S4 Ep 7: Benefits vs. Features (and how to supercharge them)

Cutting Chai Stories: Write copy that feels good

Welcome to the third and final installation of the mini series on what to prep before you write a SINGLE word of copy. This series is ESPECIALLY important for sales pages, so if you’re planning to launch a course or group program or a new product, listen up.

Over the past two episodes, we covered two other elements to prep before you start to write your copy, and those were Voice of Customer and Core Transformation.

Today we’re going to talk about benefits versus features.

Chances are that if you’ve been in the online business space for more than a minute, you’ve heard people say, talk about the benefits of your product, not the features.

But what does that MEAN?????

Well I like to think of features as the NOUNS.

So, if you’re selling an online course with live coaching calls and a 300-page workbook, the FEATURES might include:

--8 weeks of prerecorded calls that can be consumed in video, audio or transcript format

--Starts September 1, new videos released every week

--You have lifetime access, so you can watch at your own pace

--Live calls every Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern in our private Facebook group

--Each participant will be mailed a 300-page workbook in physical and e-book format, which contains all the exercises and resources you’ll need to follow along

--Price, refund policy, size of cohort if that’s relevant, length of videos, length of coaching calls, etc

So that’s all the important information that you’ll need to know. Coz if you’re never available on Sundays at 2 p.m. and the live coaching is crucial to the success of the course, maybe you won’t purchase it this round. Or if you’re in a different time zone and want to know if they’ll be recorded so you can watch them at a time that’s more convenient to you, this list of features will be important to answer your questions.

So they’re pretty vital to know, right? The list of features?

So why is everyone pooh-poohing them all the time?

What’s WRONG with listing all the features?

The short answer is—nothing.

We want and NEED to know the nitty-gritties to help us make a decision.

But whether the calls are held at 2 p.m. Eastern or 2 p.m. Pacific is not the make-or-break factor when you’re just encountering this program.

First you wanna know if this can help you with the particular problem you’re having. And the timing and length of the calls isn’t going to tell you that. For that, you need the benefits.

Listen to the episode to understand the difference between benefits and features, with real-life and made-up examples for services and products.

PLUS how to supercharge your benefits so that potential clients can see that your offer is exactly right for them.

Also mentioned in the show are Cathy Heller and her podcast, Don't Keep Your Day Job, as well as Harry Dry's website marketingexamples.com. Both are invaluable sources of information for me, I highly recommend you check them out.

Finally, the content of this mini series on what to prep before writing a single word of copy (ESPECIALLY your sales or landing page) came about as a result of a question by an email subscriber.

I take conversations with my subscribers seriously and respond to each one. Want input into subsequent episodes? Have a question you haven't seen answered anywhere else or that you want my take on? Sign up for Chai in my Inbox at https://www.cuttingchaistories.com/subscribe and then hit reply to any of my emails to say hello!