Conversion Rate Optimization: Benefits or Features?

When promoting goods and services online, which should you focus on: benefits or features? The truth is that most people buy things for emotional rather than rational reasons – online and offline. And while your revolutionary vacuum cleaner may feature wireless capabilities, unless you mention all the reasons why this technology will benefit the user, few people will care enough to buy your product.

What’s the Difference between a Benefit and Feature?

A benefit explains how a product or service makes life easier or better for the user. A feature explains how something works or lists dimensions or individual services. Even though it’s useful to include both benefits and features on you website, leading with benefits helps keep visitors on the page and increases conversion rates.

To distinguish between benefits and features when creating content for your site, create a list of both. Choose the best benefits and features to highlight on your site.

Explaining without Embellishment

When creating content around the benefits of a product/service, it’s tempting to stretch the truth a little bit or exaggerate minor benefits to make them seem more important. Avoid this temptation because in the end, your product/service must deliver what you promise – or you will have lots of angry customers to deal with.

While it’s fine to use descriptive language when discussing benefits, it’s important to remain truthful. When possible, use customer testimonials to describe benefits or to enhance the content you’ve written. This will make your claims more believable and increase your credibility.

List or Write about Features?

This depends on the particular product or service. Many product websites simply list product dimensions and other information on a features page. When marketing services, this may be more difficult – you may have to explain specific features of a service in a paragraph or two. When making formatting decisions like this one, consider testing both to determine which format converts more people. If neither format results in a dramatic change, then choose the one that best fits the website style.

Conversion Rate Optimization

The ultimate goal of any website is to make money. Converting visitors into paying customers requires an attention to detail and plenty of information to help coax people along. Give your product/service considerable thought when designing your website and when creating content. Consider your target audience and what they want and desire from your products and services. Provide the information needed to make sales on a consistent basis.