B-to-B article actively promotes benefits 

The current issue of B to B magazine (9/10/07) has an important article entitled Benefits first: Marketing’s active voice.  It was written by marketing and public relations professional Jason Karpf.  Here are excerpts worth sharing. They relate to sales literature, direct mail, and advertising you produce.  And they also have a bearing on face-to-face selling.

Use active voice, not passive voice 

Karpf says: “Passive voice scrambles and weakens a sentence, elevating a direct object to the role of subject while defaulting to a measly linking verb and tacked- on prepositional phrases that conceal the sentence’s true actor.” He gives a simple example. Passive voice: The new product is manufactured by ABC Co.  Active voice:  ABC Co. manufactures the new product. 

Karpf points out: “Marketing’s active voice concerns the two fundamentals of marcom content: benefits and features. The rule here: ‘benefits first, then features.” 

How to develop an active voice 

Let’s say you are preparing a direct mailer promoting your business insurance services, and a telephone follow-up guide.  Here are Karpf’s suggestions for assuring that your mailer has an active voice.   

. List benefits and features in a two-column chart 

. Fill in features first (right-hand column) 

. Alongside each major feature, indicate the resultant benefit Show your list of benefits and your ranking of their importance to others on your agency team.  Gain agreement and refine the list. 

Working on your mailer to business prospects 

Ask “What does the customer need?”  Describe the need you fulfill (benefit).  Explain briefly how you do it (feature). Review and rewrite to eliminate passivity.  As Karpf says, “The best prose writers revise, tighten and realign their work.  The best marketers do the same.”   

If you use an outside firm to design and write your mailer, give them your list of business insurance benefits and features.  Check their work to make sure that it has the active voice you want.   

Remember the rule:  benefits first, then features---in all your marketing communications and personal sales presentations!