What do Tencel Cooling Covers, Gel Memory Foam, and Real-Time Optimization have in common?
As you’ll see, they’re all features of a product. But do these features want to make you buy the product?
Probably not, because you don’t know why they make the product worth buying.
If you want to convince people to claim your offer, you have to stress your product’s benefits over its features on your landing pages.
Benefits vs. features: Which is better for advertising conversion?
Nobody buys a product because of its new and improved, high-tech or cutting-edge feature. They buy it for what that feature enables them to do.
But in advertising, it’s not uncommon to see brands touting their newest updates and additions to the product. This is always a mistake, especially on post-click landing pages, which are explicitly designed to persuade a visitor to claim your offer. If someone isn’t clear about how a product will change their life for the better, they’re not going to buy it. You have to spell it out for them.
Good copywriting takes product-focused features and turns them into customer-focused benefits. In a blog post for “Building a Story Brand,” Donald Miller explains the concept of making the customer the hero:
The customer is the hero of our brand’s story, not us.
When we position our customer as the hero and ourselves as their guide, we will be recognized as a sought-after character to help them along their journey.In other words, your audience is Luke Skywalker. You get to be Yoda.
It’s a small but powerful shift. This honors the journey and struggles of our audience, and it allows us to provide the product or service they need to succeed.
Translated to features vs. benefits, this means you want to talk less about your product features and capabilities and more about how those features and capabilities impact the customer.
For example, a workout program will want to focus less on the actual advertising of the workouts, and more about how those workouts will improve the fitness level of its customers. A mattress company will want to focus less on the material its product is made of, and more on how that material helps people sleep better or maintain spinal health.
Teasing out these benefits isn’t always easy to do, but it’s necessary. So, to help you along, we’ve put together six real-life examples of ecommerce brands that use benefits and features on their post-click landing pages.
Brands that use benefits vs. features on their post-click landing pages
The best ecommerce brands use benefits to explain features. Here’s how they do it on post-click landing pages to boost conversions.
Trifecta Nutrition
This page from Trifecta Nutrition is a particularly good example of features vs. benefits on post-click landing pages. On it, the first icon shown below highlights a feature: “Touchless delivery.”
In the world’s current state, touchless delivery is an incredibly valuable feature. But its value would be better highlighted in bold the way that the second and third icons are.
“Time-saving” and “fresher food” are benefits of pre-cooked meals and a streamlined farm-to-table supply chain, respectively. The benefit of touchless delivery is health and safety. So, “safe delivery” might be a better way to describe the feature here, with an explanation of why the delivery is safe (because it’s touchless) in the copy. Benefits over features.
Instacart
This page from Instacart does an excellent job of helping its visitors visualize what they can have by using the service. Here’s a section of three icons you’ll see after scrolling down the page:
In two of them, the benefit is obvious. First, “Products you love,” tells the visitor that they’re able to choose from the products they already use and enjoy. If someone is thinking, “I may be limited to ordering from a select few stores and products by using Instacart,” this bold text counters that objection.
Secondly, “Save time & money” is a very clear benefit to the user. Instead of highlighting the feature “Exclusive deals on popular products,” it takes that feature one step further and teases the benefit from it.
Lastly, while it’s easy for the user to understand the benefit of same-day delivery, this is only a feature. What’s the benefit? Rephrased, it may say, “Products brought to your door in hours.”
HelloFresh
This page from HelloFresh makes it easy for potential customers to see the benefits of using the service. Here’s their section on benefits and features:
Clearly highlighted in bold, green text are the benefits of becoming a customer:
- Healthy, tasty meals (the benefit of having your meals approved by dieticians and assembled by food professionals)
- Less prep work (the benefit of having your meal pre-assembled)
- More choices, less boredom (the benefit of having 20 recipes to choose from)
In each case, the copywriter could’ve highlighted the features of HelloFresh. Instead, they chose to take those features a step further to explain why they’re worth spending money on.
Jenny Craig
Here’s a page from Jenny Craig that users reach after clicking a search ad for “diet plans.” When they scroll down, they see this section of the page:
The first two here are great examples of benefits vs. features. “Your personalized menu plan” is the benefit of having a diet plan. A diet plan is just a feature of the program, but this copywriter knew to tease out the benefit of having one: personalization. Meals tailored to your body type and goal.
The same is true of “Your very own dedicated coach.” This is the benefit of having hundreds or thousands of personal fitness coaches. Written as a feature, this bolded text might say “Hundreds of fitness coaches.” Again, though, this copywriter knew that benefits speak louder than features. Your own dedicated coach means personalized support and attention.
The last example, however, is more of a feature. Whereas the previous two elements clearly speak to the user with the word “you,” this one leaves it out, saying, “Backed by the latest research.” But the program’s research-backed method is only a feature. What does that feature allow the user to do? Rephrased to convey a benefit, it might say, “Proven to help you lose weight.”
Nectar
A PPC campaign from Nectar drives visitors to this post-click page. On it, you’ll see a section that highlights some benefits and features.
These are a great example of the difference between benefits and features because this page uses both. The first two are clearly features: A “Tencel Cooling Cover” and “Gel Memory Foam” are both aspects of the product. Looking at the third—“Wake Up Rested”—it’s easy to see why benefits are more powerful than features. It spells out for the reader why the product is valuable.
As for the others, ask yourself: What do you get from a Tencel Cooling Cover? What does a moisture-wicking, breathable comforter do for its user?
And why is memory foam better than the average spring mattress? What does evenly distributing weight do for a sleeper? Keep their spine aligned? In this bolded text, it’s unclear.
Mirror
Here’s a page from Mirror that directs visitors clicking a paid search ad. Though it explains the product’s features throughout the page, it does so in the context of the benefits they provide the user. Take a look.
First, there’s this section:
The header here clearly spells out a benefit to the user: A personalized fitness routine. And how is it personalized? With expert instruction, real-time optimization, and customized playlists. These are all features. “Personalized for you” would be a bit stronger if it elaborated on why personalization is valuable in fitness, but either way, personalization is a benefit.
And secondly, there’s this section:
The result of heart-rate measuring and results tracking is that you can push yourself further by competing against your previous self. But, while this isn’t a feature, it’s not a clear benefit either. It almost is. What’s the benefit of being able to push yourself further? You get results faster.
Start creating benefit-oriented pages with Instapage
No matter who you are or what you’re selling, benefits are always stronger than features. Your new-and-improved formula or design is only as powerful as the benefits it provides. On post-click landing pages designed to convince visitors to claim your offer, you can’t afford not to fully explain the benefits of your product or service.
Want to create benefit-oriented pages for all your products and segments? Find out how you can with the industry’s leading landing page provider. Sign up for an Instapage Enterprise Demo today.