Are You Marketing Features… or Benefits?

March 29, 2013
Spotlight Branding

As you market your products or services, what is your message focused on: features, or benefits?

Features are qualities or characteristics that your products and services offer. If you are selling laptops, for instance, features would include the speed of the processor, the size of the hard drive, and the screen resolution.

Benefits, on the other hand, focus on the results your customers will get from using your products and services. Benefits of a laptop may include the ability to store priceless family photos and home videos, the ability to run complex programs and games, and a great viewing experience for videos and games.

Ultimately, customers in your market will choose to buy from you or not based on the benefits that they perceive in your products and services. They don’t care about the technical specs of a laptop—they want to know what it will do for them.

Therefore, focusing on features while marketing is risky at best—because you’re depending on your audience to recognize the features you are advertising and translate them into benefits for themselves. This works in some case—savvy computer users know that a one-terabyte hard drive offers ample space to store a large home video library, for instance. But plenty of potential customers don’t know enough to translate these features into benefits, and as a result, they won’t recognize the value of your products and services.

There’s an old saying that, when you’re selling a shovel, “you shouldn’t focus on the shovel. You should focus on the hole your customer can dig with it.” No matter what type of business you may own, this is important advice.

Take a moment to evaluate your marketing message. Are you focusing on the features and technical specifications of your products and services? Or, are you focusing on the unique benefits that your customers and clients will receive when they choose to do business with you?

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Spotlight Branding

Spotlight Branding is a content marketing and branding firm for lawyers and other professionals. Our goal is to help you create an online presence that positions you as a credible expert in your field, keeps you connected with your network in order to stay top of mind and increase referrals, and to become more visible online so prospects can find you!