If you’re in the process of putting together marketing literature or sales sheets — then you’ve come to the right place.

You’ve done the hard work of putting together a product or service — and now it’s time to give your prospects and customers all the information that they will need to choose YOU instead of any other alternative.

Features – Capabilities – Benefits Defined

Before we get into the details of laying out the features, capabilities and benefits of your product, it’s a good idea to get on the same page about what distinguishes features from capabilities from benefits.

• Features -are actual items, buttons, widgets or functions of your product and service.  Features contain absolutely no emotion.  They are items such as fingerprint scanners or webcams on your computer.  If you’re dealing with software, a feature would be a function of the software or even a form or screen that’s part of the software.  If you sell a service, then the feature of your service is a task such as window cleaning or printing.
• Capabilities are what the features allow you to do.  A computer webcam allows you to see the other party.  Like features, capabilities aren’t emotional either.  They simply expand on the what the feature makes possible for the user.
• Benefits are all about emotions.  Web cams allow you to see the person you’re talking to, so that you can see them smile.  Benefits focus on the emotional payoff that we get by using the feature and experiencing the capabilities that it allows.

How to Use Features, Capabilities and Benefits to Build an Irresistible Offer

If you’re ready to get started, I’ve created a simple and FREE Feature and Benefit template that you can download to get you started.  It isn’t pretty, but it does the trick.  Let me explain the details of the spreadsheet here:

When you open the file, you’ll notice that there are two tabs at the bottom.  The first tab is called “Feature-Benefit” and it contains three columns (Features, Capabilities, Benefits).  All you have to do is list your features (one per row), then list the capabilities that this feature allows (you can have multiple capabilities per row).  Then in the third column list all the benefits that this feature and capability provide your customer (you can have multiple capabilities per row).

The second tab is named “Customer Want Table”  this is the feature-capabilities-benefits chart turned upside down and based on what your customer wants.

Customer wants are just that — using the voice of the customer, list all their wants (one per row).  For example, “I want my pizza to show up hot at my door in 30 minutes or less.”  Then in the second column list all the features that deliver the customer want.  Using our pizza example you might say “We have 10 locations in every zip code” or “We have 100 drivers in your town”.  These are all “features” that make it possible for a pizza to show up hot, at your door in 30 minutes or less.

Features-Capabilities and Benefits Build Competitive Advantage

When you take the time to list every feature that your product and service offers, match it to its capabilities and benefits and then go one step further and compare those items to the other alternatives competing for your customers’ attention — you will be amazed at the perspective that you will get.

You will find a new excitement and appreciation for your product and service that you may not have had before.  Another benefit is the added perspective that your sales people and customers will get as they learn more about what customers want and where the trade-offs are for customers as they explore alternatives in the market.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE FEATURE BENEFIT TEMPLATE HERE — Not pretty – but effective.

Branding can be an expensive proposition.

Either you do it yourself and pull all your hair out.  Or you hire someone and they pull all your money out.  At the end of either process, you level of happiness for the time, money and effort may or may not be what you’d expected.

Just this morning, I was introduced to this wonderful resource that I’m exploring as I write this.  It’s called “How-To-Branding.com”
DIY Tools and Techniques for Affordable Branding Success.  This is a blog by Michael DiFrisco, a branding expert with my same passion for DIY techniques.

First Impressions

The first thing I see is this HUGE list of brand-rich subject matter that hits home with me:

• Differentiate
• Create Tag Lines
• Branding Strategies

There are a ton more topics to explore on this information-filled site.

I’ve already subscribed to the mailing list and hope to get lots of great tips to share with you – either as part of the blog or as part of the weekly tips series that you can register for.

Discovering Your Brand Essence

I’m immediately drawn to the button that says “Unique Selling Prop” because even though this seems easy, it’s always harder when it’s yours.  In fact, I’m a big collector of Unique Selling Prop tools and I think this one will go into my mix IMMEDIATELY. I didn’t read too far down the page until I ran into a link that said ““The inverted pyramid exercise” — pay dirt.  I never read past that and clicked over immediately.

