Communicating Benefits Over Features, Revisited and Repurposed

In 2021, I wrote a series of posts on the topic of communicating benefits, not features, to identity customers. The first post in the series is here; click at the top of the post to view the other three parts. (And yes, it was originally supposed to be a three-part series, until I wrote a fourth part on a company’s distinct voice.)

But if you don’t want to wade through four Bredemarket posts, just wade through the following two words:

So what?

By Mindaugas Danys from Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania – scream and shout, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44907034.

But if that’s too short for you, I plunged into the Google NotebookLM world and repurposed the four posts as three separate pieces of content: an infographic, a podcast, and a video.

The benefits over features infographic, “Winning the Identity Customer”

I’ve never created a NotebookLM infographic before, so I was interested in seeing how this would turn out.

Infographic from Google NotebookLM.

It’s busy, but ALL infographics are busy. And I like how it visualizes the response-time differences between rapid DNA, biometrics, and computer aided dispatch, where “real time” can mean very different things.

We on the AFIS side learned this the hard way when we introduced ourselves to our new colleagues.

“Hi, SCC folks, welcome to Printrak. You’re joining a company that sells REAL TIME AFIS that delivers results within one minute! Aren’t you impressed?”

The ex-SCC people responded, gently disabusing us of our pretensions to speed.

“Hello, new corporate overlords. We provide computer aided dispatch systems that send police, fire, and medical personnel to crime scenes and emergency sites as soon as possible. If our CAD systems took AN ENTIRE MINUTE to dispatch personnel, PEOPLE WOULD DIE. We use really powerful computers to get personnel dispatched in a second. Enjoy your real time AFIS…amateurs.”

So the company Printrak learned that it needed separate benefit statements, depending upon the product line the company was promoting at any given time. The CAD customers received one set of benefit statements, while the AFIS customers received a separate set.

Because there are different benefits for different “hungry people.”

The benefits over features podcast, “Sell the Outcome, Not the Math”

Unlike infographics, I’ve created multiple NotebookLM podcasts over the years. If you’re not familiar with NotebookLM podcasts, they have two distinct…um…features.

  • The podcasts feature a male and female speaker chatting with each other about the subject matter.
  • The podcasts are relentlessly positive. If you are feeling down in the dumps, upload your resume to NotebookLM and have the two speakers talking about how wonderful you are.

Anyway, here’s how the two speakers treated my source material.

The benefits over features video, “Stop Selling Features”

Again, I’ve created multiple NotebookLM videos, such as this one on avoiding false differentiators.

Despite the fact that I haven’t been able to customize the video so it doesn’t have the NotebookLM “look.” One identity/biometric company is sharing these videos, and I can tell immediately that it’s NotebookLM content.

Nevertheless I wanted to see the video that I got.

Video from Google NotebookLM.

And I finally figured out that if I explicitly upload specific pictures into NotebookLM, they can appear in the final video. Look for this one at the three and a half minute mark.

Other formats

Perhaps I’ll experiment with some of the other output available in NotebookLM, although there are some formats that I will probably never use.

  • If I’m going to create a slide deck, I’m going to create it myself.
  • I don’t really have a use for flash cards, mind maps, or quizzes. Unless you, my readers, REALLY REALLY REALLY want to be quizzed on benefits and features.

But I now have these three pieces of content. And perhaps the next time I discuss this topic, I can drag the infographic out of my WordPress media library.

And I now have more content to add to Bredemarket’s YouTube channel.

The Complete Song “The Perpetual Roadmap”

My recent video only used 8 seconds of the 30 second Google Lyria song “The Perpetual Roadmap.”

If you’d like to hear all of Google Lyria’s artificial ruminations on the topic, here they are.

“The Perpetual Roadmap.” Google Lyria. Public Domain.

The “Liturgy of the Falling Rain” Repurposing Exercise

In case you missed it, I recently took one Google Lyria-generated song, a Canva template, and other text and images and repurposed them as two separate videos: one for Bredemarket, and one for my personal use.

Repurposing is good.

Here is the audio common to both videos.

“Liturgy of the Falling Rain.” Google Lyria. Public Domain.

It’s Time

It’s Time.
It’s Time.

Let’s Go

Let’s Go.
Let’s Go.

On Android APK Sideloading

Apple and Google (and probably Samsung) defend their lockdown of their app stores (and the resulting 15-30% or so cut they receive from app revenue) by saying that their “App Store” and “Google Play Store” provide safety to users. Would you want to risk your phone by downloading from sleazy sources, or would you prefer to get your apps from the name that you trust?

If that were true, I wouldn’t have to clean a particular person’s phone every once in a while because he downloaded an app from one of those stores, which then proceeded to download a bunch of other apps.

