One of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make is being feature focused rather than benefits focused.
When you read most startup web sites or marketing materials, the focus is on features, not benefits.
Those companies all fail the “What’s in it for me?” test for the customer.
Customers are actually not very interested in your product or service features. What they are very interested in is what benefits does your product or feature have for them, directly and specifically.
If you are struggling to conceptualize or articulate your product or service’s answer to the “What’s in it for me?” test, try this excellent questionnaire, courtesy of Naomi Dunford from the ittybiz blog.
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The Big! Long! Scary! Sales Page Questionnaire
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The secret of a successful sales page is focusing more on the
customer’s needs than the product itself. You want your customer
to say to themselves that YOU really understand what they’re going
through, and that because of that they can be confident your
product can help them.
The more detail you have on your ideal customers and their needs,
the easier it will to create copy that makes them click that “buy”
button.
IMPORTANT! Try to answer all of the questions that you can, even if
they’re hard to answer in your specific situation. If something
really doesn’t apply to you, you can skip it. But try, though.
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About Your Product
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Please describe what your product or service does for customers (in
2 to 5 sentences).
(your answer here)
Example: Online Business School for Coaches teaches people the
practical aspects of building a coaching business with an online
presence. It teaches how to build a legitimately trustworthy expert
platform, book more clients for more hours, teach classes that
consistently sell out, and create desirable passive income products.
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About Your Target Customers
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Please describe your target customer in as much detail as you can.
1) Imagine your “perfect” customers. Describe what they are like
(niche details, income ranges, profession, etc).
(your answer here)
Example: My perfect customer for Online Business School for Coaches
is someone relatively new to the online aspect of a coaching
business. They’re either new to it entirely or they’ve been doing
it for a while, but without either direction or success. They
almost definitely come from either a professional or arts
background. They probably intend for their coaching business to be
a full time occupation, although they may be currently getting
their revenue another way.
They are fairly savvy to business concepts, but not their practical
applications. (They know the “what”, but not the “how”.) They know
they should be creating products and teaching classes to avoid a
100% dollars-for-time business model, but they don’t want to spend
forever figuring out how to do these things.
2) What are three important “pain points” your customer is
experiencing that they want to go away? What’s making them say “I
need to change my situation”? Phrase it in the language of your
customer – in other words, write the things they’re saying to
themselves in the back of their minds as they fall asleep at night.
(If your product or service is more fun or recreational, this is
sometimes a more difficult question to answer. Try to envision,
then, the longer term pains they are trying to avoid in general,
not just as it applies to what you’re selling. If you do children’s
photography, consider the long-term losses your customers would
experience without having great photos to remember their childrens’
babyhoods. That kind of thing. Just do the best you can.)
Your customers are feeling pain because …
1 –
2 –
3 –
Example:
1 – “I’m working too many hours! I need to sell products so I’m not
working so ****** hard.”
2 – “I’m not making enough money! If I had something else to sell,
that cash would make life so much easier.”
3 – “I have no idea what to do NEXT. I own 400 information products
and still have no plan.”
3) What are 3 frustrations your customer is feeling? In other
words, when they think about their problem, what’s blocking them on
solving it on their own?
Your customers’ are feeling frustrated at solving their problem(s)
because …
1 –
2 –
3 –
Example:
1 – “I have no idea where to start. I’m behind on everything.”
2 – “I’m scared that if I devote too much time to one avenue, like
product creation, then everything else will fall behind. It seems
like there’s no balance.”
3 – “Everyone says this should be easy and it’s NOT. Either I’m a
total idiot or everyone is lying to me.”
4) If your customer could have their “dream situation” and their
problem was solved, what would their new situation look like?
Your customers’ would love their situation to look like this …
1 –
2 –
3 –
Example:
1 – “I know exactly what I’m doing, and in which order.”
2 – “I’m making PROGRESS. I haven’t become a business demon, but
I’m moving forward on the projects and revenue goals that are
important to me.”
3 – “I have a fuller client book, and classes and products that are
actually selling. Who knew?”
5) If your customer could have their “ideal solution” so their
problem was solved in the most convenient and accessible ways, what
would that solution (your product) look like?
Your customers’ would love your product to be a solution that had
these features …
1 –
2 –
3 –
Example:
1 – “Simple, bite-sized lessons that I don’t have to pour a lot of
time into (I’m so tired of 500-page books or 20-hour courses”
2 – “Something I can get started on right away. I want to be able
to use the parts that matter to me now before going through an
entire curriculum.”
3 – “I want transcripts I can look at before committing to the
audio classes. I need to be able to give it a scan so I know what
I’m about to hear.”
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(More) About Your Product – The Hows And The Whats
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Please describe your product’s benefits in as much detail as you
can.
1) In one sentence, exactly what does your product do for people?
(Yes, this is exactly the same as the first question in this
questionnaire, except now we want it in one sentence, instead of in
one paragraph.)
2) How does your product help make your customers’ make their pain
points go away? Or, if you’re more into the joy market, how does
your product or service make their life more utterly delightful?
(The important word here is “how”, by the way.)
3) How does your product help your customers’ overcome the
frustrations and blocks that held them back in the past?
4) How does your product help your customers’ create their “dream
situation?”
5) What features does your product have that fit with your
customers’ “ideal solution?”
6) What’s inside your product? Break it down into all the
components of the offer. Does it have audio, video, workbooks,
checklists, one-on-one consulting, online forums, etc.? Include
each part so we can make sure the customer knows just how much
value they’re getting.
Also describe what each part does if it’s specific, if you have
something like checklists, then what are the checklists for? The
more detail, the more we can position your total offer as very,
very valuable. Include actual cash values if any component sells
in your store.
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Now, some other stuff.
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1. What kind of traffic is generally coming to this page?
(Basically, what we mean here is “Are your visitors warm or cold?”
Do they, at least in theory, already know and love you? Or are they
coming cold, probably via a search engine? If you don’t know
because you’re not getting traffic yet, give us your best guess.)
2. What has the life cycle of this product or service been so far?
(Is this something you’ve been offering forever? Is it brand new?
Is it currently in launch? Does it have bigger or smaller siblings
in your store?)
3. What does the product or service cost? How does that compare to
your other products and services (if you have some), or to industry
competition?
4. Why is your product better/more appropriate/cooler than it’s
immediate competition?
5. Why did you make this product? (If your answer is, “Because Dave
told me I had to make products” or “Because I needed the money”,
that’s fine. Then why did you make THIS product?)
6. Why do you, personally, think this product should sell? What do
YOU like best about it?