Promoting Benefits vs. Features
There’s a problem in being good at what you do that can impact how well you market your services. If you know so much about your area of expertise, you can have trouble explaining it to regular people. While this “curse of knowledge” lays the groundwork for excellent technical skills, it also trips up the marketing with copy that doesn’t tell prospects what’s in it for them.
Successful contactors are certainly excellent at what they do, but they also take it a step farther by adding communication skills to their technical knowledge. This extended skill set is summed up by promoting benefits vs. features.
The features are how the equipment works. The list of what it does, however, is less important to customers than the understanding of how it transforms their experience. The benefits are what the product delivers for the customer.
The technological advances in the newest equipment to roll off the manufacturing line won’t mean a thing to the homeowner until the copy can tout how it saves a bundle in energy costs and provides cleaner, healthier air. In other words, a high SEER rating is a feature – being able to reduce energy costs by 30% each month is a benefit.
Marketing exterior lighting is not about promoting fixtures, bulbs and wiring, but about creating a safe environment, showcasing the home and extending the time they can enjoy their backyard barbecue. Detecting and repairing plumbing leaks is less about the tools you’ll use and techniques you’ll apply, and more about how your customers can avoid untimely plumbing emergencies, prevent costly repairs and lower their water bill.
And the fact that your company has been in business for 73 years is hardly relevant until your customers know what you’re going to do for them today – namely, that all work is guaranteed and that they’ll get service the same day they call.