Want your content to be a marketing superstar? Focus on benefits instead of features.
Creating benefit centric content is harder than it sounds. It may be the most difficult part about content marketing.
Sales trainers teach aspiring sales people, “Features tell – while benefits sell.”
The key to closing sales is to focus upon benefits instead of features. The same is true for your marketing content.
It can be tough to tell the difference between features and benefits. Even pros confuse features with benefits. I noticed this mistake on a box of facial cleansing wipes. On the side of the box in bold print was the following:
4 Benefits in Every Cloth
- Cleanse
- Exfoliate
- Tone
- Hydrate
Did you notice a problem with that list?
These are all features – not benefits. Cleansing, exfoliating, toning and hydrating are all FEATURES. Despite the label, these features are not benefits.
Do consumers know the benefits of each of those features? This company thinks so. They may be right. Sometimes consumers can figure out the benefits without your content’s help. There’s a danger in taking this path though. Leaving consumers to figure out the benefits means you might lose the sale. It’s always better to guide the consumer through the benefit process.
The Why Behind the Buy:
Since the list above is not a list of “benefits” – let’s see what the benefits of these cloths are.
The benefits of the cleansing cloths would include:
- Younger looking skin
- A radiant, youthful glow
- Smoother, firmer skin
- A more beautiful you.
FEATURES describe the cloths and what they do. They clean your skin, they exfoliate, they tone and they hydrate.
BENEFITS describe why the features matter to a buyer.
Women who purchase this product aren’t buying the features listed. They’re “buying” is younger, better looking skin.
What benefits are your customers buying?