The ideology behind why features tell, but benefits sell

The ideology behind why features tell, but benefits sell



Do you think there's any truth to this? Do features only tell, and benefits sell?  Well, let's see why we should focus on benefits rather than features as the great marketing wizards, David Ogilvy and Steve Jobs proved to be the best examples leveraging this method. 

Features vs Benefits



As you know, features describe the attributes of a product or a service. It answers the “What" - exploring the functionalities and persuading prospects about what it does. On the other hand, benefits sell the result. It explains the “Why" - focusing on the result 'that customers' yield.

When pitching a product, getting a little obsessed with the product's features, and explaining it in detail is natural. And we're not saying it's wrong to position the features that distinguish your product from your competitors. But before that, it's important to think about what end-users want. Everyone is looking for simple solutions that could solve problems, and make things better. Benefits convince the users to listen to your pitch, as it is more focused on providing them solutions to their business problems.

So, where does the feature description fit in your narrative? Once convincing your audience about the benefits, showcasing the features intrigues and engages them. Let's assume you are looking for better ways to store and automate your customer information. You find a descriptive blog suggesting efficient ways to manage your leads data. It also gives a footnote about how a CRM could solve your problem. Now that you've got the solution, you start to compare different CRM solutions and their features to see which best fits your business. It applies to your target audience as well. By first convincing your audience briefing the benefits and then leveraging the features closing a deal proves to be an agile method to win more sales.  

Feature and benefits of iPod



In 2001, Apple launched its iPod, the mp3 song player that changed the way we listened to music. Steve Jobs introduced the iPod as, "1000 songs in your pocket". Had he emphasized more on the feature stating, “We are presenting iPod - the largest storage, mp3 digital media song player", it wouldn't address the "Why', and it wouldn't have caught the imagination of the consumers the way it did. The pitch rightly positioned the benefit, making the product a huge success. More than 400 million iPods sold and transformed Apple into one of the most valuable companies in the world. 

How to reposition features as benefits?

So far, we understood the importance of prioritizing benefits over features. Now, we will see how to transform features into benefits. 

'Talk' to your customers through your writing

 “If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular” - David Ogilvy.
​
The father of advertising, David Ogilvy was one of the most successful advertisers during the 60s. His notions regarding marketing and advertising played an incredible role in promoting big brands, and are relevant to this date. He emphasized that understanding your customer pain points helps you to talk the way your customers talk. When you identify their problems, you can easily draft content that is more relatable to them. It addresses their needs. When you tailor your content to your customer's pain points, you wouldn't have to chase after them, they will come to you. To identify their challenges, here are some platforms you could explore:

Market survey - By surveying your target customers, you directly interact with them to find out what is lacking and how you can slide in the gap.

Review sites - Your own user community site and other relevant review sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Am  track customer complaints. 

Social media - Social media is a powerful tool to draw public’s attention. Perform social listening to check if there are any customer complaints about your competitors. 

Keeping a tab on some of the platforms mentioned above will help you to understand your customer pain points and lets you optimize the sales pitch that best resonates with them. Gathering this data is only the first step. Deep analysis into niche areas using these data points enables you to profile and pitch to your customers better. 

Ask so what

To 'talk' to your customers through your writing, just ask, "So what?",  a simple yet powerful question that flips your features into benefits. This strategy aids in simplifying the content and answers the purpose of the product. Let’s see some of the examples:

Mp3 song player with 5 gigabytes storage
So what?
1000 songs in your pocket

SEO page optimization
So what?
Rank first in google
 
Portable wireless BlueTooth speaker
So what?
Carry the speaker anywhere you go
 
1.5 ton, 3 Star spilt AC
So what?
Bring Antarctica to your room
 
Analog, water-resistant watch
So what?
Be playful without removing your watch

When your content passes the 'so-what' test, it indicates that your draft is customer-friendly and focused. Feature or benefit is not the dispute. Both should be used wisely to craft a selling content. 

