3 Ways to Identify the Benefits Most Pertinent to Your Audience

To persuade prospects to register for your seminars, your marketing copy must adequately explain the value of your training. One critical way you can do this is by accurately describing the benefits of attending your seminar. Many seminar promoters and trainers believe that it's enough to merely tell prospects what they’ll be learning at the event. However, for the biggest impact (and registration results), you need to go one step further by providing specifics about how prospective attendees could -- and probably will -- benefit by learning the information you'll teach at your seminar. Connecting the dots by spelling out the benefits will win you more registrations because it eliminates the need for prospective attendees to think about and analyze the potential benefits. It makes it easier for them to visualize how much better life will be once they have learned and mastered your content. It helps to move the sales conversation from your prospects' heads, where they could just as easily rationalize that they don't need to participate in your seminar, to their guts, where they'll feel the impulse and desire to buy. There are three different ways you can pinpoint the benefits that are most important to your prospects. Use these methods alone or in combination.

1. Identify Solutions. Start by writing a list of the challenges or problems your customers are facing. What are the solutions to these problems? What would the reverse scenario be? The answers to these questions are the solutions you can identify as benefits. For example, if your audience is facing shrinking profit margins because of a flat market or increased competition, tell prospects that you can help them grow their profit margins, gain market share in the face of increased competition, and make their business stand out in a sea of competition.
2. Start with Your Content. Create an exhaustive list of every single thing your attendees will learn at your event. Ask "so what?" after each point. This will help you identify the benefits of learning the individual lessons you are teaching. Next, categorize your list. Look for common topics or themes, which you can then turn into "big-picture" benefits. For example, if you are conducting a basic marketing seminar, you would probably have several items related to picking mailing lists, designing effective marketing pieces, and writing copy. Your global benefits could be just that -- picking the perfect mailing list, designing effective marketing pieces, and writing high-impact copy. Or you could go even higher by explaining that your seminar will teach effective strategies for maximizing response rates while minimizing marketing costs.
3. Ask. Identify your most important benefits by simply asking your past attendees. Find out what they were shopping for when they signed up for your event. Ask what the biggest "take-aways" were -- the most important things they learned and how they have benefited. This is one of the easiest ways to identify benefits ... especially if you are marketing a seminar for which you are not a subject matter expert. Interviewing past attendees also allows you to identify the specific words and phrases that will resonate with your audience. It's a way to speak your audience's language, which lends credibility to your marketing.

People attend continuing education seminars to expand their knowledge and learn new skills. By helping prospects visualize how they'll benefit by gaining these new tools and wisdom, you position your seminar as a "must attend" event.