A New Marketing

Unless you’re in the computing or automotive industries, highlighting features is a bad way to sell your product.

Features tell us what a product has, what it’s made up of, or how it’s made. The only problem is, most people don’t care about that at all. The thing people want to know is, “What can it do for me?”. Explaining the benefits will get you much farther.

If features are the only thing provided, people mentally convert them to benefits anyway. It’s a natural progression that we’ll call The Derived Benefits Model:
See feature listing >> Think about features (in relation to self) >> Figure out derived benefit from features

For example:
The TV is capable of 1080i resoultion >> The picture will be sharper >> I can enjoy my favorite shows more because of the clearer image

So why let people go through that entire process when you could just explain the benefits right away? If you cut out the middleman and get right to the benefits, it cuts down on the work people have to do to understand your offering.

Instead of advertising the 100gb hard drive on that DVR, let people know that they can save entire seasons of Lost, 24, and Grey’s Anatomy. Instead of talking about a carbon fiber frame on your sunglasses, tell people that they’re so light they can wear them all day. Instead of explaining the depth of the spikes on your cleats, let them know they’ll get a great jump stealing second base.

So the next time you’re writing copy, giving a speech, putting together materials, blogging, or talking to a customer - just remember Benefits > Features.