Features vs Benefits: A How-To Guide for Writing Content that Speaks to the Heart and Sells to the Head of Your Ideal Buyer - #41

Show Notes

As a solopreneur, you are tasked with being the copywriter and marketing team of your side business. In this episode Lori Vajda and Nola Boea are sharing their combined copywriting and digital marketing skills to teach you how to create messaging that speaks to what is relevant and important to your ideal buyer. 

Listen in as they explain how communicating the benefits – not just the features - increases conversion in today’s episode.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn

• How savvy entrepreneurs are carefully walking the tightrope between communicating benefits and features.
• The problem with a race to the bottom and competing solely on features and price is two-fold.
• While you may not be able to out-Amazon Amazon, knowing how to flip the script in a few key areas can help a small company win big.
• The major problem with using jargon, slang and buzzwords in your communication - even when you think the customer understands it.
• Why no matter how great your messaging, the focus has shifted from speaking at consumers to speaking with them.

Prospective buyers are more interested in how your product or service meets their needs and solves their problems. That’s likely because by the time they talk to you, the business owner, they have done their research. As Nola and Lori point out, the real challenge is being able to clearly communicate what the potential gain will be from their purchase and that’s where benefits come into play.

(2:47.53) The simple way you can tell whether you’re talking about benefits versus features and know the difference is not enough.  

(4:37.30) The three main reasons solopreneurs have difficulty differentiating writing and selling to the benefits versus features.

(8:38.44) This critical mistake is often what leads shoppers to compare your product or service with your competition, solely or mostly on price and why it’s crucial you avoid it. 

(15:21:02) How to use testimonials on your website or in your marketing materials to support the benefits of your product or service.

(16:58:23) This secret shortcut copywriters use, and is sure to save business owners time when writing benefit content.

(17:57:60) How to use case studies to light up the emotional center of your ideal buyer and why using them as part of your business’s benefit storytelling, is a real benefit to your overall content and selling strategies.

(20:26:78) Nine writing tips for natural, conversational style content that weaves benefits into the sales message. 

Resources 

You can subscribe to Lori and Nola's show, (we love you and want to make it easy) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

This episode was supported by: Be-YOU-nique​

Transcript

​Nola: [00:00:00] Think about the last time you bought something, what made you buy it? Was it the compelling message that spoke to you about the product's features? Was it something like 15 incandescent bulbs included waterproof weatherproof, connectable hanging hook for each socket? Probably not. But how about this? Whether it's romantic dinner or dancing till Dawn, these Edison bulb waterproof weatherproof string lights will let you take the party and the fun outdoors. Sounds much more appealing, right? If you struggle to convey the benefits of your product or service, stay tuned because in this episode, we're helping you create irresistible benefit content that's sure to resonate with your ideal customer. 

Announcer: [00:00:37] You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week,

Lori: [00:00:51] You started your business because you have a great product or service and want to share it with the world, but in today's competitive marketplace, the last place you want to compete is on price. Knowing how to sell benefits, not only raises your game and profits, it helps you tap into what makes a customer, a buyer. Well, welcome back aspiring sidepreneurs, Lori and Nola here with copywriting tips for creating marketing and sales messaging that speaks to the heart and sells to the brain of your ideal customer. But before we share the techniques and strategies that are going to take you, our fellow entrepreneur from pretty good to rockstar, consider subscribing to our podcast on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Audible, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Because each week we come out with new episodes to help you hit the ground running and be the most confident, powerful, boss up business owner ever. Now let's get this selling-benefits-for-increased-profits episode started. 

Nola: [00:01:50] People are always searching for ways to save time, reduce costs, make more money, be happier, healthier, look better. The list goes on and on. And that's because we all want to be the best version of ourselves. And to get there, we need that unique solution, your selling, but before you can sell, you have to get the attention of me, your audience. And to do that, you need content and sales pitches that speak to my desire and motivation to buy. Apple understands that. Back when the company first launched, Steve Jobs famously stated, people don't just want to buy personal computers. They want to know what they can do with them. As consumers, we're not interested in what a product does. We're interested in how it helps us do what we need to do. So, while "here's what our product can do" and, "here's what you can do with our products" may sound similar, as Jason Fried pointed out, they are completely different sales approaches. 

