How To Make Your Marketing Benefit-Centric

This article was adapted from Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall (Brain Brew Books, 2001). Whether applied to marketing materials or sales pitches, this “practical tactic” (from Chapter 2, “How to Triple the Effectiveness of Salespeople, Advertising, and Marketing Efforts”) will make your product or service more alluring to customers.

People often mistake features for benefits. Benefits are what’s in it for the customer. Benefits are what your customer receives, enjoys or experiences in exchange for his time, trouble, trust or money. Features are the facts, figures, technology and details that make up the structure of your product or service.

It’s not uncommon for features to enable benefits. When they do, it’s important that the benefit dimension of the feature be clearly articulated. Without communication as a benefit, it is left to the customer to derive and determine why the feature is of importance. And the more work that is required of customers, the less sales return you will realize.

Practical Tactic

Step 1

Make a list of all of the defining features associated with your service or product offering.

• List the attributes, ingredients and dimensions that define why you are as you are.
• Focus on both what you offer and how you deliver it to customers.
• List the obvious points of difference between you and your competition.
• List the less obvious but still significant points of difference in relation to the competition.

Step 2

Transform each feature into a benefit. To do this, become the “village idiot” and relentlessly ask the “why” questions of each feature.

• Why should I care about this feature?
• Why did you create this feature?
• Why is this feature important?
• Why is this feature necessary?• Why doesn’t the competition have this feature? 

Step 3

Review your current marketing materials for features and benefits. Each time a feature is listed, modify it to communicate the benefit that results from that feature. Now step back and review the piece again. Most likely, it will now be much more exciting and persuasive to customers.

Here’s an example from a brochure from a client of mine that details the features and benefits resulting from a new automobile suspension system the client offers.