Every business wants to be successful, but many struggle to differentiate their marketing features from their marketing benefits. It’s important to do so, because your audience will respond much better and convert more easily when they understand the benefits.
What Is The Difference Between A Feature And A Benefit In Marketing?
A feature is something that a product or service has, such as a color or design. A benefit is what a product or service provides, such as a better user experience.
When deciding which features to focus on in your marketing campaign, it’s important to think about what benefits your product or service provides. Here are five ways to distinguish features from benefits in your marketing campaigns:
1. Talk About What Your Feature Can Do For Your Customer’s Benefit
When highlighting the features of your product or service, remember to mention how they can benefit your customers. For example, if you’re selling a health supplement, mention how the ingredients can help improve energy levels or reduce chronic pain.
2. Showcase The Benefits Of Using Your Feature In Context
Another way to emphasize the benefits of using a feature is to show how it works in context. This can be done by creating videos, blog posts, or infographics that demonstrate how your feature helps users achieve their goals.
3. Point Out How The Feature Helps Avoid Problems as the Benefit
If you sell a product that helps people stay organized, highlight how using the feature can help avoid chaos in their lives. Point out specific examples of when using the feature has helped people save time and money.
4. Distribute Content That Shows How The Use Of Your Feature Has Improved People’s Lives Or Made Their Lives Easier Than Before
One effective way to promote the benefits of a feature is to showcase stories from people who have used it and seen positive results. This type of content can be found on websites like The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed News. Read some examples on those sites if you need ideas.
How Can You Distinguish Features From Benefits In Your Marketing Campaign?
Here are five ways to do it:
1. Use a Contrast Statement
When it comes to choosing the right marketing features vs benefits, it can be tough to know which one to prioritize. But a good way to start is to contrast the two.
Marketing features are all about what a product or service has to offer, while benefits focus on how using that product or service will help you achieve your goals.
For example, some products might offer unique looks or functions that can be useful in certain situations (feature). Meanwhile, benefits might focus on things like improved productivity or decreased stress levels.
Or you could write a blog post comparing how two different products offer similar features but different benefits. This will help people see how one product can be better than another in specific situations.
It can be helpful to think about which type of feature is more important for your product or service and then focus your efforts there.
2. Use Visual Aids and Different Media
Use visual aids to communicate the differences between features and benefits.
Some great ways to do this are with infographics or diagrams. By putting the two types of content together, you can create a clear picture of what each one has to offer.
Case studies can also help illustrate the benefits of using a product or service in specific situations, and are especially useful for B2B companies. For example, you could write a case study about how using a certain marketing feature helped a business achieve its goals.
By using videos, you can show users how a product or service works in action. This can be especially helpful for products that aren’t easy to explain verbally.
You could use images/photos of happy users to show how using a product or service can make people happier. Alternatively, you could use images of products or services to illustrate how they differ in terms of features and benefits.
3. Use Metaphors and Comparisons
Use metaphors to communicate the differences between features and benefits.
For example, you might say that a certain product offers “incredible value” or that it’s “totally changing the game.” These types of phrases help people understand what the different elements of your product or service are all about.
Another example of a feature vs benefit metaphor is “the power of the pen.” People understand that a tool like a pen can be used for different things, like writing or signing contracts.
Numbers can also help people understand the differences between features and benefits. For example, you could compare how many people have used a certain feature in the past month to how many have claimed a benefit from using it. This information can help you determine which content to create and promote.
4. Use Numbers
Use numbers to illustrate how many people are using a certain feature or benefiting from your product or service.
For example, you could show how many people have signed up for your email list since you introduced the new benefits feature. Or, you might compare how much money people have saved on a particular product since it came out with new features.
Quantifying benefits and features helps people understand how your product or service works and which to focus on. It can also help you determine which content to create and promote.
Putting a number to the results of using your product or service can be a helpful way to illustrate the difference between features and benefits.
5. Use Social Media
Use social media to illustrate how people are using your product or service and what benefits they’re getting from it.
For example, you could post a screenshot of how many people have joined your email list in the past week or how many people have downloaded your white paper. You could also share stories about people who have used your product or service to solve a problem, save money, or improve their productivity.
By showing how people are using your product or service and the benefits they’re getting, you can create a strong case for why people should buy it.
There are a lot of different ways to show the difference between features and benefits in marketing campaigns. By using numbers, stories, and social media, you can make sure that your customers understand why they should choose your product or service over the competition.
Vicky is the CEO and Chief Creative Strategist of Vicky Wu Marketing. She draws from 30 years of experience at the CMO level, the CEO level, marketing for Fortune 500 companies and multi-million and multi-billion-dollar organizations, PLUS strategies learned helping startups and nonprofits with limited budgets … now focusing on providing SMBs with effective and efficient marketing strategies – giving them access to the same level of expertise as the really big guys with deep pockets, that they may not otherwise be able to access.