Lori: [00:02:46] Which is why telling your ideal customer you have a unique product or service is not enough. And really what does that even mean? Here lies the problem. Buyers don't read between the lines. They don't hear about features and imagine how wonderful life will be after they make the purchase. They need help from you, the pro-business owner. That's why we're here today. To help you get one of the most important strategies  marketers and copywriters use to create messaging that speaks to the heart and sells to the brain. And that is focusing on benefits. So, in this episode, we're specifically going to focus on how, when, why, and where to use benefits and features in your messaging. So, Nola, that brings up a really good point. Something that I think a lot of people struggle with. They're not mutually exclusive, benefits and features. For you, how would you define benefits and how would you define features? 

Nola: [00:03:47] Actually, I would describe features as those specific attributes that the product or service offers and I would describe benefits as: Great. So, what's in it for me? How can those attributes help me? What are the benefits that they bring to make my life easier?

Lori: [00:04:09] And I would agree with you on that one. I think features definitely have a place. I've seen a lot recently where people go directly to the features and then kind of have content afterwards that gives this, " imagine what your life will be like", but they lost me. Or they kept that section so small that I couldn't even tie it back into, into the content.

Nola: [00:04:34] You kind of need to connect the dots. 

Lori: [00:04:36] Exactly. 

Nola: [00:04:37] So why do you think that it's so hard to talk about and write about benefits versus features? 

Lori: [00:04:45] Well, one, I don't think people have a clear understanding. Two, when we, as business owners or salespeople are trying to explain why we think our product or service is good for you. We go with the facts that we know. And benefits takes time. If I'm writing it, I have to imagine the one buyer, the one pain point or the one goal that they're trying to achieve, and I have to deliver messaging that way and in doing so, I feel that I might miss out because I'm not talking broad enough. So that is one misunderstanding.
The second one is I think that writing benefits is a creative endeavor. Creative writing or getting to benefits requires some creativity, but it also requires you to get to know your customer. So, if you're talking to somebody, I have to do what Stephen Covey says, which is seek to understand then to be understood. So, I have to figure out either what your pain point is or what your motivation is or what your goal is. And then I have to work backwards, reverse engineer, to tie in not only how maybe this will help you, but how it's helped me or it's helped other customers with a similar problem. And the quickest way is just to dive into the facts and move on.

So, I have an example here. I thought this was going to be perfect for this topic. So, let me read how they tied in features and benefits. And you can see just in listening to this, why this would take some concentration to write. "Our dreamy lacquer trays feature custom hand painted summertime scenes that make a memorable gift, or beautiful addition to your home decor. You can display it as art or use it to serve your guests.  The tray is heat resistant to 225 degrees, moisture and alcohol resistant. The trays have concealed slot handles on the sides and are made from durable, poly, ceramic composite. The trays have a high gloss lacquer finish that make them easy to wipe clean with a damp cloth." Right there, they were only two lines, talked about this hand, painted summertime, seen memorable gift or a beautiful addition. And the rest of it was all about the features. That first two lines take some creativity.

Nola: [00:07:19] It really led me to envisioning how I might use this and what it might look like and why it would be convenient. It had words like easy. 

Lori: [00:07:29] Exactly. So it's not that customers wouldn't appreciate knowing about the features. It's how you weave in that. Here's the thing about that particular piece. Immediately it talked about it would make a memorable gift and an addition to your home. So, it gave you reasons to make the purchase. You could be altruistic and give it away. Or you could say it's all about me. So, I'm going to keep this beautiful piece in my home. And then it used features to just justify why you'd want to sell it or why you'd want to buy it. 