    • Sticky Posts

    • 10 simple e-commerce marketing tips to boost sales

      Congratulations! You've finally set up that e-commerce store you've been thinking about for a long time. Hopefully it wasn't too difficult. Even if it was, the effort will be totally worth it when you start seeing some orders come through. Now that the store is live, let's take a look at some marketing tips you can apply for sales growth. 1. Avoid cart abandonment If you've ever shopped online, you might have added a product to the cart but then decided not to purchase it. This is known as cart abandonment.

    • Marketing in a post COVID-19 world!

      Consumers across countries are increasingly spending more time on a wide variety of digital activities, right from online grocery shopping, to video conferencing, to tele-medicine. There is a good chance that you performed one or more of the following activities during this lockdown, thanks to COVID 19: Cooked a meal Made a TikTok Video Signed up for a remote learning session Consulted a doctor online (or ordered medicines online) Shopped for groceries online A study by Hunter, a food and beverage

    • Inbound Marketing 101: The Foundational Blocks of Inbound Marketing Strategy

      According to a behaviour survey, 68% of the buyers use sources such as blogs to evaluate the product even before considering it. Before buying a product, we do a lot of research to learn more about the product through communities, blogs, social media,

    • How Zylker doubled their webinar registrations!

      Webinars are good educational resources to gather qualified leads for your product. But what if your visitors are dropping off from your webinar landing page without signing up? What more could you do to convert visitors into registrants? This is the

    • The ideology behind why features tell, but benefits sell

      Do you think there's any truth to this? Do features only tell, and benefits sell?  Well, let's see why we should focus on benefits rather than features as the great marketing wizards, David Ogilvy and Steve Jobs proved to be the best examples leveraging

    • Recent Topics

    • Expand Zia's Language Support and AI Capabilities

      Dear Zoho Desk Support, I would like to submit a feature request to improve Zia, the AI-driven support assistant in Zoho Desk. Currently, Zia only supports the English language, while other AI agents such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude can work with a

    • Average Costing / Weighted Average Costing

      Hello fellow maadirs. I understand Zoho Books uses FIFO method of dealing with inventory costing, but do you guys have any plans to introduce average costing? We indians need average costing. It's part of our culture. Please. I beg thee. Thanks.

    • Links in Instagram

      Hi there, I have been using Later for a while now but keen to come back to Zoho Social as Later doesn't offer tagging of pages on Facebook but they offer something Zoho doesn't. You can add a link to your bio which opens up your profile feed where images

    • Zoho Social integration with Zoho Flow

      Is there any plans for Zoho Social integration with Zoho Flow?

    • Adding tag to specific record as an acion in a workflow

      Hi! I've created the following workflow in the module 'Leads'. When a record meets the criteria, there should be a tag added to the specific record in the module 'Contacts'. In the module 'Leads', there is a look-up field named 'Kandidaat' which is connected

    • How to query for Deals record based on Pipeline?

      I want to query for Deals records that matches a specified Pipeline using a Deluge function. When I call zoho.crm.searchRecords("Deals","(Pipeline:equals:" + myPipeline + ")"), I get this error: { code: 'INVALID_QUERY' , details: {...} , message: 'Invalid

    • CRM formula field help

      Hello! i was hoping to get some help with a formula i'm creating within a module. I'm looking to make a formula that changes based on a date field but based upon the present date. This is the formula i have so far: If(Now() < ${Instructors.Start Date},

    • Change to copy/paste functionality in Deluge code editor

      Recently there was a change to the Deluge code etidor where it now inserts backslashes into strings automatically when copying/pasting strings with double quotes, it's a nightmare to have to go delete all these. Is it possible to toggle this on or off?

    • ChatGPT only summarize in English

      Hello i' v enabled chatgpt in salesIQ, it works great inside conversation (revise, Rephrase etc) add tags works well with another language than English. But when I want to summarize it render only in English, despite sales IQ is set to another language.

