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Creating marketing messages for professional services that actually work
Do you sell a professional service? Do you understand the real benefits you bring to your clients?
I work with a lot of businesses that offer advisory services. Accountants, solicitors, financial advisers and consultants - who all sell their professional expertise.
Professional services are often hard to describe
When I ask clients to explain what they do, a surprising number of people really struggle to answer.
They’ll usually talk about how their service works. Or go into lots of detail about a technical feature that might be a bit clever. Most of the time they explain a thing.
It’s much easier to look at your service very literally, and describe what you see. A Will. A financial plan. A self assessment tax return.
Features are useful, but not the full picture
All too often the default is to describe your service by talking about its various features.
For example:
Arranging a Will might involve two face to face meetings.
A financial plan may include some free investment software.
The tax return includes calculating your tax bill and dealing with HMRC.
These are all great features, but they're not the benefits they give people.
They don’t answer the selfish question: ‘What’s in it for me?’
It’s the benefits that give you the real gold
Nailing your underlying benefits will help you understand your service better.
But what are they? And how do you get to them?
The answer is to dig. Dig deep. Challenge all the features you come up with to ask what they actually give you.
And you’ll nearly always find the secret to this is understanding how this might make the buyer feel.
For a Will it’s peace of mind you’re properly protecting your family.
For a financial plan it’s reassurance you can retire comfortably in ten years’ time.
For the tax return it’s knowing you’re paying the right amount (as well as not wasting three days of your life on the phone waiting to talk to HMRC).
THESE are benefits.
The bottom line is that we don’t really buy things. We buy the benefits these things can give us.
Marketing benefits generally fit into three categories:
Financial benefits
This is an obvious one. We all like to save money. If your service is great value or you offer free initial advice, that’s a clear benefit. Or it might be your service saves them buying something else, or reduces costs in the long run. Now we’re listening.
Practical benefits
These are things like reducing hassle or saving time. Improving something that doesn’t currently work well so they can be freed up to crack on with other things. Anything that helps them make something better, quicker or more efficient. Always a winner.
Emotional benefits
These improve the way they feel about something. Happy, excited, calm, relieved, content… If people start to feel an element of that emotion through your sales pitch, you’re halfway there.
Once you’ve figured out the end benefit, this is what you communicate first. Benefits will make them prick up their ears and grab their attention. Then you can talk about the features.
So, to figure out what the benefits of your business are, ask if they tick any of the boxes above. You may have several benefits. Lead with the most relevant one, but use the others across your marketing.
And next time you’re asked about your business, list the benefits you bring. You might be surprised at how people react.
Need help to find your benefits and turn them into engaging copy?
Find out more about how I can help you here
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