In my last two blog posts on this topic, I talked about Marketing Features vs. Benefits for Small Business and Whether Your Marketing Should Get an F Grade.

Today I’m going to show you the exercise I use to quickly get past the features of your offer, and get right to the benefits and results.

For each product, service, or program we offer at Bourn Creative, I first make a list outlining all of the features for the item. I then give each feature a main benefit.

After I have the features and benefits written out, I add the result the client or customer will feel or experience after using the product or working with us.

Here are a couple examples for our
Strategic Online Marketing Plan:

• Feature: A crystal clear plan outlining what to do to market your business
• Benefit: You know exactly what to do to market your business and when
• Result: No more frustration and struggling to figure out what you should be doing to market your business effectively. No more trying a different marketing method each week and hoping one works

• Feature: Step-by-step instructions showing you what actions to take
• Benefit: Take the guess work out of your marketing and know exactly what to do and how to do it with easy to follow instructions
• Result: No more feeling dumb because you aren’t sure how to implement your marketing strategies. Clear, easy to follow instructions, save you time, accelerate your marketing results, and make you look better and smarter than your competitors

As you can see, first I list the basic feature. Then I list the assumed, perceived, or obvious benefit. And finally, I list the result(s) the feature and benefit create. Using the process for me helps me get right to the What’s In It For Me factor.

Now, when I write my marketing copy for the Strategic Online Marketing Plan, I’ll use the lists I just created, but work backward. I’ll start with the results as the main selling points and then support those results statements with the features and benefits I outlined.

Next time you’re working on your marketing and sales content, add this step in before you get started and I guarantee you’ll see your results increase.

But, if you are marketing with benefits, results, and stories, and you bring your audience to that do anything, pay anything point, you get an “A+” and you’re probably nodding your head because your sales reflect that and you’re kicking butt.

Let’s talk about the marketing debate Features vs. Benefits.

In the features vs. benefits marketing debate, benefits will always win. Why? Marketing with features is boring! No one wants to read that. Do you ever get excited to read the owners manual for anything? Doubt it. Do guys ever read the instructions that come with assemble-it-yourself toys or furniture? Rarely.

Your audience wants to know instead how your product, program, or service is going to help them. They want to know how it will benefit them. They want to know “What’s In It For Me?”

For example when marketing with benefits, ask your self, will it:

• Save them money?
• Make them more money?
• Save them time?
• Reduce effort?
• Make things faster?
• Create more opportunities?
• Make them feel smarter?
• Eliminate fear?
• Position them as an expert?
• Grow their business?
• Be more convenient?
• Reduce stress?
• Increase confidence?
• Provide more freedom?
• Eliminate frustration or struggle?

When you only market with features, you’re making your audience do all the work to figure out how it will benefit and help them. When you prospects have to work at making a buying decision, your conversions will be fairly low.

Your customers, clients, and prospects want an easy, no-brainer buying process. They want you to do all the work for them and show them the answer to their biggest question, What’s In It For Me.

But here’s the catch: Usually the benefit you associate with the feature is the assumed or perceived benefit. It’s usually what you think they think is the benefit. This isn’t what your audience is looking for. They want the results. They want to be shown exactly how they will benefit.

So, when you’re marketing your services, products, and programs, you need to be marketing benefits and you need to do it with these three steps:

1. Make sure you really know your audience inside and out
2. Stop thinking like you and start thinking like them. Put yourself in their shoes and get in their minds
3. Write your marketing content based on the emotions felt when they achieve the results and experience benefits of working with you or using your product.

When you can market a business with the emotions-based benefits and results as a priority, you’ll be reaching for the marketing grade of  “A+”

Currently, we have a good friend’s two youngest kids (ages 12 and 15) staying with us while they take their oldest on a two-week graduation trip to Paris (lucky kid right!).

We’ve been having a blast baking and eating junk food, swimming and relaxing, doing some great craft projects, and even going fishing (check out the photo!) at S and J Mandarin Grove, my in-laws’ organic mandarin orchard in Newcastle, California! My two kiddos, ages 4 and 6, have LOVED having their new “big sisters” to play with every day.

