Why are benefits important?
As described by Kayla Carmichael:
Features are what the product or service does, describing which attributes set it apart from the competition. Benefits describe why those features matter and how they help the target audience. For marketing messages, it’s typically better to go with a benefits-heavy approach, because benefits are what compel consumers to purchase.
From https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/features-vs-benefits-messaging-ht
You can incorporate benefits into any content that you create, including case studies for Inland Empire businesses.
Additional information on benefits
Here is a sampling of what John E. Bredehoft of Bredemarket has written on the topic of benefits.
(4/16/2023) Four Mini-Case Studies for One Inland Empire Business—My Own
If I could demonstrate that Bredemarket benefited a firm via a case study, that could help Bredemarket get business from other firms. I said so myself…
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/04/16/four-mini-case-studies-for-one-inland-empire-business-my-own/
(4/15/2023) Six Benefits for Inland Empire Businesses from Case Studies
With credibility comes trust. When potential customers read your case studies and find out what you’ve done for others, they’re more inclined to trust that you can provide similar benefits to them.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/04/15/six-benefits-for-inland-empire-businesses-from-case-studies/
(3/25/2023) Technology firms and qualitative benefits
If you are a technology business who is communicating the benefits of your products or services, don’t assume that these benefits have to be quantified. Qualitative benefits can work just as well.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/03/25/technology-firms-and-qualitative-benefits/
(3/4/2023) Lockheed Martin’s Anti-biofouling Customer Focus
And Lockheed Martin has already identified the benefits of the completed project. Not the benefits to Lockheed Martin, but the benefits to its customer, the U.S. Navy.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/03/04/lockheed-martins-anti-biofouling-customer-focus/
(12/4/2022) Does Every Blog Post Need a Call to Action?
So let’s say you’re an Inland Empire business that needs a content creator to write a blog post for you.
And let’s say that you have specific goals for this blog post.
And you’re targeting a particular audience for this blog post. (Maybe candy lovers.)
And you realize that buyers aren’t persuaded by a list of features you offer, but by a list of benefits for them. (Yes, benefits are important.)
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/12/04/does-every-blog-post-need-a-call-to-action/
(10/30/2022) Six questions your content creator should ask you
I’ve written ad nauseum on the difference between benefits and features, so for this question five about benefits I’ll just briefly say that written content works best when it communicates how the solution will help (benefit) the customer. A list of features will not make a difference to a customer who has specific needs. Do you meet those needs? Maintain a customer focus.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/10/30/six-questions-your-content-creator-should-ask-you/
(8/25/2022) Why Visionaries Keep Their Mouths Shut
But before you write a single word of that content, you need to ask yourself some questions (even for a short piece of content):
- Why does your offering change your customers’ lives?
- How will it change their lives?
- What is the offering?
- What is the goal of the piece of content?
- What are the benefits (not the features, the benefits) of your offering?
- Who is the target audience for this content?
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/08/25/why-visionaries-keep-their-mouths-shut/
(5/5/2022) I’m still the biometric content marketing and proposal writing expert…but who benefits?
So now all of this SEO traction will not benefit you, the potential Bredemarket finger/face client, but it obviously will benefit my new employer. I can see it now when people talk about my new employer: “Isn’t that the company where the biometric content marketing expert is the Senior Product Marketing Manager?”
(5/4/2022) Is Calendly customer focused?
You probably noted that these were stated as benefits rather than features. If Calendly were to say, “We offer Scheduling Gizmo 2800,” Conductor could reply, “So what?” But when Calendly said that its solution delivers organic traffic and higher return on investment, Conductor paid attention.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/05/04/is-calendly-customer-focused/
(4/16/2022) Four truths and a fable about the Ontario-San Antonio Heights “Mule Car”
Since this is the Bredemarket blog, I can’t let this story pass without discussing the benefits of this system:
- Faster travel to on the southbound route to Ontario due to the faster downhill time.
- No use of power for the southbound route.
- Greater energy on the northbound route due to the rest that the mules received on the southbound journey.
(4/15/2022) Two Benefits of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs)
SDG&E realizes that you can’t just talk about the features of virtual power plants. SDG&E’s customers don’t care about features. Its customers only care about what’s in it for them. So SDG&E collected some benefits of virtual power plants.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/04/15/two-benefits-of-virtual-power-plants-vpps/
(7/29/2021) How the APMP Body of Knowledge (BOK) benefits Bredemarket’s NON-proposal clients
…the BOK and the APMP itself talk about topics that have applicability far beyond the creation of a proposal….all seven of those categories just as easily apply to the creation of a blog post, case study, white paper, corporate strategy, or ANY deliverable for a customer-facing firm.
(6/18/2021) Case study example (that I didn’t write)
You’ll also note the use of “detriment statements,” or the reverse of benefit statements. Lack of consistency itself is NOT a detriment. More work for employees IS a detriment.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2021/06/18/case-study-example-that-i-didnt-write/
(5/12/2021) Communicating benefits (not features) to identity customers (Part 3 of 3)
The two hour rapid DNA processing time offers different benefits for these different use cases.
- As I previously stated in my first example of a “so what?” test, the ability to run rapid DNA at booking keeps dangerous criminals from being released by identifying those who are wanted for serious crimes.
- A two hour processing time for crime scene evidence solves crimes more quickly, and again potentially puts dangerous criminals in jail more quickly.
- A two hour response for disaster victim identification brings peace of mind to family members whose relatives may have perished in a disaster.
(5/11/2021) Communicating benefits (not features) to identity customers (Part 2 of 3)
So you’re going to come up with separate benefit statements for examiners, separate ones for livescan operators, and separate benefit statements for each of the stakeholders. And each of these benefits will be enumerated in the section of the proposal that the individual stakeholder will read. (News flash: hardly anyone reads the entire proposal; they only read the section that pertains to them.)
(5/10/2021) Communicating benefits (not features) to identity customers (Part 1 of 3)
So if you encounter a statement that isn’t a benefit, you have to act like an irritating two-year old and ask “so what?” until you actually get a benefit statement.
(9/4/2020) When LinkedIn Articles Make Sense
This month’s local speaker, Marcia Riner of Trajectory Consulting, led a session on ways in which freelancers can diversify their income….And one of Marcia Riner’s tips was…use LinkedIn articles to connect to businesspeople.
Riner is certainly not the first person to promote the benefits of LinkedIn articles. LinkedIn has obviously done this, and Agorapulse has recently published a good piece about the advantages of LinkedIn article publication.
More at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-linkedin-articles-make-sense-john-e-bredehoft/
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