For Everyone Who Has Ever Struggled Sorting Out Benefits From Features - 'SWAT Them!' SWAT is not actually an acronym. It is a compaction of the question 'so what?' You see, one of the biggest problems that even experienced copywriters and marketers fall into is being clear on what benefits their product or service actually delivers to their customers. SWAT provides the solution. Here is how it works:
It is pretty certain that the same benefits will occur many times over as you run through this exercise. An example I wear a pretty cheap and tacky diver’s watch. Its features include:
Now for certain prospects this list of features is pretty powerful on its own. Principally young men who like to dazzle their friends with the latest gadgets and gizmos. But let's try to figure out some marketable benefits for a wider audience. 'Water proof to 50m' So what? You can wear the watch while diving So what? You can be sure it is waterproof enough for all day-to-day use So what? You can put the watch on and forget it - no matter what you are doing So what? Accurate time keeping -anytime, anyplace. So what? ??? Your thought patterns would obviously be different to mine. But I am now stuck. The question 'So What?' doesn't lead me to another statement. No matter. I am pretty happy with the last couple above. Either of them talks to me of the real benefits the watch could bring. Now I would need to go away and do the same thing for all of the other features. When I first did this exercise I ended up with over 120 benefits (and this for something that is definitely pretty cheap and tacky). I am not going to do that here again. The benefits that kept repeating were the go anywhere, do anything, super accurate timekeeping. I was able to produce 30 plus benefit driven headlines. And I had no difficulty in sorting out the benefits from the features. And all in a little over an hour. Seems a pity that I don't actually sell watches.
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