Most businesses talk about what they do. The best businesses talk about what their customers get as a result and how it helps their future.
That simple shift, from features to benefits, can transform your marketing from “nice to know” to “need to have.”
Think about the iPod launch in 2001.
Every MP3 player on the market sold itself on technical specs: e.g. “1GB of storage.”
Steve Jobs and the team at Apple could have said the same. Instead, they said, “1,000 songs in your pocket.”
One line. No jargon. A crystal-clear picture of the benefit to the customer.
That’s the power of positioning your offer around the future your customer wants, not the features you want to talk about.
Features describe what something is.
Benefits describe why it matters.
Here’s another example:
- Feature: “Our marketing analytics dashboard integrates with 12 marketing platforms.”
- Benefit: “See the performance of your marketing channels in one place so you can double down on what works and cut what doesn’t.”
The second option connects faster and requires almost zero mental translation.
It answers the unspoken question every prospect has:
How will this make my life better?
And that’s where most businesses go wrong with their marketing, they assume their target market will connect the dots.
But when you force your audience to do that work, you risk losing them.
The best place to start with turning features into benefits is in your sales copy on your website landing pages and proposals.
If you want to turn your marketing into something that makes prospects lean in instead of tune out, start by translating your features into futures.
To learn more about selling benefits, check out this excellent book “Sell Futures, Not Features” by my good friend Mike Killen.
