Features vs. Benefits

Let’s talk about features vs. benefits.

Many people confuse these two. Heck, some don’t even mention one out of the two.

For you to talk intelligently about your product, and persuade your prospect to act, you need to know the difference between features and benefits.

What are benefits

Benefits are the things an offer promise you. Example, let’s say you buy a new bed. The benefit to the bed would be, “this bed will give you the most well-rested night of sleep, so you’ll be ready to dominate the day.” That’s a benefit. Easy, right?

What’s a feature

A feature is a description on how the product works and what it does. To continue with the bed example, “this bed is one of our softest beds, and it can recline to any position you want.” That’s a feature.

How most companies overlook this

The biggest oversight most companies make in their copy is never stressing the benefits. They open up their copy by talking about themselves. How great they are, and how long they’ve been in business. Or they ramble on about features without first qualifying the prospect by drawing them in with a benefit. Don’t get me wrong, those things have place in copy. But not at the beginning. Not when you’re trying to draw your prospect in to read your offer.

The other side of the coin

The same mistake could be made if you only stress benefits. There’s a myth in copywriting, benefits are all that matter. There’s some truth to that. BUT, if prospects don’t know how your offer works, aka features, then they won’t take the next step.

The art and skill of a true copywriter is being able to weave both benefits and features together. And tying them into the offer with the target audience.