During their stay, I’ve drawn some interesting conclusions about the similarities between my young teenage house guests, marketing a business, and why you might be a lazy marketer.

Just like teens, you audience WON’T DO ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ASK THEM TO. Teens aren’t going to do the dishes or clean up the house without being asked to. And, guess what? Your audience won’t hand over their email or buy your stuff unless you ask them to. You need to include a call to action in your marketing and make the ask! So many entrepreneurs forget to make the ask and then later wonder why no one bought.

Also, just like teens, your audience wants it to be easy and they wants to get something out of the deal. Teens don’t want to work hard or expend a lot of effort. Well, neither does your audience. Your audience wants an easy, no-brainer buying process that directly answers the two big marketing questions: What’s In It For Me and Why Should I Care.

If you’re a lazy marketer, you don’t put in the effort to get to know your audience, you don’t get out of your own head and into theirs, and you don’t take the time to communicate the results and benefits they will experience and achieve. Unfortunately for lazy marketers, you HAVE TO TAKE THOSE STEPS before you start copywriting or you may just get an “F” in marketing.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably had the same experience more than you care to admit. Sometimes $H!T HAPPENS, you make a mistake, and there is nothing you can do about it but learn from the experience and move on.

Once I read that a mistake is only a mistake if it is done twice – otherwise it’s just a lesson to be learned. I absolutely love this because everyone, even the big gurus, make mistakes with their business and their marketing.

No one is perfect and you shouldn’t try to live up to the standards of perfection. It only causes stress and frustration.

Want to know the marketing mistake I made today? I was wrapping up my ezine to send out this morning, was talking with the kids about their schedule for the day, and in my multi-tasking mistake, accidentally send out my ezine before I was ready.

Yep. I freaked. But then I quickly realized that there wasn’t anything I could do about it. My ezine went out this morning with a great article on marketing features vs. benefits and a complete how-to section outlining the effective process I use myself to outline the features, benefits, and results for each offering we make. Unfortunately, my ezine also went out before I could proofread it. DANG!

I did get a few emails pointing out the typos and all but one were very nice. Feedback is always appreciated. But it’s still a bummer and a lesson learned.

Luckily, I’ve had some experience at making mistakes while marketing my business. For example, I have:

• Sent an email out to my list with a broken link
• Posted a link to my social media profiles with a broken link
• Had a call disconnect in the middle of a teleclass
• Sent out an ezine with placeholder text still in place
• Forgot to make the ask and include a call to action in my marketing
• Published a blog post with typos
• And more

When you do a lot of marketing, these things are bound to happen at some point. You just need to keep your watchful eye out and minimize the chance of them happening as much as possible.

But when you do make a mistake, own up to it, admit it, learn the lesson that was put
in front of you, and get used to it.

How about you? Have you ever made a marketing mistake? If you say no… I think you’re a big fat liar :)

When it comes to Internet marketing implementation and choosing the tools and strategies you are going to use, the key is to do your homework. Research the different tools you are thinking about using, ask current users what they think about the tool and ask people who have switched to another tool why they did so. They key is to ask a lot of questions and think about how you want to use it in the future and if it can grow with your business as it grows.

Here are just some of the questions that you need to ask before committing to adding another Internet marketing strategy or online marketing tool to your business marketing mix:

• How much will this cost me?
• What is the learning curve?
• How much time will it take to set it up?
• Will I be managing it or will I delegate this?
• Am I going to have to make any sacrifices to do this?
• Can this grow with me as my business grows?
• Is it easy to stop or cancel at any time?
• Are other people finding success with this?
• What are the downsides?
• Who is promoting this? is what they are saying consistent with the other information available about the tool, service or strategy?
• Do they actually use it? Do they get a commission if I use it?
• How is this going to improve my life or my business?
• What will change as a result?

• They need you to help them by sharing your expertise,
  knowledge, and skill
• They need your services and products
• They need you to market yourself and to market your business

But here’s the problem. No one can do business with you if they don’t know you exist!

