Today, I've had the battle of the sexes duking it out across the page.
You see, somewhere a while back I came across some research about the differences between writing for men and writing for women, suggesting men prefer writing that's features driven, and women prefer writing that's benefits driven. I mentioned this to a friend and client who happens to be male, and he expressed a bit of doubt. "Everything I know tells me it's benefits driven all the way."
When I started to think it through, I realized that my experience writing for men's markets bore out the theory, right or wrong. When men produce writing for other men, they tend to focus on the features of the thing. When I was working in man-world, I hated writing only about the nuts and bolts. As a purchaser, I wanted to know how the thing would make my life better, then quantify why that was true. But that was just me. The client is always right, right? I decided to revisit the issue again.
Beginning to search for that original research I read was like finding a needle in a haystack, and I'm still sorting straws. But I'm all for information that gives me or my clients a competitive edge, so hedging my bets, I'll probably run across it at some point when the time is right. In the meantime, here's a link to a handy little video with John Carlton making the distinction quite clear and touting benefits, benefits, benefits.
http://www.videojug.com/film/copywriting-features-vs-benefits
Here's where the confusion arises. When men are asked to write about a thing, say a truck or a seminar or a winch, they tend to focus on the nuts and bolts, quantify how and why it works, or what mechanisms are included. When women are asked to write about the same thing, they tend to tell you how it's going to make their life better, and the qualitative reasons that's important. Both men and women will debate the overgeneralization in these types of statements. But when either gender makes a purchase, they definitely want to know "what's in it for me." No argument. So showing a purchaser where the benefits lie for them on a personal basis suggests finding an balance that's benefits-focused, but clear about exactly what's being offered, is an elegant copywriting solution.
Elegant Copywriting Exercise:
To see how master marketers apply this concept in their email and marketing copywriting strategies, here's an easy task.
You see, somewhere a while back I came across some research about the differences between writing for men and writing for women, suggesting men prefer writing that's features driven, and women prefer writing that's benefits driven. I mentioned this to a friend and client who happens to be male, and he expressed a bit of doubt. "Everything I know tells me it's benefits driven all the way."
When I started to think it through, I realized that my experience writing for men's markets bore out the theory, right or wrong. When men produce writing for other men, they tend to focus on the features of the thing. When I was working in man-world, I hated writing only about the nuts and bolts. As a purchaser, I wanted to know how the thing would make my life better, then quantify why that was true. But that was just me. The client is always right, right? I decided to revisit the issue again.
Beginning to search for that original research I read was like finding a needle in a haystack, and I'm still sorting straws. But I'm all for information that gives me or my clients a competitive edge, so hedging my bets, I'll probably run across it at some point when the time is right. In the meantime, here's a link to a handy little video with John Carlton making the distinction quite clear and touting benefits, benefits, benefits.
http://www.videojug.com/film/copywriting-features-vs-benefits
Here's where the confusion arises. When men are asked to write about a thing, say a truck or a seminar or a winch, they tend to focus on the nuts and bolts, quantify how and why it works, or what mechanisms are included. When women are asked to write about the same thing, they tend to tell you how it's going to make their life better, and the qualitative reasons that's important. Both men and women will debate the overgeneralization in these types of statements. But when either gender makes a purchase, they definitely want to know "what's in it for me." No argument. So showing a purchaser where the benefits lie for them on a personal basis suggests finding an balance that's benefits-focused, but clear about exactly what's being offered, is an elegant copywriting solution.
Elegant Copywriting Exercise:
- Print out a few of their better emails or sales pages, the ones that really appeal to you.
- Take a marker, and draw boxes around the paragraphs and label the boxes based on paragraph function.
- Put stars by each of the benefits claims.
- Find the problem, underline it, and label it with a P; then, find the solution, circle it, and mark it with an S.
- Finally, mark the keywords with a highlighter.
This easy text analysis technique will give you the format your favorite master marketer uses successfully in specific contexts, and will give you an automatic template for your own copywriting.
In the end, getting the balance between features and benefits right is all in the right framing for your particular audience. I'll let you know when I find that original research that started this line of thinking. And if all this is just too much for you to think about when you're writing marketing copy, let me know. I love helping my clients upscale their marketing one word at a time.
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