This is a really – really interesting exercise.  And while I’ve done elements of this before, I can’t say that I’ve ever seen this one.  here’s the summary of questions:

1. List your products, services and offerings (at the base of the triangle)  List them ALL.
2. Now segment or categorize or group all these offerings (that goes above the base)
3. List the fundamental customer needs at the top of the triangle — these would be emotional, what’s important to them,
4. Almost done- what’s the common denominator that ties them all together?
5. Finally flip your triangle and your brand essence is at the top.

There is so much more – but you will have to visit this new site and explore it yourself.

I’m looking to learning more from Michael, my new DIY Branding Buddy.

Since this article was originally posted, OneCoach is no longer in business.

Because DIY Marketers is here to be your “Consumer Reports” of marketing, I’m always looking at tools, programs and systems that will cut the trial-and-error out of your process – and save you money too.

I’ve been participating in the OneCoach program over the last several months and I have recommended it whole-heartedly to anyone who is struggling with growing their business — EXPONENTIALLY.    A few weeks ago, I received these BEAUTIFUL workbooks and DVD’s in the mail.

I’ve been taking the program online — but having the materials is a completely different experience altogether.

This program no longer exists — but the template I cover in the section below is EXCELLENT!

Sample 60-Seconed Elevator Pitch

I can tell you that I’ve seen countless outlines for elevator pitches and this is one of my favorites.

1. We (or I) work with... in this section DESCRIBE your ideal customer.  ”Time strapped small business CEOs looking for Cliff’s Notes practical low-cost marketing strategies.”
2. Who struggle with… This is where you want to put in THE ONE biggest, most emotional frustration that your ideal customer has around what you’re selling. ” Who struggle with the fact that their marketing department consists of a staff of “me, myself and I”
3. And would like to… Here is where you put what your customer WANTS — you know emotionally wants — not some pablum – something that would make their heart sing.  Here’s mine “Who wants to come to a place where it’s all spoon fed, nice and easy to do in a day for less than $1000″
4. What makes my…Different From…. I’ve combined these although the OnceCoach people have them separated.  This is the place where you categorize your business.  What are you selling that people are buying?  Are you a daycare? Drycleaner? Valve Manufacturer? Web site?  Put yourself in a category because that’s what your ideal customer does.
5. Is that we (or I)… This is where your differentiator – competitive advantage – or USP goes.  What sets you apart from every other alternative.  Why will your ideal customer choose you regardless of price?
6. As a result, my clients receive…. What benefit do your customers get from your experience?  Will they save money, save time, what?

Just so that you can see that I put my money where my mouth is — here is my draft Elevator Pitch for DIYMarketers.com using this outline:

DIYMarketers is for:

-       Time strapped small biz CEOs looking for a cliffs notes of practical, low cost marketing strategies.

Who struggle with

-       the fact that their marketing department consists of a staff of “me, myself and I”.  There are just too many options that all promise wonders and cost a fortune.

And would like to:

-       Come to one place where the information is literally spoon-fed, easy to understand and implement in a day.

What makes DIYMarketers different from the other marketing-focused websites like Marketing Sherpa or Marketing Profs is that we –

-       We distill the information that’s out there into small , doable bits and projects that are organized by the specific situation you’re in and NOT some marketing category.

As a result –

-       You get to create a marketing strategy and program that is an authentic expression of who YOU are and who you want to serve.

-       You will have fun making money and attracting only your ideal client

The internet is really a double edged sword.  On the one hand, anytime you have a question about absolutely anything, all you have to do is “Google” the phrase and up pop literally thousands of potential answers to your inquiry.  On the other hand, which sites do you trust to give you “executive” or “customer-worthy” information that you can trust and re-use in your business?  Suddenly your search gets narrowed down fairly quickly to a handful of resource sites that a DIY Marketer could use.

AMEX Open Forum Blog is one I’d like to feature today.

With their focus clearly on the business segment, AMEX is not known for fluffy or insignificant content, and the cadre of writers that contribute to this blog is  a group of proven experts whose insight and opinion you can trust.  Unfiortunately, article space doesn’t always allow for digging deeper into the article for application points.  So I’m going to try and do that here for you with a couple articles.

