That's the big question in marketing. It's the question your customer asks all the time. When you're a customer, you ask it, too.
"What's in it for me?" is a question about benefits. You marketing has to answer that question clearly and quickly. Here's a short checklist of possible benefits that I've developed over the years.
Tell me how you'll make me rich. Your product or service can do this by helping me make money or by saving me money.
Tell me how you'll make me famous. You don't have to make me movie-star famous. Just give me something that makes me look good in front of my spouse, my kids, my neighbors or my business colleagues.
Tell me how you'll make me safe and secure. Help me protect my loved ones and my possessions and I'll buy from you. Help keep me safe from embarrassment and I'll buy, too.
Tell me how you'll make me powerful. Help me get control. This might be control of my life. It might be control of my finances or my weight or my time or my temper.
Tell me how you'll make my life easier. Life's hard enough as it is. If your product or service will make it easier, I'll buy.
This looks like a simple checklist, but it can be tough to make it work. That's because we tend to take the easy route and assume that customers understand what we're telling them. Because we know what the benefit is, we assume they do, too.
When you first come up with a reason that someone should buy from you, find the benefit on this list. Most of the time, your statement won't be an actual benefit to the user. Instead it will be a feature of the product or service.
You might decide that "We've been in business for forty years." conveys the safe and secure benefit. But does it? To find out, ask the following questions "HOW does being in business for forty years make my customer safe and secure?"
Keep asking that question until you get to a real benefit, one that your customer will understand without reasoning things out. When I'm working with clients, I've found that we usually have to ask that "HOW" question four or five times before we get down to the bedrock benefit.
Now present the benefit in the most effective ways. Remember that marketing is not a subtlety contest. Tell them what the benefit is in your headlines and copy. Better yet, show them.
Show them with testimonials, expert testimony, success stories and anything else that demonstrates the benefit.
Lots of work? Sure. But the change in your marketing will be dramatic because everyone asks that question "What's in it for me?"
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 30 July 2002
This is only one Big Idea. You'll find more in Wally's book, What's the Big Idea? and in his Big Idea column. There's a complete list on the Main Big Idea page. You may also order the book by clicking here.
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