Anyone who sails into the dark and treacherous waters of running their own business should be given a box of a great washing powder, forced to sit it on their desk and gaze at it as a constant reminder of a basic rule of business.
The washing powder to which I refer is FAB!
Why? Simply because it’s a graphic reminder of how people make a decision about a purchase.
You see you need to tell them the features of the product, and explain the advantages of those features, but, most of all, spell out what the benefits of those features mean to them!
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People like features and want to know the advantages but buy the benefits of your product or service! That’s why you must sock those benefits to them in plain, simple and powerful language.
In short, what problem will it solve for them? How will they get pleasure or relief from pain by buying your product?
A case in point: Here’s just a snippet of an advert from an advertiser who treats back pain…
BACK PAIN? DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
Then the advert continues on offering a
“SPECIAL HALF PRICE READER OFFER”
Hey, that headline doesn’t observe the AIDA formula let alone match up against the FAB criteria. Well, the mention of back pain may attract the attention of readers who suffer back pain but the rest of the headline is just a motherhood statement… everyone knows you should do something about back pain!
So, what could the headline have been by mentioning a feature? Perhaps one of these as an example…
Back fixed overnight!
“Chronic back pain almost gone” long term sufferer says!
Amazing new treatment for back pain!
I’m not saying any of my suggestions are right or perfect but they would surely be a way of starting the thinking process of getting a headline that leads from a feature to one or more advantages which could be explained to highlight the benefits.
We’ll talk some more about FAB in future articles.
By the way, the uppercase font and punctuation… I’ll have more to say about that crime in a future article as well as why their special reader offer wasn’t the way to go!
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