Dawn Rivers brings back the concept of “Layaway” in her most recent article.  Layaway is a throwback to a time when credit wasn’t something you threw around lightly.  In case you don’t remember, here’s how a layaway works.  You go to a store and “purchase” the things you want.  You take your items to the back of the store (where they usually had a layaway department) and they would mark them as yours and set them aside.  You would make payments to the store on a regular basis until your item(s) were paid for.  Then you would take them home.  If you’re in the retail business – then hop over to this article and read on!  Great links and resources as to how to bring layaway back and maybe some customers.

In what ways can you make “Layaway” work for you – if you’re NOT in retail?

• If you offer any kind of training, seminars or workshops, why not put a class schedule together and allow customers to pre-schedule and make payments up until the class starts?
• Consulting services can be scheduled and paid on a low-cost retainer throughout the life of the project.

This month, my article at the Open Forum references a trend study that found that while overall spending has decreased, consumers are STILL purchasing “green” and eco-friendly items.  I outline some ideas you can use to re-position your product or service to get and keep some of these customers.

If you’re still itchin’ for great low-cost, high-impace (and some hilarious) ideas, read Anita Campbell’s post on Resourcefully Creative Marketing Ideas.  Follow the links to Small Business Trends and download your very own copy!

Regardless of what your product, service or offering is — the best way to get and keep loyal customers is by direct marketing to a list.

It’s not about the number of people you have on your list that will determine the success or failure of your campaign, it’s the relevance of your offer to the people on the list coupled with how much they trust and value your recommendations.

High Conversion = Relevance of the offer + Trust level in the Referrer

A really good source for this type of list is LinkedIn.  Because the relationships on LinkedIn are presumed (that’s a key word) to be real and based on some level of experience with the contact, they have a higher probability of converting to your offer.  But you really have to be careful with this.  So many people are treating LinkedIn like a numbers game, with no respect for the relationship to the list.  This just makes those LinkedIn contacts watered down and useless.  This is not a quantity game, it’s a quality game.

Here is how to get the most out of your LinkedIn Contacts.

1. Build your reputation by giving and helping contacts and groups.  The reciprocity and relationship building principles are key.  Yes, it takes time to go into groups, read questions, provide insightful and useful answers, but if building a responsive and targeted list is important, you will do it.
2. Leave Endorsements.  Spend a few minutes every week leaving endorsements for people you have worked with and for.
3. Join relevant groups.  Take time to join the groups that are relevant to your specialty and then take time every day or at least a couple times a week to help and contribute.  Also leave content that is helpful and not self-promoting all the time.
4. Ask and answer questions.  You literally promote yourself and your expertise by asking and answering questions.  Take time to do this a couple of times a week.
5. Connect other people.  Don’t just digitally connect, volunteer to put together people who can benefit each other.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool.  In fact, I prefer the free version because it forces you to talk to more people to connect to the ones you want.

Here’s a how-to tip you can use from fellow DIYMarketer, Jenni Cox has over 20,000 members in her National Network if Embroidery Professionals.  When she sends her lists information, they respond.  She earned that response the quality, hard way by:

1. Joining groups on embroidery(Yahoo and others)
2. She created an Outlook file for these groups.  Then she created a rule that sends all the discussions to that file.  Every day she glances through the list and answers a handful of questions.  She makes sure that she contributes helpful hints and content to every group at least once every two weeks.
3. From this process she gains  a handful of new trusting, responding members every week.

What’s your quality list building tip?  Tell me all about it and I’ll feature you in a future post!

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One of the things you can expect from DIYMarketers are periodic reviews of tools and resources that you’ll find helpful in selling to small businesses.

We all have a long list of blogs and articles we read every day – but I have to strongly recommend “Selling to Small Business.”  If you’re already an avid reader of Small Business Trends, then you might know about this one.  Both are online publications by Small Business Expert, Anita Campbell.

