My mother would cut up vegetables into smaller pieces and hide them to make them more digestible. As kids, we didn't realise we were eating broccoli or green beans. And even now, as adults, we blend everything green into a smoothie.
And it's the same with how we communicate with our audience.
Let me explain -
As a B2B your Features are an essential part of your sales process it's what makes you unique and it's understandable you'd want to tell everyone about them but you've probably heard the advice to "sell your benefits, not features" countless times. It's a well-worn B2C copywriter mantra.
And while many will debate how different B2C is from B2B - It's true - your Prospective Customers won’t care about you until you care about them,
Features are often portrayed as the boring small print like the ingredients in your grandma's famous pie recipe— we want the pie but don't always want to know how it's made.
But features are an essential step in your buyers decision process.
💪 Features Provide Valuable Context:
Features help your customers understand precisely what they're getting.
Without clearly outlining the features, they'll struggle to differentiate your offering from competitors.
💪 Different Buyers Have Different Needs:
Yes some of your customers will be swayed by the emotional benefits, but there will be others who want the technical specifications lowdown before they reach for their credit card.
Addressing both in your messaging means you'll cater to a broader range of clients especially when it comes to B2Bs where decisions are made by committees.
💪 Features Support Your Claims:
Features are the evidence that backs up the benefits you're promising (without it you'll sound sleazy)
💪 Features Foster Trust:
When customers see you've invested time and effort into developing a well-rounded product, they're more likely to have confidence in your offering.
The trick is to know when and how to showcase your features.
Most B2Bs are happy to talk about their features from the first contact. They put them front and centre on the home page, their social media posts, and promotions. But without any real context, your complex features will scare away your ideal clients and make your product seem overly confusing.
Be honest, no one’s going to get excited over a “Form Building Tool”
Customer Value and Benefits is your customers happy place. It's where they can imagine using your product and solving their problems.
Another pitfall for B2Bs to avoid is highlighting fake benefits.
Fake benefits are benefits your customers aren’t interested in. They may feel like an advantage but they don't add any real value to your customer.
For example, running a global workforce from 1 platform may sound absolutely awesome to those at Lark, but what if your ideal clients don't have a global workforce?
So what can you do?
Syncing your benefits and features as a B2B has many advantages. Most if not all of your communication will be ping-ponged through various departments and buying committees.
People only remember what they want to remember and without stickiness, your message will get lost. Creating an emotional and logical message will appeal to and engage with potential clients who have different purchasing decision triggers making it easier for them to recall your content.
And yes, I know, as a B2B communicator, there are some things you can say and some things you can't—some things you want to talk about, but some things your customers don't care to listen to.
Digestible content makes it easier for your audience to consume, remember, and share.
Hiding your vegetables (features) in your benefits is a skill that shouldn't be
overlooked in your communication strategy.
David Ogilvy, one of the most famous copywriters wrote Rolls Royce's iconic ads.
He spent months researching the audience of the advertisement. He concluded that they didn’t need magic tricks with words, they needed the facts.
What you see at first glance, in the headline is technically a feature although it feels like a benefit.
From this one short sentence alone you instantly learn the following:
The car is a Rolls Royce.
It has an electric clock
It can do 60 mph (yes this ad was published in 1958).
But here's the wider implications that highlight the benefits
The engine is so quiet even at a fast speed making the car experience exceptionally smooth and enjoyable
Ogilvy uses very few adjectives, and no fancy words - the ad reads like a simple list of features but it gives a tremendous amount of information about the product whilst placing it in the customer's lives as well as highlight problems other car manufacturers faced.
Back then 'fast" cars had to compromise. Larger engines meant more noise.
Ogilvy spent months researching the product. He examined the car, tried it, talked to those who designed and built it. He found out everything there was to know about the product - what customers complained about and what they valued.
And that's the brilliance of hiding your "boring yet amazing" features among your benefits. Tying them clearly together helps your audience make the connections themselves.
Here's how Mailchimp and Adobe are doing it.
Mailchimp shows the key features of its email marketing platform once its prospects click the button to Get Started
And each feature opens up to give a clear explanation of a customer value and benefit
Adobe Photoshop has an impressive, comprehensive suite of creative tools that they highlight on their social media platforms (think 25,000 fonts!) and they use their features as a tease for their product launches.
Don't skip showing your features off — learn to hide them amongst your benefits.
1. Connect benefits to features: Once you've established a benefit, reveal the feature that makes it possible. This technique fosters a logical, cohesive narrative that demonstrates how your product or service delivers on its promises.
2. Showcase differentiating features: Identify features that set your offering apart from the competition. By subtly incorporating these elements into your benefits, you can create a unique value proposition that stands out in a crowded market.
3. Use storytelling: A well-crafted story transforms a list of benefits and features into a memorable, engaging narrative. Weave features into your story to provide context and depth, strengthening the impact of your benefits.
4. Incorporate visuals and examples: Enhance the impact of your benefits and features by providing real-life examples, case studies, or visuals that illustrate their effectiveness. This additional context strengthens your copy and builds trust with your audience.
Top Tip: Spend time getting to know your product, try out every little feature, you never know what will resonate with your customer.
If you want your team to find their own A-ha moments — Just forward this edition of Why Our Words Work! with an invitation to subscribe
Funfact **The headline of Ogilvy's famous Rolls-Royce ad, "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock", was inspired by a quote from a British motor magazine**