Write benefits not features

May 18, 2004

Some sales copies go on and on and on about what a great product they have and what all the product does. Fine, the product features have to be specified, but they can be written in a way that the reader thinks they are the uses/benefits of the product and not mere descriptions. While writing copy it has to be born in mind that an average reader is not interested in knowing how great you are; instead, she wants to know what you can do for her. Your offering could be the neatest in the world, but if your sales copy cannot convey its benefits, there is no use promoting it. When people buy your product, they are not buying its features; they are buying its benefits.

What is the difference between benefit and feature, you may ask, because after all, for you, the features of your product are service are the very benefits it has. But your reader may not understand this. Features describe how your service works, or what you do. Benefits describe the result the client will get from hiring you. For example: a car has the feature of a radio, which means you get the result of being entertained while you drive.

Copywriting is all about emotions and benefits stir the emotional strings of the reader. In one of the television commercials of a new automatic car, they don’t tell you that you won’t have to use the gears, they tell you that you can hold the hand of your spouse while driving you car.