When I work with students on writing their personal statements for colleges, nine times out of ten their statements will consist of a series of facts. If the prompt is “What can you contribute to our campus?” students will typically reply along the lines of “I want to join the XYZ Club and help other students.” While this is a factual statement and does answer the question, it really doesn’t get to the meat of what the student can offer the school, particularly since the readers of these statements go through thousands of similar responses.

I try to push students towards the second level of self-analysis. The second round usually ends up with something along the lines of “I want to use my leadership capabilities when I join XYZ Club.” This is better, but not the best.

Then comes the third level of analysis. “I want to use the difficulties that I had adjusting to living in a different culture to help international students adjust to the complexities of life in the United States when I join XYZ club.

This is much better. It shows gives a specific experieince that the student can use to differentiate this student from other applicants.

What does my student example have to do with features and benefits? Features and benefits can be looked at as three different levels of attracting a buyer. Yes, three!

Features

The first level of attracting customers is features. Features are the facts about a given product. Features of an outdoor grill might include:

• Electric
• Grease tray
• Non-stick cooking surface
• Temperature control
• 300 square inches of cooking space
• Attached working surface

Features in and of themselves do not sell a product. Features do not give the “what is in this for me?” answers, although features do give useful information. Features alone are not exciting enough to sell a product.

Benefits

Benefits start you on the road to closing a sale. The benefits of the above outdoor grill include:

• Convenience
  • Electric
  • Non-stick cooking surface
  • Attached working surface

• Easy to Use:
  • Electric
  • Non-stick cooking surface
  • Temperature control
  • Attached working surface

• Saves Money
  • Electric
  • Temperature control.

But will convenient, easy to use, and saves money be enough to close the sale?

Probably not. Why? Because you have still not addressed your customer’s needs. You are giving them generalities instead of specific results that they will enjoy when they use your barbeque.

A variation of superficial benefits is restating the features as benefits using slightly different wording. For example, a feature of a cell phone is caller I.D. You might list a benefit of your cell phone as the convenience of knowing who is calling before you answer the phone. However, this benefit as stated really isn’t much more than the feature statement. A better benefit would list the results of having this feature:

• Never miss an important call again.
• Avoid your mother-in-law every time.

Results

What results do your customers want from your barbeque?  They want a grill that offers

• Tasty, Healthy Food Every time
  • Temperature control
  • Grease tray 

• Perfect for Easy Entertaining
  • 300 square inches of cooking space
  • Attached working area
  • Easy to clean

• A Double Bonus: Environmentally Friendly While Saving You Money!
  • Electric versus charcoal emissions
  • Do not have to buy charcoal for the life of the grill

How can you determine the results that your customers want?  By knowing your customers. You need to know who your customer base is and why they are buying your products. In addition, you need to know why other people prefer your competitors’ products.

Then, go back to the question “what is in it for me?” Tell your potential customers exactly what the results of using your product or service will be. Don’t be shy. This is a case where tooting your own horn is the right thing to do.

Do you know your customer’s needs and what results they want?

Tags: Benefits, Benefits-vs-features, features, Webcopy
Posted in Copy Writing