Friends with benefits

Picture this:

A tech company launches a simplified smartphone designed for digitally hesitant users, touting its “revolutionary 5G capabilities and 108-megapixel camera.”

Meanwhile, their competitor’s ad shows a grandparent video calling their grandchild, with the tagline “Never miss a moment.”

Which one do you think has a bigger impact on potential buyers?

If you guessed the latter, you’re onto something. Why does it work? Because the phone's benefit strikes a nerve, tapping into a deep emotional longing.

People love to talk about features

It’s so easy to get caught up in the bells and whistles of a product, thinking they’ll wow the audience and drive sales. But here’s the harsh reality—features don’t sell.

Features are mostly surface-level noise. They're easily ignored unless tied to real value. A carefully crafted benefit, on the other hand, can shift your product from something people see to something they can't live without.

Feature lists can overwhelm your audience. Some marketers bombard their audiences with details. This can overwhelm, confuse, or even alienate potential buyers. Someone looking for an easy-to-use camera doesn’t want to hear about ISO settings—they want to know it will capture great photos of their kids at the park.

Features don’t inspire action. While they may provide useful information, features rarely create an emotional pull. Emotional appeals—like helping someone picture their dream vacation or feeling the pride of accomplishing a goal—are what truly drive decisions. Without tying features to meaningful benefits, your pitch fails to inspire your audience to take the next step.

Stuck in a features-first mindset? It’s time to shift your focus. Dig deeper into your audience’s underlying motivations and connect your offering’s benefits to what truly matters to them.

Ready to talk about benefits? Not so fast.

To communicate benefits effectively, you need to ensure they’re relevant. This is where segmentation comes into play.

One-size-fits-all rarely works

Appealing to everyone with a single message often results in diluted, ineffective marketing. Different people have different needs, values, and aspirations, so segmentation is essential for delivering tailored benefits.

By grouping your audience based on shared characteristics (like demographics, behaviors, or values), you can better organize and understand what drives them.

• Demographic segmentation: Younger audiences may prioritize affordability and innovation, while older audiences may focus on reliability and ease of use.
• Psychographic segmentation: Insights into values, attitudes, or aspirations can reveal emotional drivers like a desire for connection or personal growth.
• Behavioral segmentation: Understanding usage patterns or purchase behavior can help identify needs, such as convenience or loyalty incentives.

Once you've segmented an audience, you can truly speak their language, offering benefits that feel relevant and personal.

WIIFM (What's in it for me?)

The next step is to align your product or service's benefits with each audience’s specific needs and motivations, answering the question: “What’s in it for me?”

Step 1: Identify key motivations for each segment

Take a look at your audience segments and ask: “What do these people care about most?”

• Practical needs: Solving tangible problems (e.g., saving time, saving money, or adding convenience)
• Emotional drivers: Addressing feelings like confidence, security, or belonging
• Aspirational goals: Supporting growth, transformation, or achieving a desired status

Examples:

• A time-strapped professional might prioritize practical needs like convenience.
• A first-time parent might focus on emotional drivers like security.
• A fitness enthusiast might aim for aspirational goals like personal transformation.

Step 2: Map your features to benefits

Your product’s features only matter if they’re connected to outcomes your audience values. To do this, create a simple feature-to-benefit map:

• List the key features of your product or service
• Ask: “What does this feature help this audience achieve?”
• Translate the feature into a benefit that aligns with their needs or motivations

Examples:

• Feature: “24/7 heart rate monitoring” → Benefit: “Peace of mind during every workout.”
• Feature: “Customizable budgeting tool” → Benefit: “Spend less time worrying about finances.”
• Feature: “Ultra-light running shoes” → Benefit: “Run farther and faster with less effort.”

By focusing on how features create value, you ensure your messaging highlights outcomes your audiences care about.

Step 3: Prioritize the benefits that matter most

Not every benefit will connect equally with your audience. Focus on those that align most closely with the segment-specific motivations you identified in Step 1. For instance:

• Highlight practical benefits like time savings for busy professionals
• Emphasize emotional benefits like safety and security for first-time parents
• Showcase aspirational benefits like achieving a goal for fitness enthusiasts

In most cases, prioritizing 3 to 5 key benefits ensures your messaging stays focused and compelling, avoiding the overwhelm or dilution that comes from trying to highlight too many points. For more detailed proposals or presentations, more benefits might be appropriate.

Supercharge your benefits

Want your benefits to stick? Wrap them in an emotional appeal.

Tell stories
Share real-life examples of how your product or service has improved someone’s life. Stories about customers reaching goals or overcoming challenges are far more memorable than specs.

Use emotive language
Tap into real emotions and speak directly to your audience’s desires. For example, “the relief of knowing your family is safe” is more compelling than “advanced safety features.” Avoid overly technical jargon and focus on how your product will make them feel.

Use vivid imagery
Help your audience picture the benefits in their own lives. For example, instead of saying “Save time with faster performance,” say, “Spend more evenings with your family thanks to faster performance.”

By pairing your carefully crafted benefits with relatable emotion, audiences are much more likely to feel understood and compelled to act.

Don’t be that guy

Use this checklist to ensure your messaging is focused, relevant, and connects with what your audience truly cares about:

1. Have you segmented your audience effectively?
   Group your audience based on shared characteristics (demographic, psychographic, or behavioral) to understand their motivations and needs.
2. Have you identified motivations for each segment?
   Determine whether your audience is driven by practical needs, emotional drivers, or aspirational goals, and document these for each segment.
3. Have you mapped features to meaningful benefits?
   Translate your product’s features into outcomes that align with your audience’s motivations and solve their specific problems or desires.
4. Have you prioritized the benefits that matter most?
   Focus your messaging on the benefits that connect most strongly with your audience, ensuring relevance and clarity.
5. Have you amplified the benefits with emotion?
   Use stories, emotive language, and vivid imagery to make your benefits more relatable and inspiring.