    • Chart with Filtered Data vs Unfiltered Data

      I am looking to create a chart view that displays the full data set vs a subset of the data filtered by user filter. However I do not seem to find any method by which to exclude a plot from the applied filter or any other method by which to display the

    • BIN Locations

      Hi, I’m new to Zoho inventory and unless Im missing something, I cannot find BIN locations anywhere in ‘items’? please tell me it’s there somewhere?!? Thanks

    • Can't verify domain with AWS Route53

      I have a domain successfully transferred to AWS Route53 from NameCheap. When I try to CNAME or TXT Records as suggested, they are added in AWS console however zohomail does not verify them.  For the TXT record zohomail says the value is wrong, whereas for CNAME record zohomail can't find any CNAME record. I don't know what to do! 

    • BANK FEED - MAYBANK , provider from YODLEE IS NOT WORKING

      As per topic, the provider YODLEE is not working for the BANK FEED. It have been reported since 2023 Q3, and second report on 2023 Q4. now almost end of 2024 Q1, and coming to 2024 Q2. Malaysia Bank Maybank is NOT working. can anyone check on this issue?

    • Create a custom button to modify custom fields in zoho Inventory

      I am needing a script for two buttons, 1. Button will add todays date to a custom field named cf_sent_to_sov 2. Button will mark a checkbox or unmark a checkbox field named cf_parts_ordered I have been trying to figure out deluge but have not got anywhere

    • Canadian payroll

      Hello ZOHO, is any updates on when payroll for Canada will be available?

    • Default reminders on Emails

      I have seen that it is possible to set, for each email, a reminder when the email remains unresponded for some time. This is very useful, so useful that I would like to set it for all my emails, by default. Because an unanswered email usually requires

    • Update Department on Ticket (with applied Blueprint)

      Hello, Is it possible to update the Department of a ticket which is dictated by a blueprint, e.g. I would like to change departments at different states in the Blueprint. I do not see this is an option in workflow rules or blueprint transition actions,

    • in zoho assist I would like to temporarliy go into view only mode

      During a zoho assist remote support / remote control session, I would like an option to turn off control, and go into view only mode. Then later, turn back on control, all within the same session. (Many other remote login apps have this feature.) For

    • Issue Configuring SSO Integration with Cognito in Zoho Help Center

      Dear Zoho Support Team, We have been working on configuring SSO integration for our Zoho Help Center using Amazon Cognito. While the setup appears to be completed successfully, we are encountering an issue when attempting to access the Help Center. The

    • QR code image is not exported in PDFs

      The new QR code field works fine when I include it in a report template and I choose the print option: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/<username>/<app_link_name>/record-print/<report_link_name>/<record_ID>/ But when I try to save the document to a .pdf file

    • Zoho notes list issue

      Hi team, Suddenly my extension is not working and I could not find the extension in my marketplace list anymore. Extension version deprecated This version of the extension is no longer in use. Please update the extension and try again.

    • Assignment Rule: Immediate Ticket Assignment to Agents Upon Shift Start

      Dear Zoho Desk Team, I hope this message finds you well. Currently, when the option to assign tickets to offline agents is turned off, agents who come online during their shift have to wait for about 30 minutes before any tickets from the queue are assigned

    • Change email template depending on answer from form

      Is it possible to set up the following in Zoho Desk: When a user submits a ticket via the Zoho Help Center's form, they can select an answer from a dropdown field. In this example, the dropdown options are 'Option A' and 'Option B.' If a user selects

    • Kaizen #171: FAQs on COQL API

      Hello all!! Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series! In this post, we will address some of the most frequently asked questions about Zoho CRM's COQL API from the Zoho CRM Developer Community Forum. COQL API Query API lets you query for records

    • Issue with Date Placeholder Formatting in Ticket ID Customization

      Hello Support Team, I'm experiencing an issue with the date placeholder formatting in Zoho Desk's Ticket ID customization. Specifically, when using the `{{DD}}` placeholder for the day in the prefix or suffix, the output displays the day as a single digit

    • Time Field

      Good Day, I have a question, when I save a draft and reload it. Why does the time field format keeps goes from hh:mm to hh:mm:ss? Is there a way I can force it to load to hh:mm only? I have tried example = totime(input.TimeField, "hh:mm") in the -created

