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Sell the Power, Not the Flower

We’ve all played at least one version of Super Mario Bros. It’s the most popular video game in history.

As a kid, I’d stay up all night, mashing the buttons on the controller until my thumbs couldn’t take anymore… Ah, those were the days.

I still remember the first time I found one of the secrets in the game. We called it the Power Flower

You’d break a brick and out would pop a flashing white and red flower-looking thing. Jump up and grab it, and Mario would be powered-up with fireballs to throw at your enemies.

It was one of the best power-ups in the game.

• It gave you the ability to take out enemies from a distance.
• It made it so you could take an extra hit before dying.
• It made beating some of the more difficult levels in the game a lot easier for a player like me. And probably you, as well.

So, you’ve got something to sell – we’ll say it’s one of these Power Flowers – and you decide to run an ad, sending people to your sales page.

“One of a Kind Power Flower,” your headline reads.

And then you go on to brag about how long you’ve been growing flowers…

• How you only use organic soil…
• How this strain of flower comes from a special garden in Eastern Asia…
• How bright red the pedals are and how snow white the stem is…

And on, and on, and on.

You focus on selling the flower, and not what people actually want… The POWER.

Instead, jump straight to what people want to buy… the transformation.

• Destroy your enemies from the other side of the screen.
• Finally beat those impossible levels.
• It’s like having an extra life, without having to start over whenever you get hit.

These are the things your buyer wants to hear about, all the ways your flower will make their life easier or better. Make your ads and sales pages about that.

Sell the Power, Not the Flower.