Benefits vs. Features: The difference between a sale and an afterthought

[Strive]

Many times when people ask for advice on their brand new widget or next big web company, they make the mistake of listing the features thinking they’re benefits. A feature is just something your widget can do, a benefit is what’s in it for me. Remember, almost every one of your customers does NOT care about you or even what you do, the ONLY thing they want to know is what can your product or service do for me? Does it save me money? Does it make my life easier? Can it make the trip to McDonalds for me? You can sell penmaster 3000 with all the features known to man, that’s great, but what does it do for me?

“Don’t you hate when your lowly pen runs out of ink? Well forget about those days with penmaster 3000! The self-filling ink cartridge guarantees you never have another inkless headache again.â€

Hmm I do hate when my pen runs out of ink.

“Not to mention with our patented sphere point technology, writing has never been more fluent and exhilaratingâ€

Wow, this pen’s pretty cool.

“This baby even has a GPS feature built-in to locate it if you ever misplace it – never lose a pen again!â€
Man, I HATE when I lose my pen… I’ll take 10!

As silly as that example was, it has a point. If you took that sales copy and compared it with:

• Self-filling ink cartridge
• Patented sphere point technology
• Built-in GPS

The former would take the cake over the latter every time. This is simply because you explain how your product or service benefits your customer instead of telling them what “cool†features it has. The customer can picture just how much better their life would be with your help, and that’s half the battle. This explanation is fairly novice, but for beginners wanting to increase sales: Implement benefits instead of features to your ads or site copy and, assuming you provide value, money will follow.

 

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[Twiki]

The "sell benefits not features" is common advice but it's not universally true by any means. Depends on product and the market. Especially if you are dealing with a techie minded market, or even consumer electronics... "I want the bigger GBs", so you spell it out for them the feature "this model has 600GB vs. the old model which only had 300GB" --- people will think you're an idiot if you babble on about "this model has more space for your movies and music!!" No duh!

This is especially true for tech folks, if you are selling something like firewall hardware of something of that nature, you will come off as a clueless marketing salesguy if you focus on benefits as if you were selling to mass market grandma who calls Geek Squad... techies want to know the version numbers, the compatibility, the uptime percentages five nines vs. 4 nines etc... I suspect it's also true for any hobbyist specialty like people who are insanely into powerboat motors or guns or cars, etc... writing ad copy for that kind market like "your motor will have more powerful vroom!" instead of spelling out superior numeric values would seem misdirected.

So I guess the point is the "benefits vs. features" trope probably applies more to mass market generic products like the Snuggie etc. but for products or services that serve a specialized professional or hobbyist interest, especially where feature sets are easily quanitifed in matrix comparisons, maybe not so much.

 

[Strive]

probably applies more to mass market

This was my audience here, as I think most of us aren't in it for small potatoes. I don't agree with what you say, as you just need to know who you're marketing to and format it to what they'd benefit from (techy vs. average joe.) It can be applied to any and all services. Take a look at how apple markets their products as cool giving their customer a feeling or taste of what it would be like to have their product. The purpose is to evoke an emotion causing your customer to romanticize about your product (How cool will I look when I come in with my new iPhone and everyone still has a blackberry!) and ultimately buy. Of course they include features, but they expand upon them to show how it benefits you which is what my point was. I don't know about you, but half the time I don't know or care what "version numbers, compatibility, or uptime percentages five nines vs. 4 nines" are. Now if you told me the version number was the latest so I could have all the bells and whistles, or that it was compatible across all platforms so I can use it from the comfort of my mac, or that the uptime virtually guaranteed my site not to crash.. then I'd be interested.

 

[Twiki]

Here's a test: lets say you have a limited amount of copy to promote a new LCD TV model that is a big improvement over previous year's model and competitor comparables...

Which would be more effective, even for the mass market:

Features: "Model XYZ100 has a 52" screen, 2x brighter screen vs. comparable models, 2 HDMI inputs, 4 A/V input/outputs, is 30% lighter, uses 70% less energy, has 2 USB 3.0 ports, etc." <insert comparison matrix with other models, which shows how every feature is ++ in favor of XYZ100>

or

Benefits: "Model XYZ100 has a bigger, brighter screen so pictures are... brighter and bigger! plus more ways to enjoy your movies and music, is lighter, helps conserve energy and lower your electricity bills!" <insert picture of stupidly happy smiling family watching in their living room>

Which do you think would be more effective?

 

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[wade1mil]

Which do you think would be more effective?

Short answer on products like TVs is BOTH. By the way, your copy on the second method - seems fair

Try to sell an 80 year old guy a 65" LED TV using features. Try selling a 22 year old hardware engineer using benefits.

Here is what Samsung and Amazon do:
Amazon.com: Samsung UN65ES8000 65-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Silver): Electronics

 

[Twiki]

Short answer on products like TVs is BOTH... Try to sell an 80 year old guy a 65" LED TV using features. Try selling a 22 year old hardware engineer using benefits.

Exactly, which is why the old cliche "sell benefits NOT features" is just a cliche that ignores the target market and the nature of the product/service (kind of important factors, right?). It has a kernel of truth to it, but it's just the kind of lazy non-thinking filler commonly used as filler in would-be marketing guru blogs.

Of course BOTH would be preferable, which is why we propose scenario of limited space for ad copy, since that reflects reality.

An analogy is if someone were to go on Shark Tank... imagine they have 2 minutes to explain all the "benefits" of investing in their idea to the Sharks ("you'll make a lot of money and money is good!"), vs. 2 minutes to explain the "features" of the deal --- "I'll give you 50% of my company for $500,000; revenue last year was $2 million and projected to double this year").

So the idea is, maybe the more expert or clue-ful your market is about a deal, the less "benefits" are impressive, and wasting limited time/space on benefits might even be counterproductive (can you imagine those Sharks listening to some fool trying to pump up their emotions by gushing about the benefits of making more money?)

By the way, your copy on the second method - seems fair