Before we dig deep into features and benefits in copywriting, some definitions.
💥 FEATURES: Stuff your business does.
💥 BENEFITS: How the stuff your business does makes customers' lives more shiny and wonderful.
Copywriting and marketing 101 tells us that benefits come before features.
And it is true… most of the time. If you can translate the features of your business into benefits, you are going to do a better job of convincing people you have something worth selling.
The reason is devastatingly simple. People do not give a flying gooseberry flan about you, your business, or your rescue cat. 😹
ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS WHAT YOU CAN DELIVER FOR THEM.
Ouch.
Let's have a look at features and benefits in copywriting in practice. You'll notice that, in a shameful piece of self promotion, I have used my own business as an example.
Here's a feature:
Coast Copywriting provides highly tailored website copywriting services and marketing consultancy for businesses and agencies.
Here's a benefit:
Grow your business with website messages that build, authority, trust and sales.
Notice how the emphasis has changed in two ways. It:
I can't emphasise enough that if you flip your marketing messages from features to benefits, your copy is going to have so much more power and sales potential.
In fact, before I do ANY work for a client, I first of all translate their features into benefits so I have strong messages to provide the backbone of my homepage/ sales letter etc.
No you can't.
However, like almost all rules, benefits over features can be clung to too tightly by people who fear unorthodoxy, free thinking or change. (For instance, marketing gurus and the Taliban.)
In fact, it can sometimes seem like you are going to get bashed in the face with a big stick labelled 'Benefits' if you even start wrinkling your nose and preparing to mouth the F word.
Here's two occasions when you really SHOULD talk features
So, above the fold (the part of a website before people start scrolling) you will really want to keep your message benefits-focused. Paint the picture of what the happy outcome will look like. Make your reader richer, more fluent in Hindi, slimmer, whatever.
THEN, after you've sold the benefits, you can start revealing who you are and why you do what you do so well. In other words, your features. It makes sense, doesn't it? Once you've sold the dream, your visitor is going to want to know who's selling it to them, what's so special about this business, and what it's going to be like to work with them.
This is where I start talking about my:
• 20 years in the industry (skilled, reliable)
• B2B experience across many industries (yes, I will get your sector)
• Emphasis on using my journalist skills to interview clients and create a tailored, unique story (so you get quality content that helps you stand out from competitors)
So, to sum up this point, yes, start with benefits but don't be scared to talk about features too – later. Just be careful: if any section of copy is in danger of becoming a Festival of You, keep slipping the benefits in along the way.
So here's the second occasion you'll go features over benefits. This one is kind of exciting (for sad people like me who find this kind of thing exciting) because it flies right in the face of benefits orthodoxy.
Go with the feature over the benefit if it would be insane not to because the feature is so good. This probably won't happen all that often.
Here's an example:
A business offers creative writing seminars for aspiring authors. The headline feature is that stellar writers are on the books. Let’s say Jack Kerouac is still alive and he is the star name.
Only the business is so hung up on benefits, it buries this blistering feature by going with this:
❌ ‘From first draft to contract-worthy manuscript – in six weeks.’
It’s a benefit. And a beauty. Honing your skills this quickly to a level where agents and publishers are likely to take notice is BIG.
Only it’s a humungous [insert comedy raspberry noise here]. Because it doesn’t mention Jack Kerouac from the word go. Okay, maybe he will get a mention in line two or three. But that’s too little, too late.
Here’s a better headline:
✅ ‘Learn to write fiction with Jack Kerouac.’
but… But.. BUT!!!!… It’s not a bona fide benefit, it’s a feature.
Exactly. And it works.
Only, there is a caveat here. Notice how while it's concentrating more on the feature of the course than the outcome, it IS careful to put the reader front and centre.
A really terrible example of the above would be 'Our writing courses are led by Jack Kerouac.'
Ugh. 'It's all about YOU, isn't it, writing course?'
In conclusion:
👉 Choose benefits over features most of the time. Especially at the top of your website.
👉 But it is fine to talk about your features after you've sold the benefits – as long as you don't bang on like that acquaintance who only every talks about himself.
👉 Occasionally, when a feature outright trumps a benefit, stick it front and centre. But make sure you still keep the emphasis on the reader.
If you have any more questions about features and benefits in copywriting, hit me up on LinkedIn and even send me a line or two of copy. I'll be happy to look at and even benefit-ise it for you.
Martin Philp is co-owner of Coast Copywriting, a content marketing agency based in Penzance, UK. Find out more about Coast's Website Content Writer Services, Content Strategy Services, Content Marketing Consultant Services and Blog Writing Services.
Further reading
See the following related posts:
How to Write Content for Websites That Actually Wins Leads and Sales provides an overview on writing website content, looking at general principles.
How to Write a Business Website Homepage: a Step-by-Step Guide provides a detailed breakdown of the elements you'll need in a client-winning homepage – and reveals how to write them.
Tone of Voice in Copywriting: Here's How I Changed My Approach to Build More Sales For My Clients will give you an insight into how to develop a persuasive voice for your B2B business.