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If You Want Your Marketing to Produces More Sales, Focus On The Benefits

by Peter Geisheker, CEO, The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm (920) 592-9595

In this marketing article I am going to discuss the most important element of marketing - turning features into powerful benefits. If you want to increase sales, you must focus on the benefits of your product or service, not the features.

So what is a benefit compared to a feature?

A benefit explains how a product or service will help a person. If I buy this product, how will it make my life better? Will it save me money? Will it make me feel better about myself? Will it make my life easier? Benefits are very powerful sales tools because people buy products and services for an end result.

A feature explains a fact about what a product does such as a specification. For example, the new ZMX car has anti-lock brakes. That is a fact about the car - it has anti-lock brakes. The problem with only listing a feature is that a feature does not explain why it is helpful - how it benefits a person. Why would you want a car with anti-lock brakes? The answer to that question is the benefit. Anti-lock brakes are much safer because they keep your tires from locking up and skidding so you do not lose control of your car. Therefore, if you drive a car that has anti-lock brakes, you are less likely to be in an accident. The benefit is the positive end result. In your marketing, it is that positive end result that you want to focus on.

Here is another example. XYZ Car Company has developed a new car that gets 100 miles per gallon. The feature is that the car gets 100 miles per gallon. But what is the benefit? Why would a person want a car that gets 100 miles per gallon? The benefit is that you will save a fortune on buying fuel.

If you want to improve your marketing and increase sales, you absolutely must focus on the benefits of your product or service. Whenever you say what your product does (a feature), ask yourself, "how will that feature help my customer? What is the benefit of that feature?"

If you need help creating a marketing program to determine the precise strategies you should be using to market your company, or you need help developing marketing materials such as a brochure, a press release, sales copy for your website, a display ad, or a sales letter for a direct mail piece, please call (920) 592-9595 or email us. We would love to help you improve your marketing.

To view all of the different marketing services we provide, please visit http://www.geisheker.com.

To Your Success!

Peter Geisheker
President and CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
"Innovative Marketing for Innovative Companies"
(920) 592-9595
Fax: (920) 491-9090