You can’t help them improve their life or their business with your products, programs and services if they can’t find you. Marketing your business and yourself is just as much about helping other people as it is about marketing your products and services.

You owe it to your future prospects, customers, and partners to create a marketing strategy your business. You owe it to them to spread the word about your expertise and skill. By investing in your business and marketing yourself, you are:

1. Doing yourself a favor – you are creating an opportunity to educate your target market on how you, your products, and services can help them change their ways and achieve their goals.
2. Doing your audience a favor – you are making it easier for them to find you, to find your valuable information, and to get help.

STEP 1: Capture My Attention
Start with a captivating, powerful, direct headline that draws me in. Don’t beat around the bush or use cute-sy catch-phrases and don’t speak in jargon I don’t understand. Keep the headlines and the sub headlines strong, clear, and helpful. The easiest way to do this is to write one short sentence that communicates the benefits the article, web page, or blog post, etc. I will get out of the content.

Another great way to grab my attention is with a great photo, graphic or image. You have only a couple seconds to entice me to stay on your web page and read your content and sometimes a killer photo can do that even faster and more effectively than a headline.

STEP 2: Get Me All Hot And Bothered
Once you’ve got my attention, your job is to keep me intrigued, interested, and wanting more. Focus on my needs and how you can help me. I want to know that you “get” me and understand my problems. I want you to arouse my desires and make my emotions go crazy. I also want to know that you have a solution and are the hero I’ve been searching for.

You can keep you reader interested and leave them wanting more with a few simple strategies such as using sub headlines, success stories, images and graphics, testimonials, guarantees, pain stories, and questions.

STEP 3: Make Me Call You
This last step is the most crucial step in the process. Imagine giving a product presentation to a prospective client. You did all of the preparation, your presentation was flawless, and you completely nailed it. But, on the way home you realized that you never actually asked them to buy from you or gave them an offer… Um, FAIL.

In step three, you have to entice me to take action and do something – sign up for your list, buy your product, purchase your services, sign up for your program, or download your free gift. You need to deliver a compelling call to action and you MUST give me a reason to act now. Make your irresistible offer so good, so juicy, that taking action is a complete no brainer.

If your client attraction marketing strategy covers each of these three steps, whether it is online or offline, you will see more sales and more conversions. But, if you forget one of these steps, you’ll more than likely lose me, your prospect to a business that nails all three steps of creating more sales.

Have you successfully seduced your audience? I’d love to hear about it!

Introducing the Ultimate
Brand Building Teleseries
January 5 – January 26, 2010

A ONE TIME ONLY Series of 7 High-Value, High-Content Calls Focused Solely on Helping You Build Your Brand and Market Your Business

Your brand is the most important asset your business has. It can be the one thing that makes or breaks a new deal, opportunity, or sale. It is imperative that you as a business owner focus on building a strong, authentic brand that connects with your audience, is memorable, and helps you build long-lasting relationships.

The problem is, that you need more than a powerful, unique brand. Once your brand is created, you must market your brand efficiently and effectively because no one can buy from you or refer to you if they don’t know you exist. That is where marketing comes in to play.

Every marketing strategy you implement in your business ultimately helps build your brand, and building your brand will help you establish brand equity, credibility, professionalism, security, trust, and more.

To make 2010 your best, most profitable year ever, you need to work on building your brand and marketing your business so you can increase visibility, increase website traffic, generate more leads, make more sales, create more opportunities, position you as an expert, and enjoy more freedom!

If you want to experience explosive success in 2010,
you must register for this FREE teleseries!

As part of the Ultimate Brand Building Teleseries, I will be sharing my best marketing tips, tricks, techniques and strategies with you to help you build a strong, powerful brand. Trust me, this information is so good that my mentors and peers can’t believe I am giving it away and they are urging me to charge for it!

Click here to learn more about this special one time only teleseries
designed to help you build your brand and market your business with ease.

I can also bet that even though you may be an expert in your niche, keeping your marketing pipeline full of new customers isn’t your specialty.

