Product Marketing Tips: Writing Benefits vs. Features Part I

Jun. 23, 2010

Swiss Army Knife Many people don't understand the difference between features and benefits, and unfortunately, this can be a huge detriment when you're writing product copy. If you're not describing the right aspects or characteristics of your product or service then you could be wasting your time by trying to sell something that your target audience doesn't want or need. Since this is such an important part of writing product copy, advertisements and sales collateral, we've decided to give you a quick overview of the difference between features and benefits and how you can make them work for your business' content writing strategy.

What is a Feature?

A feature is a physical or tangible aspect of, or a factual statement about, a product or service that you are promoting.

What is a Benefit?

A benefit is what happens to your customers, when they take your product or service and implement it. In other words, a benefit tells your customers why your features matter or "what's in it for them."

So--Do People Buy Based on Benefits or Features?

Common marketing knowledge says that most prospective customers like to buy based on benefits and there is solid reasoning behind that theory. People are often looking for solutions to the problems that they have in their lives and a benefit explains to them how your product solves those issues. When customers enter the buying process and begin evaluating vendors they want to know how owning your product or using your service will improve their business. For instance, imagine that you're a B2B organization that has 24 hour customer service. Great, so what is the benefit? The benefit from your customers' perspective is that they can get the help they need with your product anytime they need it, day or night.

But...

It is important to remember that a benefit is a result of a feature and without the feature itself, your benefit can seem untrustworthy, illegitimate, and sometimes, downright silly. It's one thing to tell your prospective customers that you can provide them the help they need, when they need it, but without first explaining to them that you have a 24-hour customer service call-center (for example) then they have no real reason to believe that they actually can get that kind of help, for all they know, that's just a persuasive sales pitch.

What Does All of This Mean?

At the end of the day, what you really need to effectively sell your products are benefits verified by features. If you list a relevant feature and then explain why that feature is important to your customer you can bring to life the exact reasons why a customer should buy your products or hire you for the services you provide.

Hopefully this post gives you a better idea of the differences between features and benefits when it comes to product marketing. Stay tuned for part II of this post, in which we'll explain how you can make the most out of features and benefits in your content.

Update: Part II of this post can be read here.