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You are here:   Home Blog Content Marketing 101: Features vs. Benefits

Content Marketing 101: Features vs. Benefits

August 10, 2018 by Carrie Powers Leave a Comment

A few days ago, I was watching a video from one of Copy Hackers’ courses. It got me thinking about a basic content marketing concept that’s rarely discussed but highly essential: features versus benefits.

Although closely related, features and benefits are used for very different purposes, and it’s crucial that you know the difference between the two.

What Are Features?

Think of the last time you looked at a tech product online. Chances are that after the first couple sentences, the product page included a long list of specifications such as RAM, charging speed and screen quality. All three of those aspects can be categorized as features.

Essentially, features are the attributes of the product or service you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling an electric toothbrush, a list of its features will likely answer the following questions:

  • What material is it made out of?
  • What color is it?
  • Where was it made?
  • Is it battery-powered? If so, are batteries included?
  • Does it need to be charged?
  • How long does it take to charge?
  • How many speed settings does it have?
  • How much plaque does it remove?

What Are Benefits?

In contrast to features, benefits explain how a product or service will impact a customer. For a tech product, those might include a more efficient workflow, improved internet connectivity for faster browsing or increased storage space to store more of your photos.

Or, keeping with our electric toothbrush example, a list of benefits might include:

  • Fresher breath.
  • Whiter teeth.
  • Healthier gums.
  • Reduced risk of gingivitis, cavities or enamel loss.
  • Brighter smile.

Which Should You Focus On?

Whether your content focuses primarily on features or benefits depends entirely on whom you’re addressing.

Why? Because your audience’s level of awareness directly impacts the approach you should take to your content.

This idea was defined and popularized by Eugene M. Schwartz, who was arguably the most influential copywriter of the 20th century. Essentially, there are five levels of customer awareness ranging from unaware to aware.

This handy graphic from CI-Group illustrates all five levels, plus the marketing approach that works best for each end of the spectrum:

So, content that’s targeted toward customers who are mostly unaware of your brand and products should emphasize benefits more than features.

For instance, a Facebook status you post could say:

“Want to find out how [company] used [product] to reduce operational expenditure by 25 percent? Check out our new blog post.”

On the other hand, content that’s targeted toward customers who are more aware of your brand and products should include plenty of features.

For instance, a white paper you send out to your email list subscribers could contain a detailed list of features, as well as a thorough, fact-based explanation of how those features can lead to benefits.

The bottom line is that both features and benefits have their place in your content, but you’ll fail to maximize your impact on customers if you don’t know which to highlight.

For more on content marketing and targeting your audience sign up for our mailing list and get instant access to your content strategy blueprint.

Were you already aware of the importance of features versus benefits? Do you find one to be more effective than the other? Let me know in the comments!

Carrie Powers
Carrie Powers is a content writer for bizbuzzcontent. She loves reading, iced coffee and scruffy dogs, and is on a neverending quest for the perfect burrito.

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Jessica leads one of the most professional content agencies I’ve ever worked with. We target a very niche industry, and Jessica and her team were very thoughtful in their approach. From planning thoughtful pieces, to researching and interviewing SMEs, to brainstorming promotion strategies, Jessica and her team maintain a high degree of professionalism and efficiency.
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Jessica dedicated her time as a pro-bono volunteer with VolunteerMatch to help us with some key content marketing needs. What impressed me most about working with Jessica was the way she tailored her approach to accommodate the needs of our nonprofit with the resource constraints of our team. Jessica developed personas, one-pagers, case studies and website content that has resulted in an increase in traffic to our site and improved our ability to communicate to our key audiences.
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Jessica is a guest speaker of Microsoft internal training program. She made an awesome presentation of how to create marketable web ages to Microsoft Bing Ads product team and services team. Attendees found Jessica very engaging during the presentation. Microsoft Bing Ads is eager to apply the learning in our daily works, and look forward to partnering with Jessica to bring more value to digital advertising community.
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Jessica has been instrumental in building our content strategy from ground up, educating our stakeholders and increasing our exposure across all lines of insurance. I can say with confidence that she has been a critical extension of the marketing team, always producing timely deliverable. She has always been enthusiastic about creating new formats for us and new vehicles of information to help the marketing team raise awareness and drive internal adoption. Her most impressive feat from my perspective is how quickly and seamlessly she dived into our 12 lines of insurance. The dexterity and the level of expertise she demonstrated although she had never worked with insurance B2B client was absolutely incredible.

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Jessica has been instrumental in building our content strategy from ground up, educating our stakeholders and increasing our exposure across all lines of insurance. I can say with confidence that she has been a critical extension of the marketing team, always producing timely deliverable. She has always been enthusiastic about creating new formats for us and new vehicles of information to help the marketing team raise awareness and drive internal adoption. Her most impressive feat from my perspective is how quickly and seamlessly she dived into our 12 lines of insurance. The dexterity and the level of expertise she demonstrated although she had never worked with insurance B2B client was absolutely incredible.
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We can't imagine how we managed without bizbuzzcontent before! Working with Jessica Lee is a dream. She is very creative and understands new concepts quickly. The content creation process at bizbuzzcontent is the most efficient we have come across in our many years of working with other writers and agencies. If you want an excellent content program and a company that goes above and beyond, hire bizbuzzcontent today!
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Jessica and her team at bizbuzzcontent have been a trusted partner for years, and have helped us with our blog, web copy and email marketing, in addition to providing lots of guidance on other content projects. The team is able to quickly get up to speed on any content project's requirements and create quality content that's on target. Over the years, they've helped us educate, drive brand awareness and website traffic. I would definitely recommend bizbuzzcontent for content services.
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