To be clear, we don’t have a broom to sell. We don’t even have a broom that we don’t want to sell. But let’s assume for the purposes of this blog, that we do.

It’s a good broom. We think you’ll like it.

It has all the relevant features required to make it work; good sturdy handle, solid wooden head and a set of tough bristles. But – and here’s the killer – the head and bristles are exactly TWICE the width of most currently available brooms.

Convinced? Got your credit card handy?  Of course not. And we know why.

The reason you are not, as we speak logging onto www.blackapricotwonderbrooms.com and choosing the express delivery option, is because the terrific, new, improved wider head of which we speak is a FEATURE. That is all. It is merely a descriptive explanation of something that the broom has.

Now, the more perceptive amongst you will perhaps be a little ahead of us already, realising that this new uber-wide broom head is likely to collect more dust in one sweep than a conventionally proportioned broom. And indeed it does. By a factor of 50%.  If you need to sweep a lot of floors, this is clearly a distinct ADVANTAGE.

PayPal? Amex? Debit?  Not yet? We thought not.

So, what if we explained that, if you were regularly in the habit of sweeping a 300 square metre floor twice a week (taking you half an hour each time), the Black Apricot Uber Turbo 6000 Wonder Broom would save you TWO HOURS a month? That, surely, is a real BENEFIT.

Bet you really want one now, don’t you?

That’s because we have showed you a FEATURE, described the ADVANTAGE that this feature delivers, and then  – this is the clincher – highlighted the genuine personal BENEFIT that this advantage will bring to you

Selling anything – a product, a service, a concept – is so much easier when the prospective client is shown how they will benefit from buying into it.

So ,when you are writing content for your brochures, leaflets or websites, by all means list the FEATURES. Feel free to set out the ADVANTAGES of them. But if you really want to maximize your chances of a sale, show your reader how they would BENEFIT from saying yes.

See what we did, there? It’s all about being FAB.

Richard Pettinger

Marketing & Commercial Manager