Benefits vs Features: How to Capture and Keep Attention

Features describe what your product/service does and how it’s different from the competition.

If you’re a website designer; the features of your service can include website speed optimization, unique mobile-friendly site designs, etc.

Features talk about what the product/service does. Meanwhile, benefits focus on how the product/service can be helpful to the target audience. 

This is basically why people purchase things/services—because it’s helpful to them. That’s also why most ads you see are benefit-focused

“Stop selling. Start helping.”

When customers decide to buy (or not buy), they consider both benefits and features. They think about things like price, relevance, design, and so forth. But ultimately, customers buy because of a product’s benefit.

• Once the customer is sold on the concept (they’re convinced a meditation app can help them live a better life), they’ll start looking at options. They ask, “Which meditation app is the best for me?”
• That’s where features come in. It signals which audience is the best fit. And since we’re bombarded with options every day, features help our product/service to stand out. 

• Benefit-focused messaging is particularly important when your offer is relatively new to the market or customers are unfamiliar with your brand. Benefit-focused messaging helps you hook customer interest effectively.
• Features are best for saturated markets. When customers are already familiar with a product’s/service’s concept and benefits, they’ll start looking at features to differentiate one brand over another.