Nola: [00:08:11] Either way. It was a way of connecting it to the audience, whether the audience was looking for gifts to give, or whether audiences looking for decor. It connected the dots between features and benefits. 

Lori: [00:08:23] Agreed. 

Nola: [00:08:24] So we talked about customers really need to know the benefits in order to know what's in it for me. To know how they use it in life. Does that mean they don't really care about features? What do you think? 

Lori: [00:08:36] Well, I have a theory here. When you start talking features first, you make it real easy for somebody to open up their phone and compare apples to apples. So now we're at a race to the bottom and that's all about price. When you talk about benefits first. So not to the exclusion of features, but it's how you bring in those benefits, that get me imagining how I will enjoy the product or the service or how it will solve my pain points. You can go with the reward path or the pain path, either of those speak to the benefit. I'm either reducing your pain or I'm increasing your pleasure. Here's how the features will allow you to do either of those. 

Nola: [00:09:30] So the features really do support the benefit. It's not the other way around. 

Lori: [00:09:36] Exactly. And we really thought about this a lot as to why we wanted to bring this topic to our audience. And a few things kind of happened for us that made that much more apparent. Do you want to share what some of those recent things were? 

Nola: [00:09:55] Sure. I instantly thought about this reason conversation. It's just one of many, but this was so recent. Let's say, it's a startup company that had supposedly a really good solution for the travel industry. So, in addition to Sticky Brand Lab, I have had a travel business. And I was invited to be one of their first customers, be one of the first people to, I don't know, quite frankly. I had to  ask multiple questions to find out how does this benefit me? And most of the conversation were the features. They use new technology, which did not tell me anything. It just actually raised more questions than anything.  I thought, well, maybe just a sales person doesn't really know how to articulate what's in it for me. Let me go to the website and it was all features. It was all industry speak. But I really had to really dig in to figure out what's in it for me. So, I went back to the sales person and said, it sounds like you have this particular business model that somehow will give me a better price because of the technology. But frankly, I don't have that pain point and this is my other pain point, which I thought you were aware of. And I'm just not seeing that the solution is big enough to help me out.  And the thing is, I believe that there's been a lot of money invested in this solution. This company, it probably is cutting edge, but you know what? I almost offered them our services. It's like, I really want you to succeed. I really do. It looks like you've been at this for a while. It looks like you've got different rounds of investment. You really need to know how to describe your business or your service so that people like me will be drawn to it and know exactly how it makes my life better.

Lori: [00:11:51] You bring up a couple of really good points here. As copywriters, content, marketers, digital experts, we understand customers and writing to the customer. But when you're a founder, you really feel adamant that you know who your target audience is, or at least I've had that experience. And one that comes to mind was having a SaaS founder who was white labeling his technology. And what he needed was people to make the purchase and then sell it on their site. So, I wanted to talk about how adding this vertical would benefit your overall profit margins. He just wanted the features and he edited out the content in order to do that. And he was adamant that his SaaS clients would understand all of the lingo that would be associated with that product. I fully agree with him, but the problem that I saw that he was missing his, uh, his ideal audience, definitely had people who understood the technology. But he also had a very large opportunity for people who were just getting started selling that product. And he could have appealed to their senses, the stuff that they would have been knowledgeable about, which would have been increased profits, or maybe they had a sales background. So, they would need something more than just the features. And it's true that there is a segment of the population that's going to be very factual and they're going to race to the bottom and just do it on price. And if you just want your business to target them, then just talking features, make sense, but that's not the majority of purchasers and that's not the majority of people that you need to identify and speak to in my opinion.

So that was one from professional experience. And then you and I recently had it come up because we are piloting a DIY website course. And so, we were working at that and we introduced content. And even though it logically made sense to talk about benefits, each one of the participants came at it first from basically either talking about themselves and the features of the product and service that they offer. So, it's a challenge. It sounds so easy that you think you can do it until you sit there. 

Nola: [00:14:47] And it's so hard to connect the dots. It's so easy to talk about yourself or the product or service you have just dived yourself into. However, to start that conversation, talking about the audience and starting with them, and then connecting the dots back to you or your product or your service, takes some thinking through.

