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

    • Pause/Resume Subscrtiption API

      I don't see the option to Pause/Resume a subscription using the API, is it in the pipeline?

    • 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,

    • ERROR_CODE :554, ERROR_CODE :rejected due to spam

      Please verify bounce message: This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. xxx@thalesesec.com Error, ERROR_CODE :554, ERROR_CODE

    • 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

    • Sent emails not going and showing "Processing"

      Hello Team, Could you please assist with sent emails showing "processing" and not actually going through? Many thanks and regards, Cycology

    • LinkedIn verification link and otp not receiving

      For the last 2 to 3 weeks I'm trying to verify my LinkedIn account to access my company's LinkedIn page, Linkedin is sending verification links and codes to this email address but I have not received any codes or links. Please help me here. Looking forward

    • Zoho desk desktop application

      does zoho desk has a destop applicaion?

    • send file to ftp or another external service

      i'v created a zoho creator application for take a picture and rename it by phone. Now i need to send Each renamed pictures to my ftp or to specific folder on google drive...then, delete it from creator. (every picture recived it will processed by another program and stored on my Erp) HOW CAN I DO ??

    • Error 403: Forbidden When Updating Email Signature via API

      Hi Zoho Desk team, First, congratulations again on the excellent Zoho API. But, I’m encountering an issue while attempting to update an email signature via the API. Whenever I make a request to update the signature, the response returns an HTTP 403 Forbidden

    • Has anyone built a ticket export that allows Help Center users to export the tickets shown in the My Area list they are looking at?

      Hi, We are moving to Zoho Desk soon. Our current support system displays an option in our help center allowing customers to export their Open, Closed, or all tickets based on which list they are looking at. We need to offer the same in Zoho Desk help

    • Mass pdfs into OCR field

      I am working on a Creator app that my org will use internally. Is there any way to mass upload pfs through a form with an OCR file upload field? Is Creator capable of this, or would I need to use Catalyst?

    • How to upload a file to form file upload field from deluge script.

      Hi guys, I need to store API response into Form File upload field . I'm not getting any errors but PDF file is not assigned to file upload field. You can check possibilities using below details: Method: POST URL: https://v2.convertapi.com/convert/web/to/pdf?Secret=<<SecretKey>>&Token=<<APIKey>>&Url=https://www.google.com You need to generate secretKey and APIKey by Login to https://www.convertapi.com/a/su Response: { "ConversionCost": 4, "Files": { "FileName": "www_google_com.pdf", "FileSize": 68342,

    • Export view via deluge.

      Hi, Is it possible to export a view (as a spreadsheet) via deluge? I would like to be able to export a view as a spreadsheet when a user clicks a button. Thanks     

    • Subform Time field showing as null in script.

      Good Afternoon everyone. I am trying to take the information from my subform and populate it into a multiline field in the CRM. The code below works with no errors. The problem is, it shows that the Open and Close (Time fields) are null. But they are

    • Zoho Payroll's Year in Review 2024

      As we roll into 2025, we'd like to pay tribute to all the milestones we hit in 2024! From releasing out new features that streamlined your workflows to updates that made payroll management smoother, we’ve had a prolific year—all while keeping you, our

    • Is there a way to sort report on record template by a specific field like date field

      Hi, Is it possible to sort the report on the record template by the date field and not the default Added Time. Please check the example bellow: The records are sorting by the added time I wand to change that by the date field,

    • Shared subfolders

      Am I right in thinking that there is no Zoho email application that allows me to create a shared inbox and then add additional folders/subfolders under that inbox? If so, this is really quite incredible and probably a deal breaker for us to start using

    • Update Multi select field values to another form table as individual record

      Hi, I am new to coding and do basics within deluge. I need help with the deluge script to meet the following requirement. Form Student Attendance The fields are : Attendance Date Course (Lookup to Course Form) Class (Lookup to Class Form) Students (Multi

    • Shared Mailbox - Mark as read for all users

      Hi all, Maybe someone can help me out. At the moment we have a shared mailbox without streams. When a users reads an mail or marks it as read other users will not see this. How can we resolve this? We now archive the mails when read and followed up. However

    • Allocate emails to user in a shared mailbox

      Hi, This might be obvious, but I cannot find the answer. I have 3 shared mailboxes so any team member can see the emails. Is there a way of allocating a specific email to a user so that it is their responsibility to deal with it? Thanks in advance.

