4. Keep It Interesting

Although we have worked out that the key message (or, if you like, the desired outcome) in our earlier example is ‘Buy my book’, this does not mean it is the message that is most likely to get the reader to act in the way we want them to. I would expect you to have done so because, as someone who has, presumably, bought my book, you wanted to improve your writing skills or start your own business (or something else), but not because someone had told you to.

When faced with commercial communications, people are often much more likely to act if you talk to them about an idea (wealth, for example, or expertise) rather than a physical object (like a book). This is a technique which has been used by sales people for decades. In How to Win Customers, first published in 1957, ace salesman Heinz M. Goldmann writes:

‘What you sell is never a product as such, but the idea behind the product – that is, the role played by that product in satisfying a customer’s needs. The product is a means, not an end.’

Nowadays, the theory still holds true. In marketing it tends to be embodied in the phrase ‘talk benefits, not features’; in other words, what will grab the reader is an explanation of what a product or service can do rather than how it works. Nevertheless it is still amazing how often companies insist on talking about the features of their products in their commercial communications.

I am going to labour this point, because it is important. People are not interested in what a product or service can do. They are interested in what it can do for them. Whenever you have to write about something, don’t think about what it is or does; think about what it means. Take a new computer, for example. You could talk about how it has a screen layout that makes it user-friendly; how even non-technical people could find it easy to work with. These things might be very important as far as your client is concerned, because, after all, they have spent a good deal of time, effort and money coming up with these features. But such messages are likely to be trivial to the average buyer. What interests the consumer is what these features might mean to their lives.

In the 80s, Apple Computer adopted this approach to launch its Macintosh machine. The advertising campaign it used, directed by Ridley Scott, did not feature a single shot of the product – or even a mention of what it could do. Instead it showed a character rebelling against an Orwellian society. In the consumer’s mind, the Macintosh was thus powerfully linked to the concept of freedom. This positioning ultimately may have helped Apple become the preferred computer for creative professionals the world over. In the same way today, Volkswagen’s award-winning advertising rarely makes a big deal about the cars it promotes, but instead focuses on ideas like security, enjoyment or roominess.

What this illustrates about the ‘benefits, not features’ approach is that it is ultimately designed to elicit an emotional, rather than rational, response from the audience. And this is largely what drives purchase behaviour. This response can be as subtle as presenting a product or service in terms that make it ‘feel right’ to the customer; hence why large organisations spend millions of pounds on brand advertising campaigns that are solely about making particular consumer groups feel an affinity with their name. As a copywriter, your job is to convince your audience; but you will do that only if you can make it feel something.