2 min
read •
May 14, 2024

Features vs Benefits: Are you accidentally killing sales?

By
Josh @ Hoppy Copy
3x founder, CMO, loves email marketing
Published in

This one error in email and copywriting is one of the most common mistakes every marketer and business owner has made.

In fact… you’re probably still doing it without even realizing it.

What’s the mistake?

Listing features of your product rather than the benefits.

Features Vs. Benefits:
What’s The Difference

So let’s break down the differences real quick.

Features are what the product is or has.

But a benefit is how that product will be experienced or what it will do to make the customer’s life better.

The difference between using a benefit vs. a feature as your selling point can make or break how well a product or service sells.

Don’t believe me? Just look at Apple and their first-ever iPod ad.

The iPod was nothing more than a glorified MP3 player, and it was definitely not the first one on the market.

But what they did differently was they sold the benefit of their product, not the features.

The ad doesn’t list the sleek white and silver exterior (feature), the matching headphones (feature), or the gigabit or so of memory (feature).

Nope. Instead, it lists what it will do for you.

1,000 songs in your pocket.”

That’s a clear benefit. And this switch from listing features to mentioning benefits can be used in emails too.

Take a look at this welcome email from TOMS.

One for One. That’s the model they’re known for but it was a huge benefit.

By purchasing a product from them, they used proceeds to help a person in need.

The benefit is clear here too, and there is no mention of the features of the shoes or apparel in sight.

That benefit helped TOMS soar into a well-known and thriving company. (read: they sold a lot of products)

You can benefit from benefit-driven copy too. Thankfully, you don’t need to try to come up with all the ideas for what those benefits are.

You can use Hoppy Copy to do some of the heavy lifting.

How To Generate Benefits Using HoppyCopy

Login to your account and look up Benefits in the AI Wizard. Choose the Features → Benefits template and fill in the prompts.

Hit the Create Copy button and watch our tool create new ideas for spinning features into benefits perfectly suited for your target audience.

🔥 Pro Tips for Creating Benefits That Convert To SalesWhen it comes to creating copy that sells, the biggest mindset switch that needs to happen is you need to write for your ideal audience.

In Hoppy Copy, in the Features → Benefits template, play around with who that target audience is and see how it changes the selling point in the benefits that the tool generates.Test those ideas with your audience and track the engagement in your emails or on sales pages to decipher what’s resonating with them.

That way you’re getting the most out of your messaging!
By
Josh @ Hoppy Copy
3x founder, CMO, loves email marketing

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