Features vs Benefits - Do you think it's *ever* better to list features?
The recommended way to write messaging on landing pages or any other marketing copy is to describe the benefits of using a product to a user, and not the features of the product. eg. you would write something like
Be more productive and finish your coding tasks faster with auto complete (benefit)
vs
Fast and accurate auto complete as you type (feature)
**But is it ever better to list features instead of benefits? **
I'm working on a product that is positioning itself as basically an add on to an existing product, so I'm finding it easier to describe my product's features in comparison to the existing product's. Should I be trying to use benefits based messaging instead?
When the product category is well-known and popular, and there are many competitors, people compare features, because they don't need to be tought about the product.
For example: web hosting, cell phone operators.
If it’s a common and well understood problem, with lots of competitors in the market - a strong feature list might appropriate and help win over a customer trying to decide between you and someone else.
In my experience “enterprise” buyers like to do feature comparisons and often have a “shopping list” of nice to have and essential features.
Better than both benefits and fearures: list the problems that your audience has, that you'll solve for them.
Aha, Pain Dream Fix! :) That's a great point, I've tried to incorporate that concept now.
It's always easier to list features. That's the whole reason the advice you quoted exists.
What is the benefit of using your add-on?
Put out a few different versions of the wording and test it with your audience. The amount of time you’ll spend agonizing over the perfect wording is better used by making a few experiments to gather real feedback.
Thanks for the advice! I feel like when you've got a certain amount of traffic, testing it with an A/B testing tool makes sense - but what about pre-launch or at launch? I don't expect to have so much traffic that A/B testing could give me a significant insight into what customers prefer.
Or are you referring to other ways to test it with my audience other than an A/B test?
I would literally have conversations with folks where you're pitching the product using a different approach each time, and getting direct feedback. You don't need thousands of users, just a few handfuls of interviews.
That's a great idea, thanks!