Extrinsic and Intrinsic Reader Benefits
Effective marketing or persuasion is the art of making the other team think they, themselves, benefit when they let you win.
Or, in other words: Audiences comply with your requests when they feel or think doing so benefits them.
In this way, the business and administrative world is different than war or symbolic acts of war, such as sports: in war and sports I really do make you give in through the application of physical force or prowess, while in the business and administrative world I trick you into thinking that you wanted to give in.
Reader Benefits is simply the term we'll use for benefits or advantages an audience gains from complying with a request or policy, buying a product, changing its behavior or simply adopting the writer's ideas.
Reader Benefits are what I get if I do what you tell me to do.
More importantly, there are two types of Reader Benefits: Extrinsic and Intrinsic.
Extrinsic Benefits are "added on" and additional to compliance: "If you do X you will receive Y."
The simplest example is a bribe. In fact, all extrinsic benefits are essentially bribes.
An extrinsic benefit is the biscuit you give a dog if it gets your slippers for you.
For people, an extrinsic benefit usually equals one of or some combination of: money or sex or food or time-off or praise or free long distance calling or a new phone with a built in mp3 player... or money or sex, sex or money....
Extrinsic Examples: "If you do X you will receive Y."
"Get straight A's this semester and I'll buy you a car."
"Study hard so you can get rich."
"Complete this report early and get a Christmas bonus."
"Show up for work every day and I'll pay you."
"Be virtuous and you'll get into heaven."
"Drink Budweiser and young hotties will stand next to you in the bar, wearing nothing but bathing suits."
"Drink Keystone Lite so that you have something to throw out the window while hunting deer."
Intrinsic Benefits are, in contrast, automatic and come directly from compliance and are all essentially emotional/psychological/spiritual. Examples include pride, pleasure, self-fulfillment, self-respect, wisdom, confidence etc.
Intrinsic Examples:
"Straight A's show you worked hard and are smart." (so you can feel confident, or simply feel smart, or simple feel good)
"Study hard and get smart." (because intelligence itself is inherently valuable or useful)
"Show up for work every day and know you're valued." (because humans are, like dogs, pack animals)
"Complete this report early and know that you've helped the team."
"Virtue is its own reward."
"Drink Budweiser because it tastes good." (yes, I realize this is debatable)
"Drink Keystone Lite because it's really just canned water and so you can drink twice as much and then brag to your friends about how much you were able to drink and this will establish your position as a dude."
Now, the main, operable difference between these two types of benefits is that while Extrinsic Benefits are easy to think of, they are hard to deliver, while Internal Benefits are hard to think of, hard to sell, and simple to deliver. In other words, Intrinsic Benefits are usually better because:
a) Extrinsic Benefits cost money or other kinds of resources. Intrinsic Bene's cost nada.
b) People (and dogs) become accustomed to receiving perks and treats, and then one day you run out and then what happens?
c) Research shows that over time Extrinsic Bene's may actually eventually make the audience less satisfied with compliance.
This is, if you think about it, logical: if I can convince you that doing x intrinsically rewards you -- that is, every time you do it you simply feel good about yourself and about doing it -- then you'll probably do it essentially forever.
However, if I bribe you with x to do y, then I've implied that doing y is so heinous that it's only worth doing because you're getting a bribe.
Further, evidence shows, as all of you with fat dogs know, that over time people demand increasingly larger bribes as the "benefit" of each bribe wears out; thus, the cost of extrinsic benefits always rises. In short, rather than getting your slippers for you when you want them, your dog gets them when he wants a biscuit.
Audience Analysis and Reader Benefits:
Different people and groups are motivated by different things. Benefits must be adapted to the specific audience.
Therefore, you must carefully analyze and understand your audience in order to understand what motivates them and how to appeal to that motivation thru Reader Benefits.
Tips For Using Intrinsic Benefits:
a) Reader Benefits must be proven with clear logic and adequate detail. The main thrust of all persuasion is showing and proving to the audience they benefit from compliance.
b) Benefits likely requires seeing the situation from the long-run perspective instead of the immediate, short-run perspective. Show the reader how a short-run sacrifice will lead to a more valuable long-run benefit.
c) Readers/consumers and justifiably skeptical; people often assume you are jerking their chain.
d) You will need to make the benefit emotionally appealing through emotionally convincing, appealing detailed description.
e) Last but not least: Reader Benefits must be phrased using You Attitude.
Not: "Here's what we'll do for you. . ." But: "Here's how this improves your situation. . ."
Not: "Come support the UI Vandals!" But: "Come help the Vandals win one for your school!"
Not: Vandal Pride Pass But: Vandal Spirit Fridays or Vandal Pride!