Speaking to your customers and potential customers in a language they can understand is a fundamental but sometimes overlooked marketing principal. Many organizations suffer from internally-focused marketing—using the same language they use in-house to reach out to customers and potential customers that have little to no knowledge of the business. Are you communicating with your audiences in a way that they are able to immediately recognize the benefit of your offer, or is the value hidden because you’re not seeing it trough their eyes?

The two most important principals of benefit-driven marketing are to give your product a customer-friendly name and speak about your product in your customer’s language.

Who wants to buy a XE750?
First of all, what is an XE750? Is it a car; an all-in-one printer, faxer, scanner; a pacemaker; an MP3 player? Giving your product an ambiguous name makes it hard for your customers to identify its purpose, never mind see the benefit in owning it. Giving the product an obvious name will not only help clients understand it, it will make it easier to buy, more inviting to own, and easier to talk about. If the XE750 is a new, high-definition MP3 player, give it a name that touts it benefit—Harmony, the first high-def MP3 player.

The first, the best, the only…
Carefully scripted messages to your customers and potential customers are the other piece of the puzzle when in comes to benefit-driven marketing. Talk to your audience about how you will make their lives easier and better instead of telling them what you have to offer. Is it a 96 gigabite, high-definition, portable audio MP3 player or is it the “World first high-definition MP3 player that can accommodates your entire music collection of over 15,000 songs”? Direct your message to your customer so they can easily discern the value of your product.

Frequently, companies get lost in the mix because they suffer from internally-focused marketing. Take the time to reevaluate your messages to see if you can offer your customers and potential customers a new and refreshing perspective that has their needs in mind.