Here’s a great copywriting tip which I’ve mentioned before, but was reminded about the other day when I wrote an email to a prospect and re-read it. I had the feeling that my proposition didn’t seem, how shall we put it, particularly attractive, and realised that I was making too many assumptions about the requirements of the prospect and their area of interest. I’d forgotten the question we should always ask ourselves: so what?
Some of the people you’re writing for will want to do business with you. Many more will need to be convinced that your offering is better than what they have already, or what they’ve seen elsewhere. So every time you make a statement, you need to ask yourself the question they’ll subconsciously be thinking: so what?
In a way, it’s just a cute way of reminding yourself to write about benefits, not features. “Our widget is blue”. So what? “Our widget is more blue than other blue widgets”. So what? “Because our widget is more blue than other blue widgets, it uses less power”. So what? “Because our widget is more blue than other blue widgets, it uses less power and saves you money”. Nearly there. “Because our widget is more blue than other blue widgets, it uses less power and will make it easier to reach your MTBF targets”.
Aha. Now it’s getting harder for a prospect to say so what?