    • How to view shared mailbox in Outlook

      How to view shared mailbox in Outlook or in another software

    • Search mails in shared mailbox

      Hi everyone, is there a way to search mails in shared mailbox's? Search in streams or mail doesn't return anything from mails in shared mailboxes. Thanks! Rafal

    • Customising the approval email

      Is there anyway to customise the Approval email or to add further fields as the default looks so basic and unlike any of the other email notifications from Desk. My users just thought it was spam.

    • 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

    • 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

    • Need manual aggregate column pathing help

      See linked video here: https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/external/a5bef0f0889c18a02f722e59399979c604ce0660a1caf50b5fdc61d92166b3e7

    • Merging contacts does fail because of help center membership

      I'm trying to merge two contact records (they are the same contact) where one of them is a member on the help center. The system warns me about this situation and then I de-activate this contact as an "End User" for the help center. Right now the system

    • Duplicate Contacts - how to get merge or delete

      I have noticed that our list of contacts in Zoho Desk duplicates contacts periodically.  I have yet to identify when or why.  How do I merge or delete them?  I see there is a "Deduplicate" but I am unable to find anything that explains this feature.

    • Admin Access to Direct Messages in Zoho Cliq

      Hi Zoho Cliq Team, We would like to request a feature enhancement to enable admin access to one-on-one conversations (direct messages) conducted through Zoho Cliq. Use Case: As administrators, there are situations where it becomes essential to access

    • "Mark as Spam" not working as expected

      Dear support, in the below scenario, clicking on "Mark as spam" identifies only the first of the checked emails as spam, removes that email from the visible list and leaves the rest of the list still visible & unchecked. I've tried check-marking them

    • 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),

    • Elevating Email Security on Zoho Desk: DKIM Now Mandatory

      Hello Zoho Desk Users! It has been a wonderful journey with you on Zoho Desk. As we welcome 2025, we are strengthening our efforts to ensure a secure and seamless experience for you. To enhance email security, DKIM configuration will be mandatory for

    • Calendar - "super compact" week view

      every time i go to my calendar i have to re-engage the "super-compact view" for the week view...is there a way to make "super-compact" a default view so I dont have to keep on setting it manually?

    • Calendar - "pop up" locations

      One of the attractive features of google calendar and outlook calendar is that locations for events will start to automatically populate the location drop down menu as you type. Adding this feature to zoho calendar would be the final feature i need.

    • Using Zia in Zoho Sheet data to research the internet and return answer to a cell in Zoho Sheet

      I'm trying to see if Zia (connected with OpenAI key) can take data parameters stored in a Zoho Sheet to conduct research out on the internet then return an answer into the same Sheet. I'm trying to do the equivalent of using something like the =AI() function

    • [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series - Creator for the Education Industry

      Hello Everyone! We're thrilled to invite you to the Learning Table Series—a year-long initiative to demonstrate how Zoho Creator can transform industries with innovative and automated solutions. Each month focuses on a specific industry, and this time,

    • Remove the [## XXXX ###] from subject replies

      For our organisation we would like to have the [## XXXX ###] removed from subject replies. Cheers, Jurgen 365VitaalWerken

    • Self Client Authorization Issue

      Hi. Trying to test the api integration for Zoho Desk with the Self Client - Client Credintials flow method. I've created the self client, obtained the client id and secret, inputted "Desk.tickets.ALL" as my scope, and "ZohoDesk.[My Zoho Desk Org ID]"

    • How Can I Easily Access and Manage My GEPCO Online Bill Using Zoho Sheets?

      Hello everyone, I'm looking for an efficient way to access and manage my GEPCO online bills. I've heard that Zoho Sheets can be a powerful tool for organizing and tracking bills, but I'm not sure how to set it up for this specific purpose. Does anyone

    • All notes disappeared

      I've been using the notebook app for over five years on my phone without being logged into an account. A few days ago I opened the app and all my notes had disappeared. Since then I tried restarting my phone, updating the app and logging into my account,

    • Next Page