From: Bernadette Schwerdt
The Copywriting Coach
Today’s topic: Copywriting Rule #7: How To Turn Features Into Compelling Copy. 

Before you start writing any copy at all, you need to create the Features and Benefits List. To do this, you obviously need to know what features you have to work with and what the corresponding benefits are.

Looking at our case study from the last email, let’s take the ‘customization’ of the school entertainment show as a feature. How can we turn that into a benefit?

1. If the feature is: “We customize our show” then the benefit is:

“This show is age appropriate for grades 1 - 5 and it’s tied to the curriculum - so not only are the students being entertained, they’re learning as well. It’s guaranteed to make everyone satisfied.”

2. If the feature is: “It’s accredited by the Dept. of Education” then the benefit is:

“All our performers are police checked and our show is endorsed by the Dept. of Education.

This means that not only are you getting a great show but you can relax knowing that all the occupational health and safety requirements have been met too.”

3. If the feature is: “You get a free DVD containing snippets of our show” then the benefit is:

“Why take a risk with an unknown show? 

Before you book us, watch what we do on our DVD and see how entertaining we really are.

Just email us and we’ll send you a free copy and you’ll see why 534 other schools have used us in the last 5 years. And there’s a money back guarantee too – if you’re not happy for any reason, you’ll get a full refund, no worries, no hassles.”

As you can see, I’ve bundled quite a few other benefits into the one statement – this is known as ‘stacking the benefits’ so that the customer feels like it’s just too good to be true – and compels them to do business with you.

The more features and benefits you have, the more raw material you have to work with. This means you can create lots of different versions and target all sorts of different target markets.

And remember, never promote just the feature. State the feature and then promote the benefit.

Take a peek at the next email to see what we do next to create the all-important headline.

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Kind regards,

Bernadette Schwerdt
The Copywriting Coach
Follow me on Twitter: copyschool

Australian School of Copywriting
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