The Difference Between Features and Benefits

Copywriting is often employed in order to help sell a product or service. Copywriting for marketing purposes usually entails describing a product thoroughly, highlighting perceived features and benefits in order to convince the target audience to buy your product. Believe it or not, however, many of us have a hard time understanding the basic difference between features and benefits. Both highlight the importance of a product and make it appear desirable. Contrary to popular perception, the two are not the same.

Features and benefits share a common purpose: describing the usefulness of a product. However, the similarity ends right there. A feature is a characteristic of the product, an aspect, or something it offers. It might not always be a benefit. A feature, of course, might result in a benefit. A feature is product centric: it is an attribute of the product entity.

A benefit, on the other hand, emanates from the customer. It is what affects the customer. A benefit is the way the product could provide an advantage to the customer, or make their life better. Sometimes a feature may provide a benefit to the customer. That’s when you can attempt to portray it as a core competence or a unique selling proposition.

Let’s take an example. Suppose you’re selling a car with Bluetooth connectivity as a feature. Yup, that’s a feature all right. But shouldn’t it belong in a PDA or mobile phone? What does a car have to do with Bluetooth connectivity? It would certainly be better if you could highlight the benefit of that particular feature. Like Bluetooth connectivity could enable you to listen to your mobile phone conversations through the car’s speakers, enabling you to talk effortlessly and not have to fiddle with your phone while driving. Hence, its a feature that translates to a real benefit: driving safety.

A good way to look at features and benefits is by way of a entity-relationship diagram. As is apparent, features come from the product, while benefits gravitate toward the customer or stakeholder. The two can also overlap in a USP.

Copywriting in the UK

The UK is one of a handful of countries with an advanced copywriting industry. A post industrialised country with a highly developed advertising and marketing industry, the United Kingdom is the birthplace of the English language. A country with such rich lingiustic traditions as Shakespeare and Jane Austin, England is where copywriting for the English language was developed and took off.

Copywriting is arguably most developed in English speaking countries. These countries are characterized by high literacy rates, a relatively affluent population and an extensive advertising industry. Large businesses are looking to sell their latest offerings to targetted customers. Copywriting is the means through which they seek to differentiate their products from one another.

Today, England, America, Canada, and Australia are the only countries where professional English language copywriting services are offered. DMOZ currently lists less than 50 copywriters in the UK, which is a relatively small number if you consider the fact that England is where English was born.

The changing face of copywriting

The art of copywriting has evolved from writing sales copy for marketing purposes to writing for the Internet. Today, copywriting is perceived to encompass everything ranging from marketing and product descriptions to articles for Websites. While copywriting has evolved to see demand for it outstrip supply, it has also formed new paradigms and ideas.

Working with words is nothing new. Ever since the invention - or discovery - of written language in ancient Sumer (Mesopotamia), the written word has assumed new forms. At first, writing was used to record important information such as astronomy and calendars required for agricultural and irrigation purposes. With the help of writing, the ancient civilizations could record annual river flood times, the equinoxes and solstices, and the storage and management of crops and grain.

Later, with the invention of the printing press, writing assumed new proportions. People could now publicly disseminate information in the form of printed books and newspapers. Suddenly, the power of the written word increased dramatically. Later on, people realized that writing wasn’t just for conveying information. It could also be used to convey feelings and sentiments. Moreover, it could be used as a sales tool by way of persuasion. And this was the birth of copywriting.

3 indispensible rules for excellent copywriting

Copywriting can be viewed of both as an art as a science. An art because it derives from one of the most ancient human traditions of old: that of literature and writing. Science, because it banks heavily on an understanding of human psychology and how it can be turned to a business advantage.

Know your audience

It is important to know who you’re writing for. You must be aware of your target audience. No copy can be successful without without it being geared exclusively towards a specific recipient. This target audience must be persuaded to elicit a specific response or action.

Know your offering

It is critical to get a complete rundown of the plan of action or product you are offering. One must know the strengths or unique selling propositions USPs of whatever it is you are trying to promote or market. The strenghts must be portrayed in a way so as to cause the target audience to take action.

Know your call to action

It is highly critical to have a well defined and specific call to action. this is basically what you want your audience to do, be it buy a product, or to commit to a particular course of action such as a signup.

The Prism of David

Hypnotic artwork comprising of 36 triangles arranged to create a beautiful Star of David in a whole new way, representing a whole new dynamic in theological design and innovation!
Gazing into the Prism, you will notice the hypnotic effect it has on you as you begin to unravel the various levels or Stars that exist therein.

It actually involves arranging triangles to create multiple Stars of David, then overlaying them to create the Prism.

We’re working on an SVG version that will be released shortly!