You’ve come up with a great offer that nobody should be able to resist. All the time, money, and effort you put into the launch should guarantee sales right off the bat. Then you get met with radio silence.

It’s one of the worst feelings as a business owner.

Well, you’re not the only one dealing with this problem. Every business struggles to create a lucrative idea at some point. It’s even more difficult to convince audiences they need the offer.

There’s one mistake, though, that’ll always make people skip over your business. That mistake is not highlighting your offer’s benefits in a clear and meaningful way.

Now, you may think you know why people would want to buy from you. You might also think you’re communicating those benefits to your audience.

Even then, that’s not always the case. Your copy might be falling short of what your audience needs to read, hear, or see before they decide they need it.

To sell, you need to:

• Be persuasive enough for your customers to see the value of your offer
• Go deeper with the benefits
• Tap into your customers' feelings and desires

That’s what this article will help you do. You’ll get some of the best strategies to make your offer "benefit-centric" that you might be missing. 

Then, you’ll see how you can incorporate them into your copy to make it stronger and more compelling. All this will help you learn how to make your copy sell better.

Let’s get started.

Surface-Level vs. Deeper Benefits

It’s true that your product or service’s benefits are more enticing to your audience than its features. Still, they might not resonate with your customers enough.

Sure, you’re explaining why they should buy into your offer. That’s only scratching the surface. Let’s use an example to explain what I mean. 

Imagine you run a business that sells banana milk. Some features of your banana milk may be that it’s fortified with double the potassium of a normal banana. Or that it contains more added nutrients than real milk.

Now try to think of its benefits. Why do you think customers buy your banana milk?

Naturally, you’d start thinking about how it improves their lives, right?

Maybe your banana milk provides them with an easy, portable, and healthy snack option. Maybe it’s because it tastes better than your competitors’ drinks. Or maybe because it’s more affordable, too.

It could even be the perfect ingredient for some pretty popular recipes, like banana bread or banana pudding. Amp up that banana flavor without having to wait for your bananas to overripen (or pop them in the oven, and risk forgetting all about them).

Is that it? Are these the actual reasons why people buy your banana milk? Are these benefits compelling enough to make people buy them?

The short answer is, no.

What Really Makes People Buy?

The benefits listed up above are just surface-level benefits. Yes, they touch on the merits of your product. But they don’t quite reach the deeper reasons why people choose to buy something. 

Unfortunately, though, most businesses just stop here when they promote their product or service. It’s not because they don’t want to tap into deeper benefits either — it’s just that they don’t know there’s a deeper benefit.

You see, surface-level benefits just explain why customers should care about your offer. But deeper benefits take it a step further.

Deeper benefits aren’t just about what your audience is buying. It’s about why they want it, on an emotional, deeply psychological level.

To figure that out, ask yourself:

What does your audience want? More than anything? What does your product or service represent for them?

Going back to the banana milk example, maybe they’re buying a chance to live a longer life. Maybe they’re buying a sense of certainty that they’ll be healthier. Maybe they’re buying into the identity of being a health-conscious consumer.

But the most probable reason? They are likely experimenting with their diet because they’re looking to make better choices, but they don’t want to sacrifice flavor and tastes that remind them of their comfort zone. 

Think about it — all those protein drinks, the protein chips (yes, those exist), the flavored oat milk, or the reduced-fat crackers… they’re designed for people looking to improve their diets, but who aren’t quite ready to switch to quinoa and kale.

They’re transitional food items that aren’t as healthy as they pretend to be… but aren’t as unhealthy as their counterparts.

These answers are more difficult to come up with, aren’t they? It requires you to understand why and how customers decide to buy something. You need to understand them on a deeper level and tap into the reasons for buying that they might not even recognize themselves.

Find out the 18 easy ways to trigger emotions in your copy here.

Why Buying Is So Emotional

One key thing to remember is that buying is an emotional response. It’s baked into our psychology.

As human beings, we want to avoid pain and gain security instead. That’s why we willingly part with our few precious resources... When we buy something, it comes from our inherent desire to reduce or postpone discomfort. 

In other words, it comes from our instinct to survive. 

That’s why scarcity is so powerful in marketing. It drives people to act.

Think about it: have you ever bought anything out of FOMO, or the fear of missing out?

Again, as humans, we want to ensure our survival. So if we see everyone have or do something that is fulfilling their lives, we tend to want it, too. So we’ll spend money to get it. 

That’s also why sales are so popular. Since items are sold at a lower price for a limited time, customers feel like they have to buy them now to snag a deal. After all, we also want to preserve our few precious resources, too, right?

Bottom line, if you can communicate the deep benefits that psychologically trigger your customers, your copy will be more persuasive. Not only that, you’ll be able to convince more customers that they need your product or service.

