In copywriting, it’s commonly known that you should always state the benefits rather than the features. But does that mean you should never state features? No, not at all. Sometimes features can sell better than benefits.
For instance, let’s say you’re selling a computer. If you’re selling to people who are savvy about computers, listing the features is a good way to sell the computer to them. You can tell them that the computer is a Quad-Core 2.4 GHz with 4 GB RAM, has a 500 GB hard drive, and comes with a 24-inch widescreen LCD monitor. That’ll get them excited.
Because they’re savvy about computers, they already know the benefits of the features listed. Stating the benefits would be too obvious to them. It’ll waste their time and bore them, maybe even lose their interest. With these prospects, you’ll want to get to the point right away and state the features.
Another good time to use features is after you have listed the benefits earlier in your sales copy. The benefits get your prospects emotionally sold on the product or service. But afterwards, they need rationale to justify it. And that’s where the features can come in.
When you show the features, you show them what they’ll be getting. It gives justification for their purchase and removes buyer’s remorse.
So if you’re wondering if you should emphasize the features instead of benefits, consider your prospect. If the prospect already knows the benefits of the features, such as technically savvy prospects, state the features instead of the benefits.
To provide justification of your prospect’s decision to buy, you can list the features as bullet points later in the copy. Or you can describe the features in paragraph form.