What’s In It for Me?

As I mentioned on Wednesday, the fifth deadly mistake of home page design is poor use of copy and copy optimization techniques. And the biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs and small business owners doing in this area is not focusing on the benefits.

Of course, this is in part due to the fact that it can be easy to confuse the difference between a feature and a benefit. So, I’ll share with you a simple guideline to help you know and understand the difference.

A feature is what your product or service has.

• It is red.
• It is divided into five modules.
• It comes with downloadable mp3 files.

A benefit is the results your customer will get out of using that feature.

• They won’t loose it because the red color makes it easy to see.
• They’ll be able to avoid overwhelm and digest the information because it is broken up into five modules.
• They can conveniently listen to the audios in their car, while walking … any where they can take their iPod because the files are in mp3 format.

What’s so cool about benefits is that one feature can offer many benefits. So, when you’re listing the benefits of your features, don’t stop at one. Ask yourself, what is the benefit of that benefit?

For example, your feature might be downloadable mp3 files. What are the benefits of providing your product in this way? Here’s what I came up with in a short brainstorming session:

• The customer can access them via download right away and start their transformation now.
• Mp3 files provide convenience and portability (take them anywhere an mp3 player can go).
• They can be played on both PC and Mac computers … they are cross platform compatible.
• They can be rewound and played back … the customer won’t miss any golden nugget of information.

So, what are the benefits of your features? Are you talking them up? Or are you just telling your target market what features you provide?

Want to know what all five deadly mistakes are? Grab a copy of my new book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How To Fix Them! at www.homesweethomepagebook.com. Stop by the website between March 15 and 19, 2010, to join the launch and housewarming party, and download a plethora of free gifts!