A Short Primer on How to Write Copy (Part 3: Stating the Benefits)

Pick up any book on copywriting and begin reading. After a while, you'll realize that the majority of the book is teaching you how to state a product's benefits in an attractive way. Most materials on copywriting focus on this aspect, because benefits are the main reason anybody buys anything. However, I am not going to repeat everything that every book says on writing benefits.

Benefits in Copywriting: A Quick Summary

Here's a quick summary of what most copywriting books will tell you about writing the benefits of your product/service:

• Don't list features
• Turn features into tangible benefits
• Focus on the reader by asking yourself "What's in it for me?" as you write your copy
• Be specific with your benefits (e.g., use numbers such as in 'will increase the life of your appliances by 360%')
• Don't forget the non-obvious benefits (e.g., a cooking course will not only teach you how to make delicious food but will also improve your luck with the ladies and will turn you into a more creative person)

That being said, here's what you really need to know about benefits and copywriting in general (the following is not technique, but marketing principles; if you only care about writing copy, skip on over to part 4):

Copywriters Create Perceived, Not Real, Benefits

As this series is more targeted toward non-copywriters, I wish to make this point stand. If your product or service does not have any true benefit when compared to your competition, all that copywriting can do for you is make your prospects believe that your product has benefits that don't really exist. When they get the product, if it isn't up to your expectations, it doesn't matter how well your copy converts--your business is doomed.

Of course you know all this. But here's the point:

• The benefits of a product or service should be created during production--not during the marketing phase

You're not going to have much luck selling something that doesn't help anybody. Copywriting can do a lot of things, but it can't make a useless product into a useful one.

However, copywriting can:

• Make a poor-quality product seem to be of high quality
• Make an unfinished product worthy of being sold
• Make a startup appear to be a stable business
• Make a newbie appear to be an expert

But to achieve these goals there still must be a benefit--and it must be part of the product or service itself.

Click here for part 4 of: How to Write Copy.