    • Zoho CRM Widget and translations

      Hi everyone! We're building a Widget with zoho-extension-toolkit, how is localization supposed to work? "zet init" created a translations/en.json file, but what should go inside it and how is it supposed to be accessed from the Widget/javascript? Thanks

    • Feature Req - See imap emails in Timeline tab of a deal

      In many other CRMs such as pipedrive and hubspot, when you are looking at the timeline of a deal you can also see snippets of emails that have been sent or received and then click to view the full message. This gives users a fast way to catch up on EVERYTHING

    • HOW TO: Searching a thread (email body/text) with a custom function, allowing filtering and specific actions

      We are still trialing out Zoho at this time, but have found a major expected feature to be missing - the ability to search within the text of an email for automation/workflows. NOTE: You need to create a connection for zohodesk under settings -> Developer

    • Partnership Proposal for Supporting Number Porting Services in Singapore

      Dear Zoho Representative’s, I hope this message finds you well. My name is Honelito Gilos, and I represent Borderless Hub Pte Ltd (Singapore). We are a Telco here in Singapore specialising in providing seamless number porting services, and I’m reaching

    • Tip #2: Prefill forms automatically with existing Zoho CRM data

      How to automatically prefill a form with existing Zoho CRM data? Prefilled forms can be useful when you want your prospects to view and confirm their data, and in a wide range of other situations. In Zoho Forms, we prefill the fields with the values from Zoho CRM using the Zoho CRM field. What is a Zoho CRM field? A Zoho CRM field acts as a two-way communication channel, by sending data to Zoho CRM from forms and fetching information from CRM into Forms. The field will look up data from your CRM

    • Pushing GCLID info from Gravity Forms to ZohoCRM

      We are switching to Gravity Forms from Zoho Forms and I cannot find any good info on how to make sure my GCLID tracking info is pushed through to the CRM through my new forms. There was an article in the documentation about placing something within the

    • Organization Variables - Restrict Access

      Currently, there is no way to restrict the access to organization variables. This leads to a problem when storing API related values that should be kept secret as anyone with access to create and edit email templates, workflow rules, or inventory templates

    • Massive price increase for user licenses of Zoho Portal

      This actually a complaint about this announcement: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/free-user-licenses-across-all-portal-user-types You present this as an enhancement. And, yes, while reading the main part, I'd agree that (for smaller companies),

    • Transform Your Customer Support with AI-Powered Chatbots in Zoho SalesIQ

      Ever wondered how some companies seem to have superhuman customer support? Let's uncover their secret! In the digital age, customer expectations are skyrocketing. Did you know that according to McKinsey, 75% of consumers expect a response within five

    • Quickbooks conversion and Internet sales

      Hello, we are considering converting from Quickbooks enterprise to Zoho Books and using MonotorZ for our mrp needs. Today we import Internet sales under a single customer with multiple ship to addresses. We want to maintain the detail in CRM for marketing

    • KPI widget with percentage

      I'm trying to create a KPM widget that displays current performance as a percentage - something like the picture below. I've tried following the instructions at https://www.zoho.com/analytics/help/dashboard/kpi-widgets.html#chart but nothing ends up being

    • How to add two columns in Zoho forms

      I would like to have two columns in Zoho forms. How can i enable two columns?

    • When creating Sales Order / Estimate via API, the line item Tax Code does not get pulled in.

      I'm creating Sales Orders via API from CRM but it does not pull in the "Tax Code" I've read within the forums that this should be done automatically but it's not happening. Not sure if it's a bug or by design? Anybody else know? Should we be adding the

    • Chart showing schedule

      I want to be able to create a chart for everyday to check and which of which driver is available on the timeframe. Here's my table Name City Day Start Time End Time Driver1 Medicine Hat Monday 11:45 AM 4:45 PM Driver 2 Medicine Hat Tuesday 11:00 AM 7:00

    • Next Page