Features vs. Benefits

Features and benefits have two distinct and necessary roles.

Features: A characteristic of the product, i.e. what it does and what it's made of.

Benefit: A result of a feature. Benefits answer the question, "How would this help me?"

Customers need to know your product's features. They need to know the length of an extension cord, the wattage of a light bulb, and the calories in their snack food. In order to better understand a product, features must be available—especially if it's a technical product. However, for less technical products, it is often better to focus on benefits.

Focusing on benefits helps your product stand out. Let's say you're at the store picking up some motor oil. There are three bottles on the shelf, each with its own message.

Bottle 1: "Protects against oxidation."

Bottle 2: "Prevents buildup."

Bottle 3: "Extends the life of your engine."

All three brands will perform the same function, but the third grabs your attention because it mentions an appealing benefit. This is a great way to get a product to stand out, and that's why it's so important on the web. Instead of going up against two or three competing products, you may be listed among hundreds of competitors in your category.

The internet is like a jungle of options. The shopper is like a hunter, hacking through the leaves with a machete. If your product isn't appealing, it will be cut down and stepped on as the shopper proceeds to the next website. Remember, the buying process is a process of elimination. If you are searching for a dentist, you aren't going to choose your two favorite ones. You want the right one, and all the others will be eliminated from the list. It can be hard to know which ones to eliminate though. Customers have to make judgments based on a few photos and your description of the product. That's why word choice matters.

Although benefits are great for grabbing attention, they won't usually lead to a sale on their own. After a benefit catches a person's eye, you need to prove that your product can live up to what you said. This can be accomplished by connecting the benefit to its feature. Let's see it in action. We'll use a vacuum ad as an example.

Benefit: "Get a deeper clean."

Benefit + Feature: "Get a deeper clean with our 6-brush system."

Making a benefit + feature statement is like saying, "This is what I can do for you, and this is how I'll do it." (Politicians would do well to learn this lesson. Benefits with no features are just empty promises.) Depending on your product, it may be more effective to name the feature first.

Feature: "Contains Ginseng and Vitamin B"

Feature + Benefit: "Contains Ginseng and Vitamin B for increased energy and mental acuity."

If customers did not know what Ginseng and Vitamin B were used for, they could quickly learn their value from the feature + benefit statement. After all, there's no point selling a great product if nobody knows it's great.

One final word of advice: Avoid using pseudo-features. Some marketers like to inflate their list of bullet points by making one feature sound like two. They also like listing obvious features, like an ON/OFF switch. These tactics will make your product look cheap, so just stick to the good stuff.

---

Comments - make a comment

---

Make a Comment