There’s huge potential in being able to highlight your benefits properly.

Next, we’ll get into the best ways to do that.

Find out what are the 4 key emotions to highlight in your copy here.

How To Find Deep Benefits

Take Stock Of Your Features

While it’s true that you should emphasize your product or service’s benefits instead of its features, it’s a good place to start finding deeper benefits.

This may seem elementary, but you’d be surprised at how many businesses get this part wrong.

Think back to the banana milk example. What are some features of this product?

It has more calcium and potassium in it than normal milk and bananas. It’s also a tasty, affordable, and portable snack option. 

Now imagine how these features can improve the lives of your target customer?

Imagine your target customer is a busy working parent with young children. Juggling work, errands, and other responsibilities all at the same time, they may be concerned that they don’t have enough time to make healthy and nutritious snacks for their kids. 

This is where your banana milk comes in.

Since it contains enriched calcium and potassium, they can be sure they’re feeding their kids something perfectly healthy. Also, since it’s in a portable container, it’s a perfect snack on the go. 

Plus, it’s affordable, so it will fit your target audience’s budget-- unlike other health foods, such as non-dairy milk, organic snack bars, or gourmet nut butter.

As you can see, you don’t have to completely ignore your product or service’s features to figure out its benefits. You just need to make sure your customer sees how it applies to their lives. 

Again, most businesses stop here when they promote their offer. But you can distinguish your businesses by learning how to tap into your customers’ minds and highlighting the deeper benefits they need to see. 

I’ll show you how to do this next.

Dive Deep Into Human Psychology

To hone in on your product or service’s deeper benefits, it’s important to understand your customers’ psychology.

As humans, our emotions drive our actions. If you want to convince customers to buy into your offer, you need to know what triggers an emotional response within them. 

To figure out what makes your audience act, try answering the following questions:

• What does my audience want and need?
• What are their challenges and pain points?
• What problems do they need fixing in their lives?

If you can understand their true concerns, you can then answer the ultimate question: How can my product or service fulfill their deeper desires? 

In other words, how can it provide them with what they want and need? How can it fix their problems, pain points, and challenges? How can it alleviate their difficulties?

If you’re still stuck on surface-level benefits, try asking yourself: why would customers care about those surface-level benefits. 

Let’s think back on the banana milk example:

Your audience may think they’re buying your banana milk because they want a tasty, nutritious, and affordable snack, right? But now that you’re looking for deeper benefits, try taking it a step further: 

What do you think they’re buying? 

There can be multiple answers to this question...

Perhaps they’re buying convenience. It’s exhausting to compare and contrast the merits of different healthy snacks, isn’t it? And it’s expensive to check every drink to see which one’s the tastiest.

You see, most customers just want to know that the product works. And that it matches their priorities. In other words, they’ll spend money to not have to worry about their concerns.

After all, don’t you?

Again, humans are willing to spend money to avoid discomfort and maximize their well-being. If you can emphasize how your offer can do these things in your copy, it’ll be more convincing and sell better. 

Know the 7 consumer psychology tricks you should use in your copy here.

Use Psychological Triggers

While the deeper benefits listed above persuade your audience that they need your offer, how can you get customers to act on it? 

To do this, think about the psychological triggers that motivate people to act. 

Scarcity

I touched upon it briefly before, but scarcity is a powerful motivator. Again, as humans, our main priority is survival. We want to ensure that we have enough of the right resources to do so.

Going back to the banana milk example, how do you think the idea of scarcity motivates your customers to buy it?

Well, it could be that your customers are worried that they and their children are not healthy enough. As parents, they may also be concerned that they don’t have enough time or money to prepare nutritious food for both themselves and their children. 

And because of that, deep down, they’re scared that they and their children won’t live long enough to live full, meaningful lives. 

But your banana milk fights against these worries.

For one thing, it's a convenient and healthy snack. So it fulfills their concerns about time. Also, it’s affordable, so they don’t have to spend as much of their valuable resources to buy it. 

As you try to come up with the deeper benefits of your offer, think about how scarcity plays a role in motivating your audience.

Uncertainty

Again, humans hate discomfort. And uncertainty is uncomfortable.

As humans, we want to know what will happen next. This goes back to the Stone Age when we didn’t know when or whether we would eat next. Or whether a sabertooth tiger was going to eat us instead. 

Thankfully, we don’t have those same worries now. But this fear is still deeply ingrained in us. You can relate this to why people want to buy your banana milk.

Humans want their lives to be comfortable. So we’ll pay money to ensure it. 

Having to agonize about the time and money it takes to make healthy snacks for your kids is inconvenient, frustrating, and annoying. Customers would rather have a simple and easy option to go to. That’s where your banana milk comes in.

Plus, your banana milk contains ample nutrients. So your customers can be sure that they’re making the right choice to help them and their children live long and healthy lives. 