Anita truly has her pulse on what’s happening in the small business world.  In light of full disclosure, Anita is a client and a friend — but BOTH of these roles actually came years after I started following her work, reading her blog and relying on her online publications for my industry and trend information — heavily, I might add.  I only have one criticism of how Anita’s publications — I wish they had a portal that was all Anita Campbell small business stuff – all the time.  My biggest issue is that I have to hop from URL to URL and that they aren’t just a portal all their own.  But that’s just me and it goes to show how much I rely on her unique way of pulling information together in digestible bites and using the most credible resources on the web.

I’ll be reviewing several of her sites in the coming months, but I really want to start with “Selling to Small Business” first.

Who Should Read Selling to Small Business and Why?

Like the name implies, if you intend on SELLING to SMALL BUSINESS – you should read this blog.  But don’t even think about using this as “Chamber event” where you constantly pitch the audience on whatever your wares are.  It doesn’t work like that. Selling to Small Business is a resource to those of us who serve this market.  It will educate BOTH the large multi-national company like a Microsoft of an Intel on what’s important to small business, as well as the smaller provider of products and services.

How to Get the Most Out of Selling to Small Business?

Regardless of how you organize your blog reading, I recommend that you put all of Anita’s blogs very close together, so that you can take a quick glance and what topics she’s covering.  So put it on your reader.

It runs on a standard blog format, so the most recent stories are on the top and you can scroll your way down.  But remember – this is not so much a time driven source of information, as it is valuable category information – so be sure to look to your right where you’ll see the categories and the number of articles in each category.

Currently the categories tell you something about what’s happening in small business.  For example, she’s got one on Baby Boomers.  I never would have thought that as a category – but read the stories that are tagged and you’ll see that she’s thought this through – the stories aren’t just ABOUT baby boomers, some of them are stories baby boomers who are responsible for selling to small business should pay attention to.  Love that.

The next tab is “About” and you can learn more about what Anita was thinking when she started Selling to Small Business.

MY FAVORITE TAB – Small Business Lists!

Look you DIY Marketers — it’s all about the LIST.  It is so about the list and the community that you should not every kid yourself about this.  Here Anita gives you a wonderful resource ; calendars of small business events that you might find interesting to attend.

The other “list” she gives is the link to her SMBTrendwire podcasts.  These are weekly interviews that Anita and Steve Rucinski do with a variety of small business experts and authors.  There is so much to learn from these – you’ll have to put yourself on a daily budget of what to listen to and how much.

The last list resource is a directory of small business blogs. Againk you’ll have to look through these and identify the ones that are most useful to you.

Finally there is the archives section – which is what you’d expect it to be – archives of articles by category and month.

I highly encourage you to not only check this blog out, but I encourage you to become a subscriber and regular reader.  When you’re in dire need of quick, high quality info and data — this is your place.

The DIYMarketers and Toilet Paper Entrepreneur 3-Sheet Strategy Tele-Seminar is TOMORROW February 6, 2009 from 12:10 to 3:10 EST! If you haven’t registered — here is one of your last opportunities to do that.

I’m going to share something with you all.  It has been a messy process.  Like many of you, I’ve read my share of books, articles and blogs about how to market just about anything.  Everything you read makes it seem so elegant, so streamlined and so simple.  But it’s not.  I don’t care how easy some of the gurus say it is.  If you’re like the most of us – building a customer community is a get big slow process.

Marketing is a messy business these days.  No one wants another e-mail, another phone call asking them to do something and give you their time.  I don’t know about you, but I basically ignore and delete all of those things.

So, how do YOU create enough energy, enthusiasm and momentum to bring your ideal customer to you?

Tell me how you’re building your customer lists and mailing lists.  Contact me and we’ll use your method and feature them as a case study and how-to post on the site.

I’ve never been one of these people who gets all passionate about causes.  Don’t get me wrong; I care about the environment, I care about animals and little children all over the world — I just don’t have that special tug at the heart and mind that inspires me to get on a soapbox about that and commit time and money to the project.

UNTIL NOW!  I’ve Found my Cause and….

IT’S YOU and YOUR Business Success in 2009!

