Ask these questions in the interview
Having trouble finding reader benefits? Maybe you need to ask different questions.
Ask your subject matter experts:
- What happens if our customers buy this product or service?
- What happens if they don’t?
- What happens if members of the community get behind this public policy?
- What happens if they don’t?
Or take a tip from Kelly Parthen, PR manager at Agilent Technologies. She keeps asking her subject matter experts: “So what?” “So what?” “So what?” Eventually, they get to the benefit.
Keep asking, and you’ll hit benefits like:
They’ll be able to watch twice the TV in half the time.
They’ll ensure that their children’s school buildings aren’t constructed of corrugated cardboard.
They’ll get the body of Kendall Jenner while following an all-Twix-bar diet.
However you find them, benefits will make your products, services and ideas — not to mention your copy — more relevant and valuable to your reader.
That means you will…
Having trouble finding your benefits?
Try prompting your subject matter expert with the line “that means they will …” The end of that sentence is likely to be a benefit.
Your subject matter expert says, “We can handle our client’s internal audit functions.”
You say, “That means our clients will …”
Your subject matter expert says: “That means our clients will free up their own employees for bottom-line projects and better control the costs of producing internal audits.”
Now you’re talking benefits.
Present your benefits, too.
“That means you will …” also makes a great way to present your benefits:
You can also introduce a list of benefits with “That means you will …”:
- Control costs by buying services only when you need them — instead of paying a staff during slow times as well as peak periods.
- Cut administrative expenses. We’re responsible for the costs of recruiting, training and managing — those costs don’t affect your bottom line.
- Gain full access to XYZ Company’s technology, training and global presence — while the costs for those investments remain on our books, not yours.
- Reduce travel costs. Our global presence means we can tap local talent virtually anywhere in the world.
In short, with XYZ Company by your side, you can increase quality while maintaining — or even reducing — expenses.
Try it.
Move readers to act with persuasive writing
Your readers are bombarded with the data equivalent of 174 newspapers — ads included — every day, according to a study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.
In this environment, how do you grab readers’ attention and move them to act?
Learn how to write more engaging, persuasive messages at our persuasive-writing workshop.
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