That is why I want to share with you three things that you always need to think of when you are working on your marketing materials.

1. Think of Your Mother.
Write the content and design the piece with your mother in mind. Your mother represents a great cross-section of your audience. Would she understand the message? Would she understand the action that you are asking her to take?

2. Think of Your Audience.
What may look great to you, may not look great to your audience. Make sure the piece you are developing makes sense to your target market. Yes, you can ask your friends what they think. But, if they aren’t in your target market, their comments aren’t very relevant.

3. Think of The Result.
What is the end result you want to receive from this marketing piece. Start there when designing the postcard, poster, flyer, advertisement, or brochure. Keep the marketing message simple, clear, and focused on the desired action the audience needs to take.

Make sure the graphic design plays a supporting role to the content. The graphic design should help guide the user through the piece and not overpower the message. For example, if you want the reader to pick up the phone and call you, the design and the content all need to be focused on encouraging the reader to do just that – and nothing else.

Do you agree? Disagree? Have any other suggestions? I’d love to hear them!

As you can imagine, I have seen some pretty bad graphic design mistakes and marketing mistakes over the years. The graphic design mistakes alone could take up a few blog posts, so I am going to focus on and share with you the biggest marketing mistakes I see business owners, service professionals, and entrepreneurs make.

Marketing Mistake #1
Forgetting about your current clients and customers.
While it is very important to always be marketing your business, engaging new prospects, and generating new leads, it is just as important to nurture the relationships with your existing customers and clients. They are your most valuable resource and you want them to always feel important.

Marketing Mistake #2
Forgetting to define your niche.
You absolutely have to define your target market and the niche you are speaking to. Several times I have been speaking with a client who answers the question, “Who are you targeting?” with “Everyone.” Give me a break! Either you so arrogant that you think every single person on the planet is your perfect, ideal customer, or you don’t understand that by generally speaking to everyone, you hook no one.

If you don’t pick a niche and tailor all of your marketing to speak directly to that niche, no one reading your marketing will connect with it, and say, “Oh my gosh that is me! I need this product/service.”

Marketing Mistake #3
Forgetting that they don’t care about you.
Most people know that no one wants to listen to you go one and on and talk about yourself constantly. So, what is it that businesses seem to think people do want to hear them ramble on and on about how great they are?

The truth is that your audience doesn’t care about how great you are, they care about what’s in it for me, why do I care, and how is this going to help me? Only after these questions are addressed can you establish why you’re the person they should be listening to.

Marketing Mistake #4
Forgetting that marketing is a process.
Marketing isn’t a one time event. It isn’t a single thing you do and then forget about. Marketing is an ongoing process of trying out ideas, testing them, reviewing the results, tweaking them, and trying them again.

A mistake that I see many business owners make is placing a single ad and ho[ping for great results. It takes anywhere from seven to twelve marketing “touches” before your message sinks in to your audience’s minds. That means one ad is probably going to produce very little results, while an advertising campaign spanning a length of time may be much more effective.

You can’t try a marketing strategy or tactic just one time and then give up on it because sometimes everything about it great expect for one small change that needs to be made. Instead of giving up, change something and try it again. Evaluate the results and repeat until you find the perfect marketing piece that works for you.

Marketing Mistake #5
Forgetting to follow up.
You’ve heard the phrase the fortune is in the follow up, but why is it that most people fail in the follow up department? In many cases no follow up is done at all! I’ll admit that one of the growing pains I have suffered during my business growth is a lack of follow up with my clients. My problem was time and a lack of delegation.

My advice to you is to get systems in place to make follow up easy for you. Make use of multi-step auto responders, hire an assistant or business manager, or use a checklist. After all, you got their attention, follow up with your audience, leads, and prospects to keep them engaged and interested.

I am sure that you are currently, or have been guilty of at least one of these marketing mistakes. I’ll admit that I have committed each one at some point. The key is to realize the mistake and take positive action toward creating change and building a better business.

Do you have another marketing mistake to add to the list? Have you made one of these mistakes? I’d love to hear what you have to say…