How to Create a Benefits Statement

Benefits statements are used in advertising and marketing messages.

Benefits statements summarize the products or services that your business provides to the consumers. Rather than simply listing your products' features, a benefits statement tells what those features mean to the consumer and what they will receive from purchasing your product or service.

Things You'll Need

• List of features
• Vision statement
• Mission statement
• Market research summary
• Paper and pencil

Instructions

1. Scan your market research summary, looking for the values and services that are most important to your intended market. This will tell you determine what matters most to potential customers. Knowing the audience will help to clarify the language that you use for your benefits statement.

2. Make a list with your findings from your market research. This will help you to summarize and clarify the need of your intended target audience. This shows your audience that you understand what they want and what their needs are.

3. List the features for your products and services. The features will then be transformed into benefits statements. Rather than describing what the product itself does, you will want to brainstorm what the product will do for your consumers. Asking questions from the consumer's perspective--such as "Why should I care about (blank) feature?" or "How does this product or service improve the quality of my life?"--will help to narrow down the language and perspective of the consumer group that you are targeting.

4. Compare your benefits statements to others to make sure that you are on the right track. Generally, benefits statements are composed of a short phrase or sentence for each benefit. Although there is no set structure for a benefits statement, if you can plug the statement into the sentence "You (the customer) will get (benefit) from this feature or service," then you have adequately communicated why the customer would want to purchase your product or service. If you are creatively inclined, you could use pictures to describe your benefits as well; however, pictures are always open to interpretation, whereas words communicate more clearly what benefit you are trying to describe.

   The following is an example of a benefits statement that a financial planner might use: "We help people create and manage wealth." It clearly tells what will happen if the consumer purchases the services that a financial planner has to offer.

   Another example communicates why a potential client would want to change to a smaller bank instead of a larger bank with branches across the nation: "This network allows us to give you big bank convenience and maintain the small credit union level of customer service you currently enjoy."

5. Check to see how your benefits statements match up to your vision and mission statements. This is the final litmus test that will determine whether or not your product and its benefits truly match up to the image that your company is trying to produce in the eyes of the consumer. If they do not match up, you must consider if you need to change your mission statement or if you need to re-evaluate your service or product. Having a mission and vision statement that does not match with what products you are promoting does not bode well for branding or forming long-term relationships with clients and consumers.

6. Test your benefits statement on a focus group. Assemble a focus group of representatives from your intended audience, which will then give you feedback on your product and the benefits that you describe regarding the features and services that you provide. A focus group will clearly tell you if you are right on the money or if you need to go back and take another shot.

7. Place your benefits statement on your product or advertising messages. The benefits statements are intended to draw attention to your advertisement and cause your customer to purchase your product or service. Consulting with a graphic designer can add an element of expertise in designing your advertisement so that it has the maximum effect on your intended market audience.

References

• Woodbridge Quality Management Articles: Writing Effective Benefits Statements
• Crafting the Perfect Benefit Statement
• Management Help: Basics of Conducting Focus Groups

Resources

• National School Boards Association: Creating A Vision
• Brad Trnavsky blog: Creating Feature / Benefit Statements That Work