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I was working on a blog article yesterday for a VAR (value-added reseller) of a top software program. It was a feature/benefit piece geared toward a specific customer niche. As I researched for the article, I was fascinated by what I found — or rather, what I didn’t find. You see, there were tons of features listed that were specific to the niche, however, there were very few benefits outlined for those unique features. As the writer, I had to figure them out on my own. And it took seemingly forever.

Now, if a writer (who is motivated by the stipend she is getting paid to write an article) has to laboriously discern the benefits of a certain product/service to entice a specific group of people, do you think those potential customers will do the same for free? Nope.

People don’t care about what your business does. They don’t care about what your product or service is capable of accomplishing. What they DO care about is what’s in it for them (affectionately known as WIIFM, aka “What’s In It For Me”). Here’s a great quote that will make it crystal clear:

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” – Theodore Levitt

You see, all people care about is what benefit they get from your product/service. Nothing else. So for every piece of content your write, from your “About” page to your most miniscule product feature, you must keep your client’s WIIFM in mind. Ask yourself, what is the outcome that your business provides? What is the outcome your product provides? What is the outcome of the service you provide? Only note the answers in terms of main benefits to your client. Although a bit dated, here’s a perfect example:

Business: Apple

Product: iPod

Feature: 1GB of storage

Benefit: 1000 songs in your pocket

What an amazing benefit! You didn’t really care about the business, product or storage feature until you were made aware a specific benefit of that feature. It grabs a person’s attention and has a huge impact — so much so that the person will want to learn more and buy the product so they can take advantage of that benefit.

It’s not the easiest task, but I urge you to take a look at all of your content, from your website to your email promotions, to your trade show freebies. Identify the benefit of every feature you offer and update your content to highlight those. If you focus on and promote the ones that you feel will resonate most with your clients, you’ll undoubtedly see a blip on your sales radar.

And if it all seems too daunting and time-consuming, give us a shout. Creating great content is our specialty!

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