For All Those People Who Struggle With Benefits and Features

For Everyone Who Has Ever Struggled Sorting Out Benefits From Features - "SWAT Them!"

SWAT is not clearly an acronym. It is a compression of the question "so what?"

You see, one of the main problems that even experienced copywriters and marketers fall into is persona with nothing inside on what benefits their product or service assuredly delivers to their customers.

SWAT provides the solution.

Here is how it works:

• Take a piece of paper. Divide it into columns one headed features and one headed benefits.

• Under the features squad list all the features that come to mind.

• Under the benefits troop list all the benefits you deliver. (Don’t worry on neatness there will not be a one-to-one correspondence mid features and benefits)

• Now, get yourself back in your customers’ mindset. Take each feature in turn and ask yourself "SO WHAT?"

• And keep on interrogation the question until you can't think of any sensible, give a hand oriented, answer.

• Do this for every feature in your list

• Now go back and repeat the process for every godsend you originally listed

It is pretty quantitative that the same benefits will occur many times over as you run through this exercise. That's fine. These are the ultimate benefits you have been looking for. These are the benefits you will 'sell' to your customer.

An example

I wear a pretty nominal and tacky diver’s watch. Its features include:

• water proof to 50m (that’s hereabouts 164 feet)

• accurate to 1 second per year

• tells the time in 2 time zones

• dual correlative and digital display

• shock proof

• stop watch

• back light

• day, month date function

• 5 year triangle life

Now for irrevocable prospects this list of features is pretty powerful on its own. Principally young men who like to dazzle their friends with the latest gadgets and gizmos.

But let's try to figure out some marketable benefits for a wider audience.

"Water proof to 50m"

So what?

You can wear the watch while diving

So what?

You can be sure it is waterproof enough for all day-to-day use

So what?

You can put the watch on and forget it - no matter what you are doing

So what?

Accurate time keeping -anytime, anyplace.

So what?

???

Your thought patterns would obviously be different to mine. But I am now stuck. The question "So What?" doesn't lead me to auxiliary statement. No matter. I am pretty happy with the last couple above. Either of them talks to me of the real benefits the watch could bring.

Now I would need to go away and do the same thing for all of the other features. When I first did this exercise I ended up with over 120 benefits (and this for something that is definitely pretty Mickey Mouse and tacky). I am not going to do that here again.

The benefits that kept repeating were the go anywhere, do anything, super appreciative timekeeping.

I was able to produce 30 plus farewell performance driven headlines. And I had no difficulty in sorting out the benefits from the features.

And all in a little over an hour.

Seems a pity that I don't of a truth sell watches.