Lori: [00:15:07] It absolutely does. You're familiar with McKinsey in one of their recent studies, they found that most B2B companies make the mistake of prioritizing things that customers don't actually care about. One of the things that seems like it refers or talks directly to benefits is testimonials. Would you say that benefits and testimonials are similar? Or different. And how so?

Nola: [00:15:40] They're a little bit different.  Testimonials, speak to people who have experienced the benefits of your product or service. And they would just naturally describe the benefits they receive. So, it's tied to it. A little bit different, but it's another step of talking about the benefits.

Lori: [00:15:58] I agree. And you can use it, that kind of testimonial to help you the owner or sales person understand what some of the pain points are. So, you could take that knowledge and use it to help either generate marketing material content. Or a story that you would then share with another perspective customer who might have a similar pain point or goal that they were trying to achieve. So, you wouldn't use that as proof because that's not the same thing.

Nola: [00:16:38] It's not proof, but it's social proof. You know, we just talked about how testimonials, where somebody will talk about how they received the benefits of your product or service. And a tip that you often will give our listeners is that if they go to the reviews and then you can figure out what are the benefits that they are saying.

Lori: [00:16:58] Yeah, I referred to it as, or the common way that it's referred to is a swipe file. So, you can go look even in Amazon, if your product or service has a book written on the topic or subject that you're focusing. You can go see what people write about. Some real good language and you just copy and paste it, like almost into a word doc, and you've got the language and now you can piece it together and you'll change it as you weave that sentence or two. And it's real good tip because you'll naturally change it to fit your style, but now you have starting point. 

Nola: [00:17:42] And it helps connect the dots. That's a way of finding out how do they describe the benefits? 

Lori: [00:17:47] Nothing is that are then getting the language of a prospective customer, even if they aren't using your customer.

Nola: [00:17:55] That's true. Good point. What about case studies? In what ways are case studies benefit stories? 

Lori: [00:18:03] Oh, see, you just gave the keyword there: Stories. So, our brain does two things. When we directly or inadvertently ask a question. The brain automatically wants to answer the question, which is why questions are so helpful. Because it gets our brain doing the thing that you as the business owner or sales person wants the person you're talking to to do, which is to answer the question. So, it engages automatically. But we are conditioned to understand something when there's a story attached to it. So, the benefit of a case study, especially are well-written and by well-written, I mean, that tells the story a beginning, a middle, and an end is a great way to highlight benefits. So, company X, Y, Z was struggling to get, fill in that blank. they found time over time that they had made these changes. They weren't effective. They weren't tanking route. They were seeking out a different solution. They contacted us, we discovered a, B and C when we implemented that strategy, the end result was so you're filling in the story that helps guide me and helps me not only understand. But somebody shared a similar problem, which is part of the case study, but what the research did, which is what I, as a consumer am doing. And then the final piece is how you, the person I've come to see had the solution I was looking for. 

Nola: [00:19:45] Those stories. That's the part where it lights up the emotional center. And people actually make their buying decisions once their emotional center has been activated, I have written hundreds of benefit stories for nonprofits. And people, they want the stats. They want the information as to why this particular approach will help this particular segment. But their actions actually are based on the emotional pull of the story. So, without the emotions, without the story, the actions are not as responsive. And emotions isn't, oh, I made you cry or I made you laugh. It could be, aha. That's it!

Lori: [00:20:28] Yes. Do you have some techniques or tips for, how do you figure out weaving this together benefits features?

Nola: [00:20:36] So one way to find benefits is to really drill down. It's really asking your why. Then you can actually do this for uncovering the benefits of something, Let's say we're in home décor. I used to have a client who made pillows and she was just very creative. So, these pillows are handmade. Okay. Feature. They are made of durable, decorative material. Feature. They are of various sizes feature. Okay. Let's go through each one of those you do next is say, so that. These pillows are various sizes so that you can put them on any size furniture so that your home will look totally put together. So that when company comes over, they think you've had an interior decorator visit your house. Bingo. Okay. So, it helps take you from the feature to the benefit. Just keep answering why until you get that emotional bingo. 

