Marketing Features vs. Benefits for Small Business

If you are marketing with features, facts, and figures, you get an “F” and your sales probably reflect that. If you are marketing with benefits, results, and stories, you get a “B” and are probably doing fairly well.

But, if you are marketing with benefits, results, and stories, and you bring your audience to that do anything, pay anything point, you get an “A+” and you’re probably nodding your head because your sales reflect that and you’re kicking butt.

Let’s talk about the marketing debate Features vs. Benefits.

In the features vs. benefits marketing debate, benefits will always win. Why? Marketing with features is boring! No one wants to read that. Do you ever get excited to read the owners manual for anything? Doubt it. Do guys ever read the instructions that come with assemble-it-yourself toys or furniture? Rarely.

Your audience wants to know instead how your product, program, or service is going to help them. They want to know how it will benefit them. They want to know “What’s In It For Me?”

For example when marketing with benefits, ask your self, will it:

• Save them money?
• Make them more money?
• Save them time?
• Reduce effort?
• Make things faster?
• Create more opportunities?
• Make them feel smarter?
• Eliminate fear?
• Position them as an expert?
• Grow their business?
• Be more convenient?
• Reduce stress?
• Increase confidence?
• Provide more freedom?
• Eliminate frustration or struggle?

When you only market with features, you’re making your audience do all the work to figure out how it will benefit and help them. When you prospects have to work at making a buying decision, your conversions will be fairly low.

Your customers, clients, and prospects want an easy, no-brainer buying process. They want you to do all the work for them and show them the answer to their biggest question, What’s In It For Me.

But here’s the catch: Usually the benefit you associate with the feature is the assumed or perceived benefit. It’s usually what you think they think is the benefit. This isn’t what your audience is looking for. They want the results. They want to be shown exactly how they will benefit.

So, when you’re marketing your services, products, and programs, you need to be marketing benefits and you need to do it with these three steps:

1. Make sure you really know your audience inside and out
2. Stop thinking like you and start thinking like them. Put yourself in their shoes and get in their minds
3. Write your marketing content based on the emotions felt when they achieve the results and experience benefits of working with you or using your product.

When you can market a business with the emotions-based benefits and results as a priority, you’ll be reaching for the marketing grade of  “A+”