When you think about your own product or service, what are some ways it eases your customers’ sense of uncertainty? If you can communicate this effectively, your offer will look more enticing.

Urgency

Although urgency is similar to scarcity, it’s unique in that it encourages your customer to act now. This instant. Immediately.

This is why limited-time offers are so effective. It hits all of the previous psychological factors mentioned before. But now, there’s a time limit.

How can you apply this to the banana milk example?

Let’s say you want to market a holiday special. During the holiday season only, customers can buy twice as many holiday-themed banana milk packs for half the price. However, there is only a limited supply of these holiday-themed packs.

If customers want to snag this deal, they have to act fast. This also relates to our sense of FOMO. As humans, we want to make sure we don’t lose out on this great opportunity.

As you can see, your banana milk hits all of our deeper human needs and desires. 

But this is only an example. Now, try thinking about your own product or service. If you can lock down the deeper benefits that influence your audience to buy, you can incorporate these cues into your copy.

That’ll make your audience more willing and eager to buy from you.

Know more about the psychological triggers that convince people to buy stuff here.

Segment Your Audience

Now that you know how to find the deeper benefits of your product or service, it’s important to note that not all audiences care about them in the same way.

What do I mean by that? Well, let’s say your business sells multiple products with their own product lines that multiple target audiences. In that case, you need to segment your deeper benefits with the correct audience. 

In other words, you need to find the deep benefits of each product or service you offer and divide them amongst the appropriate audience. That way, you can market toward each demographic more effectively based on their specific needs. 

Let’s see how this plays out with your banana milk company... 

Imagine your company also sells different banana-flavored drinks. Along with banana milk, your company also sells banana protein shakes and premium banana-flavored mixers.

Based on the deep benefits of each product, each of them will have a different range of audiences. Now that we know how to find deep benefits, how can you figure out the right audience for them?

Divide Your Audience Into Different Demographics

After you find out what your deep benefits are for each of your products, figure out who the right audience is for each of them, too.

In other words, conduct proper audience research.

Although your products may be from the same company, they serve different customers. Your job is to segment them into the right group.

This is important because if you promote the wrong product to the wrong target audience, you’ll never convince them to buy it. You might even put them off, instead. Customers may think that you don’t truly understand who they are and will look for another brand that does.

To hone in on the right audience for each product, try answering: who are they? 

Try to be as specific as you can. For easy reference, try creating an ideal client portfolio for each demographic. Answer these questions for each product’s target audience:

• What is their ethnicity?
• What is their age range?
• Where do they live?
• What’s their level of income?
• What’s their level of education?
• What is their lifestyle like?
• What are their values, beliefs, and tendencies?
• What do they care about?
• How do they make purchasing decisions?

If you understand your segmented audience well, you’ll be able to target each demographic more effectively. 

Target Each Segment

The main point of segmenting your audience is to market your products more efficiently. You’re making sure each product or service you offer is reaching the right audience. 

What does this look like in practice? Let’s use your banana drinks company example.

As you already know, your banana milk targets busy parents who don’t have the time or money to spend on elaborate healthy snacks. They just want something quick and easy to fix for their kids. You can refer to them as the entry-level buyers of your health products.

Your second banana shake product can be for your mid-level buyers. These customers are already serious about their health. They’re most likely already invested in healthy behaviors, such as going to the gym and are willing to pay for a drink that supplements their lifestyle.  

Your premium banana-flavored mixers can be targeted toward your high-level buyers. These customers are more concerned with status. Rather than making health-conscious decisions, they’d rather purchase the appearance that they can afford a luxury product like this. 

You see, each of these products is vastly different. They each require their copy with a specific tone and style. Plus, to really hook the right audience, each product needs to emphasize its specific deeper benefits.

If your business offers multiple products or services, think about how you can use market segmentation to target your different audiences more effectively. That'll make you sell more efficiently, and you’ll be sure you’re reaching the right audience. 

In this article, you'll know how to use market segmentation to improve conversion rates.

Deeper Benefits Are Better

Now you know why it’s so important to emphasize your offer’s deeper benefits over surface-level benefits and features. You should also have a good idea of how to do that.

After all, you can have the best offer in the world and still struggle. If you don’t show how it improves your audience’s lives, they’re not going to pay attention to you. Instead, your audience will look for other businesses that understand what they want and need.

Instead, you can use what you’ve learned here. You’ll be able to help your audience imagine how your business can improve their lives. 

Do this successfully and your copy will be much more compelling. It’ll convince your audience that you understand their needs and concerns. That means they’ll be more willing to trust you and buy from your business.

With these strategies, your offer will no longer fall on deaf ears. Instead, you’ll have happy and satisfied customers who see the value in your offer. 

That’s the dream, after all.

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