If you’ve worked hard to create a product or service, it makes sense to promote the wonderful features your products offer. It takes a lot of time to create innovative products that outshine and outperform your competition and itís reasonable to want to highlight the features to your market. What you may not realize is your market doesnít really care about all the bells and whistles your products have, they care about themselves.
People Care About What is in it for Them
When it comes to conveying value, people care less about the features of goods and services and more about how those goods and services will solve their problems or make their lives easier. Think about a product like shampoo. People donít buy shampoo; they buy clean hair. Focusing on the features of shampoo wonít entice sales as much as focusing the benefits of using a particular shampoo. Since most shampoos essentially do the same thing, it makes more sense to focus on the benefits of the shampoo than its features.
Knowing what benefits your target audience is after helps. If your target market is woke, environmentally conscious, vegans your messaging would include points like this:
- Won’t harm the environment
- No animal testing
- Contains no animal products
When the benefits match the needs of the customer, the features become a secondary motivator.
How Do You Focus on Benefits for Marketing Purposes?
It is easier to list features when you spent countless hours creating goods and services for your market. You may have created new technologies that competitors donít offer or can solve problems for less time and money. It makes sense to want to focus on features hoping the market infers their benefits, but it doesnít always work that way.
You can help your customer see the benefits of the important features by how you tell the story. These tips will help:
Tip: Think about the buyers journey- Buyers go through three phases to make a purchase.
They become aware of a need, consider their options, make a decision. Their need is based on solving a problem. When you focus on how your products solve specific problems, the right buyer is attracted to your product.
Tip: Ask yourself what the benefits of the features are- If you aren’t sure how to highlight the benefits vs the features of your goods and services, make a list. Start with the features you think benefit the client most. Next, come up with two or three benefits. An example could be-
Feature: An alarm clock with adjustable brightness and a choice of alarm tones
Benefit: Uninterrupted, restful nightís sleep
Benefit: User controls their wake-up experience
Tip: Use the 80/20 rule- Sometimes the features of goods and services are too good to downplay. When it serves your customer, showcase both the features and benefits by sharing benefits 80% of the time and features 20%. An example could be:
Product X
- Saves time
- Boosts productivity
- Integrates with most software
- Grows your business
- Generates daily reports
This example lists three benefits and two features.
Putting an emphasis on how your goods and services benefit others may be a superior marketing choice. Consider whatís in it for your customer and focus your marketing to convey that message.
