits you need to know your customer very well.

You need to know what keeps your customers awake at night... what are their aspirations? Joys? Fears?

You need to dig in and discover the real reason why they would buy your product or service. And that reason usually has something to do with a PROBLEM that they are trying to SOLVE in their lives by purchasing the product.

There is an EMOTIONAL need that needs to be satisfied. That's what the list of BENEFITS provide.

But of course once the product is bought the purchaser needs to JUSTIFY the purchase in RATIONAL and LOGICAL terms. That's where the FEATURES comes to the rescue.

For example:

Let's say you're writing copy to sell cars.

You would obviously list all the FEATURES that this model boasts:

This is all fine and dandy but still as a consumer we do not know WHY we should buy this -- since most likely we already have a car anyways. We still do not know why buying this PARTICULAR model will BENEFIT us and satisfy our hidden NEEDS.

We still do not have a good reason why we should WANT this car.

To communicate that as a writer, you need to know your typical customer well. We can't emphasize this important point well enough.

For example, if your typical customer is a retired male over 60 years who would like to travel, then you might want to stress a benefit such as:

However, if your typical customer is a single working soccer-mom with school-age children, then you need to bring out a different set of benefits to appeal to a different need profile.

For example:

The deeper you get to know your clients, the more relevant benefits you'll be able to emphasize, and the more powerful and magnetic your copy will become.

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