When you are preparing your marketing materials for your business, it’s important to have those speak to your ideal clients. You want them to be able to read over your web page or blog or sales page or brochure and think ‘yes, I NEED that!’. But sometimes getting the language just right is a difficult task.
As a business owner, we tend to think in features – what features our services or programs provide for people. We know the value of those, but the potential client does not. So we have to also think in their heads when we are creating our language for these materials.
Your potential client needs to get more people into their programs. So you tell them you can help them by providing social media support.
Feature Example: I offer social media services for my clients. I can set up a Facebook fan page for you and keep it up to date every week.
Client: Okay. So? How will that help me?
They don’t want to know what you can do. They want to know how it will help them – the benefits. They need to know what problem it will solve for them. That’s why they are seeking help to begin with. They have a problem, an issue, a pain, if you will. Our job as virtual assistants is to help them with that problem – to take it away for them. In order to do that, we need to speak in benefits for them.
Benefits Example: By having me set up a strategy for your social media, and keep your fan page up to date with great content, we can help you get in touch and stay in touch with your ideal client. We can expand your audience and put more eyeballs in front of your products and services.
Client: Great! So? What will that help me do?
You need to show them that you can make their problem go away. How do you do that? You need to let them know what kind of results you have achieved already. Cite examples of other clients, so that they can be clear as to what they can expect by working with you.
Results Example: By having me manage her social media, in one month, my client Jodi had 200 followers on her Facebook fan page, and she connected with and sold four people into her new program.
Client: Wow! That’s exactly what I need!
It’s one thing to tell them what you can do, and another to tell them what it will do for them, but to back it up with results will really seal the deal.
Try this exercise with your own products and services. What are the features? What are the benefits? What are the results?