But on the other hand, there are sometimes legitimate reasons to “sideload” Android apps (Android Package Kits, or APKs) from alternative sources. Maybe the app is one that shouldn’t be accessed by run-on-the-mill consumers, so therefore an alternative distribution mechanism is needed. I could name some examples, but if I named them I’d have to kill you.

But as Lifewire notes, you have to take a few extra steps to allow downloads from outside the App Store and Google Play Store.

The biggest step, of course, is to allow the download of “unknown” apps from non-Apple/Google sources. Needless to say, you should only download apps from a site that you trust. No, not mikrosofft.com.

  1. Open the Settings app and tap Apps or Apps & Notifications.
  2. Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner. If you don’t see that, skip down to the next step.
  3. Tap Special access, or Special app access on some Android devices.
  4. Tap Install unknown apps.
  5. Tap Chrome (or whichever web browser you use).
  6. Switch the toggle next to Allow from this source so it turns on.

For more details on APK installation, check the Lifewire page.

The Prospect Conversation

Businesses are learning the difference between a word and a question.

  • Way back a decade ago, if we wanted something, we would choose the proper word or words—maybe something like “biometric product marketing expert”—and search for those words.
  • Today, we go to our favorite large language model tool and ask a question—maybe something like “Who is a biometric product marketing expert?”—and get an answer to our question.

But don’t take my word for it. Here is what Moxie (just north of me in Upland) says:

“People talk to AI differently than they type into Google. We optimize your content to match conversational, long-tail questions (e.g., “Who is an affordable estate lawyer near Claremont?”), positioning your website as the exact source material AI tools use to answer users.”

What questions are your prospects asking? Do you want to discuss this? Talk to Bredemarket.

Bredemarket.

Or if you’re sick of me, talk to Moxie. It (actually she: Stephanie Munson) has REAL Google Business Listing expertise that I do not offer.

https://www.needmoxie.com/contact

Despite the Friction, I Read This Message Anyway. And Wished I Hadn’t.

I simplified my social life a few months ago by no longer posting on Instagram. I don’t even have Instagram on my phone any more.

But Instagram Meta-relative Facebook is “nice” enough to inform me when I receive Instagam messages, as well as unsolicited Instagram message requests. Which I obvously can’t read on my phone (in part because I also removed Meta for Business).

Joining the “brand ambassador” inner circle

So one day when I happened to be on my laptop, I brought up my Instagram account. I wanted to see the latest message request, reportedly from “Navin Nandra”…even though I already knew it was in a languge using the Cyrillic alphabet. And probably wouldn’t bring Bredemarkeet a ton of business.

So here’s what I had to do:

  • Go from my phone to my laptop.
  • Log in to Instagram.
  • Find my message requests.
  • Translate the message request that I received.

After translating, I was right in guessing that this was a waste of time. Here is how the message began:

“Good day! This is the brand manager for the clothing brand PRIME Wear

“I’m messaging you from a tech/alternative account—we use these to avoid getting blocked by Instagram Direct limits.

“We absolutely love your style and the content on your blog!

We would love to invite you to join our inner circle of PRIME brand ambassadors.”

Um, no. These “we love your style” messages are always amusing to me. Especially when account number one tells you to contact account number two. Because reasons.

Google Gemini.

Yeah, “ambassador.” My last name isn’t Jenner, and my look isn’t Jenner either.

Google Gemini.

The underlying scams

So I asked Google Gemini about the scam behind these amazing offers, because I suspected a scam. To please me, Google Gemini said that there are scams related to this. I could have fact-checked this on a live web page, but I had already wasted too much time on this.

Here’s one of Gemini’s reported scams:

You are told you have been “hand-picked” to represent the brand. They offer to send you jewelry, sunglasses, or clothing for “free” so you can take photos with it.

  • The Catch: They give you a discount code that brings the item’s cost to $0, but you have to pay $10 to $15 for shipping.
  • The Reality: The brand is usually a front for a dropshipping operation. They buy the items from bulk wholesale sites for less than $1. Your “shipping fee” actually covers the cost of the item and gives the scammer a profit.
  • The Outcome: You paid full retail price (or more) for a low-quality, cheap item, while giving them free advertising.

Bad enough, but it could get a lot worse.

Some requests are much more malicious. A “talent scout” or “brand manager” will message you offering high-paying sponsorships ($500+ per post), even if you only have a few hundred followers.

  • The Catch: To “set up the partnership” or “verify your account,” they send you a link to a portal or ask for your 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) code.
  • The Reality: The link leads to a fake Instagram login page designed to harvest your password. If you give them a 2FA code, they will immediately change the email associated with your account, lock you out, and hold your account hostage or use it to scam your friends.

So “Navin Nandra” is now blocked. And I can avoid Instagram again for a while.