The Tendo View

When planning your next marketing campaign or customer communications project, follow this one simple rule: Don’t promote your product.

There. I said it. Sound counterintuitive? It’s not. Let me explain.

Too many marketers feel the need to list each and every feature of their product or service, thinking this approach will get their customers’ attention. That mentality plays out something like this: “Hey, look at this nifty product/service we’ve developed. Isn’t it great? And aren’t we great? Don’t you want to buy our stuff because we’re so great?”

Don’t get me wrong. Features can differentiate your offerings from your competitors’ and help your customers evaluate a potential purchase. But list features after you’ve captured your customers’ attention. Even customers who already know that they need a particular product or service are more likely to respond to your communication if you first show them what’s in it for them.

Benefits vs. Features

Focusing your message on product or service benefits comes down to focusing on your customer. But even with the best intentions, it’s easy to get lost in describing all the cool stuff your product or service does. Knowing the difference between the two is an important first step in identifying the benefits that will win your customers’ attention.

Features are product or service attributes. They explain how a product performs or what a service provides. They also differentiate a product or service from competitors.

Features may create certain advantages for the customer, which lead to benefits. But features are not benefits in and of themselves.

Benefits are the results created by a product or service. They solve problems, address needs, and ultimately provide a reason to buy something.

Notice the difference between the features and the benefits in the following mock copy, and how the advantages lead to the benefits:

Rocco’s Rocket Ships

State the Benefits

Your audience should be able to pick out their benefits from your list of features, right? Maybe, but assuming your audience is jumping the gap between your product or service features and the benefits they’ll gain from them is a big gamble in this day of media overload. You need to spell it out. What exactly are you doing for them or their business? What problem are you solving? What makes your product relevant to them? To put it bluntly, who cares if you’re a market leader unless you’re doing something that makes a difference for your customers?

Focusing on benefits to the customer is one way to relate your product or service to the customer’s point of view. It’s turning your focus from the navel-gazing “gee, look at the cool thing we made” to “hey, look at what we can do for you.”

Strategies for Identifying Benefits

Often marketers are too close to their product or service to see past the features. To them, the benefits may be inherent. Here are some strategies for shaking off the marketing lens and approaching your product or service from the customer’s point of view.

1. Paint a picture. Visualize in detail who your customer is and what problem they’re facing. Are they standing in front of an overflowing server closet? Are they sitting in their office daydreaming about a luxury vacation? Once you have a clear picture, put yourself in your customer’s situation. What would help solve your problem?

2. Ask, “So what?” You can find the benefits of most features by simply asking, “So what?” Continue to ask why until you get to the ultimate, underlying need behind creating a product or service in the first place. It might go something like this:

• Crown Bright Strips give you whiter teeth.
• So what?
• Your smile will be brighter.
• So what?
• You’ll look better and feel more confident.
• So what?
• With a brighter, more confident smile, it will be easier to get what you want out of life, like that great job.

3. Be specific. Specifying general benefits like “affordable” or “convenient” isn’t enough. Your customers want context—to know how something is more convenient or how much money they could save. This strategy comes down to knowing your audience. If you know exactly who you’re talking to and what their unique concerns are, you’ll be better equipped to identify the specific benefits that they may respond to.

Use these strategies to transition from marketing to your customers to engaging them instead. Stating the benefits you can provide, or what’s in it for them, shows your customers that you understand their concerns, the problems they face, and their point of view.