It dawned on me when I was putting together the press release for the DIYMarketers and Toilet Paper Entrepreneur 3-Sheet Strategy Workshop (Which I’m sure you’ve registered for already — I mean at $49 for having your strategy DONE for 2009 — killer deal).

I didn’t want to promote this thing as “Register for MY workshop—”  Because — I realized it wasn’t really ABOUT ME and the success of the workshop — it was really about YOU!  I’m not just saying that either.  Of course I want to be successful in my business — so do you.  But NONE of us can succeed if we all lay down in this economy.  We can’t succeed if we’re still running the same marketing process and strategy — because the environment has changed.  LOTS of things have changed in the last year.  Government has turned over; what was important last year isn’t important this year.

YOU CAN’T BE RUNNING THE SAME STRATEGY – so don’t even think about it.  If that’s the case – then WHAT?

That brings me right back around to my cause – which I would appreciate if you’d spread around (only if you feel the same way).

I’m looking for anywhere from 50 to 100 businesses who want to be heroes in this economy.  If you’re saying that can’t be you – well then it won’t be and Mike Michalowicz (Donnie Deutsch’s small biz expert — yeah, you read that right)  and I will be featuring someone else.

Let me talk about how I envision this project:

1. Register for the site and download the 3-Sheet Strategy Worksheet.  This is freakin’ FREE – so download the sheet and give it a try.  If you’re like me and feel lonely through this process – well, then join us for the TPE 3-Sheet Strategy Sessions.
2. Small Businesses register for the 3-Sheet Strategy.  To have a crack at this, you have to register for this session.  It’s a 3-hour tele-seminar on Feb 6.  It costs $49 (and if you use “DIYM” in the promo code you’ll get another $5 off.  You’ll have a strategy and plan done in 3 hours.  But forget all that — you’ll be networked in with a community of people who will want to help you – we will work together we will help each other — straight from the heart.  A_holes need not apply – we don’t want you.  We want people who are committed to growing their business and sharing their ideas with others.
3. Join the 1 on 1 coaching sessions - that’s 30 days of 1 on 1 coaching with Mike, Ivana and anyone else we think you might need to talk to. (pssst – take a look at the right hand margin of this page – — see it?)  CLICK.  Once you have your plan – we will actually help you work it, hold you hand, kick your ass — whatever is required to make you successful.  As far as Mike and I are concerned failure is NOT an option.  Once you commit to this process – we are here for you.
4. Implement your marketing plan on DIYMarketers. The next step will be to implement your plan on DIYMarketers.  I have a forum all set up for the people who hear the same calling of success in 2009.  I’ve got vendors and resources (my special friends) that have a stake in your success as well.

Now comes the fun part of my vision…You guys know I’m a guest expert on Small Business Trends. I write book reviews, I pull together DIY Marketing articles for the Marketing Tips Section sponsored by HP and I’m also a guest expert via SmallBizTrends on the AMEX open Forum blog.  All of these blogs need CONTENT and stories about businesses that are doing it right.  Business owners all over the world want to know what works, what you’re doing, why and HOW.

Why shouldn’t those stories be about YOU?  I don’t know – but the only way they CAN be about YOU is if you let me know who you are!  So this is my call to action for those of you that want to OPT OUT of this economy -

Pass this post on – tell your business buddies – register, participate and play the most exciting game of all – the one where you, your business, your friends and family have a kick ass successful and fun 2009!

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Wabi Sabi is the Japanese term for finding beauty in imperfection. This kind of philosophy is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to doing marketing on a budget.

With the recent success of cinema verite commercials like the Burger Kind “We’ve discontinued the Whopper” commercials, and the scads of “low budget” You Tube videos out there actually put together by big-and-deep-pocketed corporations. It should be clear to you by now – that it’s not about big-budget design. It’s about content and connection to your ideal customer.

So, as I move forward pulling together this DIY Marketers site – I’ve made the decision that this is strictly going to be LOW-BUDGET marketing. That means that you’ll see marketing techniques using every day items i.e. videos taken with my Fuji Finepix and the 1gigabyte card that’s in there.

This site as all about working together and helping each other get CHOSEN by our ideal customer – and NOT about showing how techy and glitzy we can be.