Your brain is lazy.
Wait—don’t click away! That’s not an insult; it’s just a fact. My brain is lazy (especially before coffee), your brain is lazy, and your consumers’ brains are lazy. That’s not just me saying that, either. That’s the assertion of Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman… so if you’re going to be mad at anyone, be mad at him. Beyond being an excellent hook for this article (if I say so myself), this fact has wide-reaching implications for how we communicate with our audiences. (And how we research customers).
A lazy brain has important implications for messaging and communication.
Sometimes, your copy and marketing will have to pick up the slack for this lazy brain. It doesn’t like working. Our brain does not analyze all the choices. And it is certainly not rational.
Here’s the key: We have to connect the dots between features and benefits for our audience. Even though the connection between a feature and a benefit might seem obvious, you are relying on a lazy brain to make that connection.
I’m frequently met with pushback. “But the benefit is obvious,” the client reminds me. Usually, I agree with them… but it doesn’t matter. We are up against lazy brains. It may not want to make the jump from feature to benefit. That is why we need to spell it out.
I know I’m not supposed to use the term “always” (especially when talking to my wife), but if there was ever a time when “always” applies, this is it. When we test messages, the message will (almost) always test better when we add a benefit.
Here’s an example. Which do you think is more motivating?
“Earn 1.26 APR up to $25,000 balances”
Or
“We will give you up to $315 for purchases up to $25,000 that you can use however you’d like.”
The first is standard financial industry language and focuses on the feature. The second makes the connection for the reader as to why they should care.
It all starts with understanding the benefits that are most desired
This should be an easy process to simply add the benefit. But what makes this difficult is the need to define what the benefit should be. It is so easy to have a list of features. But linking those features to key benefits is a bit more difficult. We must first understand the most important benefits and then build messages around those.
Here’s another example that comes from the financial advisor world . . .
We charge based on a small percentage of the assets we manage.
Or
“We do better when our clients do better.” “We don’t make money unless you make money—that means we’re always working hard for you!”
While most advisor firms will answer the pricing question with the first statement, the second statement completely turns that negative (fees) into a differentiating positive (we work hard for you). (The second statement is a modified version of that used by Fisher Investments.)
The solution – start with the benefits that are desired, find supporting features that can be used as “reasons to believe” or “proof points” that support the benefit.