{"id":970,"date":"2017-05-03T03:39:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T03:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/?p=970"},"modified":"2021-03-01T03:06:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T03:06:42","slug":"how-to-sell-benefits-instead-of-features-on-your-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/how-to-sell-benefits-instead-of-features-on-your-website\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Sell Benefits Instead of Features on Your Website"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deliver what your visitors want.<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t even have to see it.<\/p>\n

Your website has too many features and not enough benefit to the consumer. I already know because every new client with whom I meet has the same problem and it\u2019s costing you money.
\n<\/p>\n

We ran an internal survey listing two different value propositions for the same conversion, one describing a feature and another describing a benefit. After 920 results, consumers reacted more favorably to the benefit almost eight out of ten times. No surprise.<\/p>\n

This likely means if you\u2019re addressing features instead of benefits, you\u2019re losing visitors. That means you\u2019re losing customers, which means you\u2019re losing money.<\/p>\n

Below is an example of how companies do it wrong. It\u00a0was easy to find. It took all of ten seconds and one search – a pretty good indication that the problem is prevalent.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>

Above, we see some mistakes right from the beginning from Flue Stream. First, Welcome to Flue Stream<\/em> – Have you ever been to a site where you were not welcome? It’s a useless sentence.<\/p>\n

Then,\u00a0after asserting they are the leader in\u00a0commercial kitchen air control and fire prevention (where’s the proof?), they boast about how long they’ve been in business.<\/p>\n

They top it off with a lack luster appeal to check out their site. Not a big deal since I doubt few visitors make it this far.<\/p>\n

Instead, I’d write about how they will keep your commercial kitchen in compliance and prevent shut downs by the city fire department. Or, write how\u00a0your kitchen will be in compliance, protected and ready for operation by the time your staff arrives in the morning.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

The Difference Between Features and Benefits<\/h3>\n

Features are all the qualities about you and your business that make you so damn fabulous.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re smart, you\u2019ve got a lot of experience, you\u2019re credentialed, your customers love you, you have a family owned business, your products or services are the best in town and your prices are competitive, if not down-right cheap. You even give part of your proceeds to the dyslexic chipmunk foundation. Wow! What a company.<\/p>\n

The problem is nobody cares (except for maybe the cheap part, but we\u2019ll get into that later). What your visitors care about is themselves. They care about their own problems and want to know if you can solve them.<\/p>\n

Sure, all those features that make you great are still important, but that\u2019s not what your customers are buying.<\/p>\n

They are buying a solution to their problem. It\u2019s fine, and perhaps important, to note how good you are, but you shouldn\u2019t include that stuff in your selling proposition.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>

Above is another example of what not to do.<\/p>\n

Hello<\/em>? I hate to pick on my competitor (not really), but a web design company should know better than to have such a weak value proposition.<\/p>\n

There isn’t a compelling reason for the visitor to use them over competitors. The page is weak. Showing previous work is not a bad idea, but not before you’ve given them a good reason to look at it.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Still confused? Keep reading and I\u2019ll break all this down for you.<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s look at an example. When you get your haircut, you probably have a favorite barber shop or salon that you go to and even have a specific person you like cutting your hair.<\/p>\n

Do you go to them because they have the most experience or because they are graduates of Robert Cromeans Hair Styling School? You probably don\u2019t even know where your hair cutter went to school.<\/p>\n

Do you go to them because they are the cheapest in town? I doubt it.<\/p>\n

You use the same hair cutter because they are the only one who can cut your hair the way you like it. You\u2019d even pay a little extra if you had to. You like the way you look in the mirror after the haircut and feel good about yourself afterwards, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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How you feel about yourself is the benefit you received for getting your haircut and it\u2019s the reason you and everyone else goes to that particular stylist or barber, not because of where they went to school, how much experience they have or even how cheap the cut was.<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As a hair stylist, if you can sell that feeling, you\u2019ll never have to worry about new customers again. Consumers will be lining up to schedule appointments.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

So why are you\u00a0still doing it wrong?<\/h3>\n

Because features are easy. It’s what you know. You love talking about your business. It\u2019s your favorite subject. You love sharing your expertise with the world and you\u2019re certain everyone one else can\u2019t wait to hear about it.<\/p>\n

Many of you don\u2019t know how to write about benefits.<\/p>\n

I admit, it\u2019s difficult. You may start with the right intentions, but often your content slowly drifts back toward features. After all, you\u2019re sure your customers want to go with the best company so it\u2019s up to you to prove to them you\u2019re the best, right?
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The fact is, your writing needs to have a bit of both. We can probably use the 80\/20 rule here with 80% of your content being about benefits and 20% about features.<\/p>\n

Consumers actually do want to know a few features, but that’s not what motivates them to buy from you.<\/p>\n

They are going to buy from you when they are convinced that you can meet their needs.<\/p>\n

This is how\u00a0you make rational buying decisions as well (actually there\u2019s a whole other emotional element that plays a big role in it, too, but I\u2019ll get into that in a another post).<\/p>\n

The problem is that as business owners, it’s\u00a0often difficult to look at our business from the perspective of someone who doesn\u2019t know what we know.<\/p>\n

How to Write Benefits<\/h3>\n

So how do you write about benefits? To get to the benefits of your product or service, you need to dig deeper. State your feature, then ask a question like, so what?<\/strong><\/em> \u2026and so?<\/strong><\/em> or \u2026which means?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Our plumbers are certified experts.
\nSo what?
\nThey\u2019ve been trained and are licensed?
\nSo what?
\nThey know how to fix your plumbing emergency fast.
\nSo what?
\nThey\u2019ll save your home from getting damaged by broken pipes.
\nSo what?
\nYour stuff won\u2019t get damaged.
\nSo what?
\nYou\u2019ll be happier.<\/em><\/p>\n

So does this mean as a plumber you should sell happiness? No, not really, but everyone likes jobs that are done correctly the first time so they don\u2019t have to hassle with rework and damaged household items. What a headache.<\/p>\n

Learn how to address the benefits that features provide. Here\u2019s another example:<\/p>\n

We have an app that helps you find local restaurants?
\nWhich means?
\nYou can find the best places to eat.
\nWhich means?
\nYou won\u2019t waste quality time with your family on bad experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or this one:<\/p>\n

Our hotel has the best customer reviews in the city.
\nAnd so?
\nIf so many others have had good experiences, so will you?<\/em><\/p>\n

See how it works with almost any feature of your business? If that isn\u2019t enough, here\u2019s a chart which does some of the work for you:<\/p>\n

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What Benefits Can Do for You<\/h3>\n

When we accept a new marketing client at Web Groovin, we always A\/B test landing pages. We take the client\u2019s heavily featured pages\u00a0and run them\u00a0against our benefits-focused landing pages and track the performance overseveral weeks.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been using this process since 2009 and our benefits-focused landing pages have never lost a split test. Not once.<\/p>\n

We know through years of research and testing that consumers buy emotionally, not rationally.<\/p>\n

By focusing on customer benefits in your marketing, you address the heart of your prospects\u2019 pain. Do this and the transaction becomes emotional for them, even for seemingly bland and boring products and services.<\/p>\n

Your competitors look the same to consumers because they don\u2019t differentiate themselves from one another. Everyone is the leader. Everyone has the greatest value and they all have a name you can trust. You can stand out by asking yourself, “so what?”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Deliver what your visitors want. I don\u2019t even have to see it. Your website has too many features and not enough benefit to the consumer. I already know because every new client with whom I meet has the same problem and it\u2019s costing you money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,8,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4736,"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/4736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabaretti.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}