Lori: [00:21:46] I liked that one that I had as an example, was almost to consider doing a chart, like a checklist chart. But you have four columns. So, in your first column, column, A you can put the features and in Columns, B, C and D, think of a particular type of a buyer. So, if I were thinking of, let's say, I'm going to use the example of having a phone with a location feature. And buyer. B might be an older person. Buyer C might be a parent and buyer D might be a single person. And for this case, I'm going to actually say a single woman. So, if the feature is location, you have a location feature on your phone. And buyer B column is the older person. Their, uh, fear or pain point may be that the location would put them at risk of people finding out where they live. So, they're afraid to use the feature. Buyer B as the parents, they don't want to pay for something that they don't need, but let's just say they're buying a phone package and do their kids need all of the same bells and whistles. Does it justify the price? So, let's say that's their case. My kids are on my plan. Does everybody need a location piece? And buyer C is single. And maybe their concern is they travel a lot. So, if I'm talking to the elder person, I might say the benefit of that feature is. If you misplace your phone, you will be able to ask other people to call you. So, you will be able to easily locate where your missing phone is. 

Nola: [00:23:53] Got it. Got it. 

Lori: [00:23:55] For the parents, it is, know where your kids are in case they ever need your assistance, or you’re wanting to know why they're not home yet. Benefit there. And for the single person who travels the benefit could be that this is an international plan that you will be able no matter where almost any place in the world, you will be able to find your way back or find your destiny. Now I may have some of the features and connections a little bit off, but so bear with me on that.

But you get to see how I identified the pain point or the motivation and how I took a feature and understood it for each column. I could either. Talk about it or write about it in a way that tapped into weaving that story together. So, to give you a better example, because they're not mutually exclusive.
So, I have some examples here. So, this phone back, my beautiful phone here, this phone back is in gold. That's a feature giving it a sleek, modern and professional look benefit. Thanks. Yes. These juices blue. It's a feature, meaning kids won't know they are drinking one serving of their daily requirement of fruits and vegetables. Plus, it's low in sugar, tastes like blueberries. So, they'll never know how healthy it is. Benefit. 

Nola: [00:25:27] Benefit. 

Lori: [00:25:29] The store has 13 locations. Feature. Three of which are less than five miles from me. One is open late. So not only are their locations close. But they also have convenient hours for me. Do you have some examples?

Nola: [00:25:47] For example, you've got a fitness video features are, you've got a complete list of cardio and strength exercises that take just five minutes to execute. Benefit, easy exercises that will melt away, abdominal fat and just five minutes a day and leave you looking great in time for your vacation. That's a benefit 

Lori: [00:26:08] You know, yours and mine. Once you have that written, you can see that it doesn't take that much longer to say or explain or to read. It's getting there. That is the hardest. And I think your example of listing it out and saying, so that, or so that, so that, so that 

Nola: [00:26:31] Why, why? So that. 

Lori: [00:26:33] And mine, here's the feature. Here's the target customers that I have here's features that can speak to each of those. 

Nola: [00:26:42] Either pain point or motivation.

Lori: [00:26:45] Exactly. So those are the ways and the reasons, and of course the how, why, where when to use benefits and features, it doesn't make sense to have one without the other. 

Nola: [00:27:00] Nope. They're yin-yang, man. They go together. Listeners. We want to hear from you. Did you find the information and examples helpful? Will you change the way you engage with buyers and prospects? Tell us by leaving a comment, wherever you listen to this podcast or by visiting our contact page at stickybrandlab.com/contact. Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring and motivating episode. And remember action creates results. So, tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day, small steps, big effects. 

Do you have questions about creating a personal brand side hustle or small business? Sign up for one of our clarity sessions for more information, contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact.

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