Have you heard about the concept of marketing features vs benefits?
Understanding this difference is integral to effective marketing. Let’s explore the difference between a feature and a benefit and talk about which you should focus on marketing.
What is a feature?
A feature is a characteristic or quality of a product or service. It describes what the product or service does and how it works.
For example, a car has many safety features such as airbags, locking seat belts, and blind spot sensors.
The products from your farm also have features. Your eggs may be from free-range chickens, your pork GMO-free, or your flowers organically-grown.
Your processes can also be considered features. Perhaps you practice no-till or rotational grazing.
There are also features with the services you offer or include with your products. If you have a CSA, do you deliver? Are boxes customizable? Do the boxes include vegetables, herbs, meat, or eggs?
What is a benefit?
A benefit, on the other hand, is the advantage or outcome that a consumer will gain from using the product or service. It describes how the product or service will improve the consumer’s life or solve a problem they have. 
First, let’s look at the car example. Your car has airbags and locking seat belts, but the dealership may say “Get your family from here to there safely.”
Now, let’s look at your farm’s eggs from free-range chickens. Your eggs are much more nutrient-dense than the alternatives found in the grocery store, including significantly more vitamin D. But these are still features.
What is the benefit?
A healthy, hearty, and delicious way to start your morning and give you lasting energy for your day!
Other benefits include extra freshness, supporting local agriculture, and promoting sustainability.
Take a feature and continue asking “So what?” until you arrive at a benefit.
To find a benefit from a feature, continue asking yourself “So what?” until you have drilled down enough to find the benefit.
Your chickens are free-range. So what? They can express their chicken-hood. So what? They are able to scratch for bugs, eat lots of fresh greens, enjoy the sunshine and fresh air, and experience less stress. So what? Their eggs and meat are much more nutrient-dense, making them healthier and tastier for you!
It’s helpful to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes and ask “What’s in it for me?” This is typically what people are asking themselves when looking at products.
What’s in it for the customer in our CSA example?
If you deliver that saves the customer time and effort grocery shopping and brings fresh food straight to their door. If you include recipes in your boxes this makes preparing dinners quick and easy for customers and eliminates the stress of meal planning.
Why do we tend toward sharing features?
Sometimes we communicate features more than benefits because the benefits seem obvious to us. But keep in mind that just because you know how your products will improve your customers’ lives doesn’t mean they do!
Another reason we tend to communicate features more often is because that’s what we as farmers are focused on. We spend a lot of time and effort every day developing great products and the best systems. As a result, we often think these are the most important things.
But often these aren’t the most important to our customers.
You may spend much of your time mulching because you have eliminated tilling. Although this may be good to explain in your Instagram stories or on your Principles page on your website, you probably don’t want to write it on your whiteboard at the farmers’ market. These potential customers are looking for “delicious organic carrots”. They often care about themselves and what they will gain, and that is okay!
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask “What’s in it for me?”
However, it’s important to know your customers (more on that in a second) because people looking to purchase from small farms often care about the benefits beyond themselves.
Some customers simply care about the taste or the nutritional value of your products, which are benefits for them. Others value the benefits to the environment or the better animal welfare practiced by small farms, which are benefits for others.
Which should you sell?
So should you market and sell features or benefits?
Well, it somewhat of a complicated answer…
Ultimately, consumers are driven to make purchases by the benefits they will receive.
They may purchase from your farm because you offer better tasting and healthier food, because buying local supports the local economy, or because your methods are better for the environment.
These are just some of the benefits you should communicate in your marketing.
You must know your ideal customers and what they value. This is the precursor to all marketing activities.
However, the answer to “Should I market and sell features or benefits?” is more complicated because features are also important to your costumers.
There are two aspects that make sharing features critical.
1) Education
Saying your farm’s products are “healthier” is pretty vague, so including some details is necessary. Give specifics on what makes your free-range eggs, pastured pork, or grass-fed beef healthier than the conventional agriculture products.
Many people may not know the differences between what you grow/raise/make and what is in the big box stores. You will need to educate them on what makes your products better, which will require you to share features.
You may need to share resources about your nutrient density of your products or the environment impact of your methods.
Additionally, it is good to educate your current and potential customers on the negatives of conventional agriculture’s products.
2) Validation of Benefits
Some of your potential customers already know why products raised with your methods are healthier for them and better for the environment. So they will be looking for organic, no-till, pasture-raised, grass-fed, or another practice.
In this case, it’s important to share the terms that describe what you do.
Keep your pulse on what the current terms are.
Maybe you describe your farm as “organic and sustainable”. Is this what people are looking for? Or are your potential customers using the term “regenerative”? If this is the case and you are using the practices outlined by regenerative farming, be sure to use this term!
Benefits drive sales, but features educate and validate claims.
Remember that there’s a lot of greenwashing and humanewashing out there and corporations are using these valued words to dishonestly describe their practices to grab more consumer dollars. To prove that you are truly following certain methods, you can share your daily activities authentically through your social media and other marketing channels.
You should also share your mission and your principles so people can see your farm’s heart and the true intentions behind your practices.
What is a good balance of features and benefits?
It’s essential to remember the difference between features and benefits in marketing. While features describe what a product or service does, it’s the benefits that describe that your customers will gain.
You must identify both the features and benefits of each of your product and the methodologies you practice. Then you must determine what your potential customers value and clearly communicate these features and benefits with them.
This is key to driving sales.
So what is the perfect balance of features and benefits to use in your marketing efforts?
Unfortunately, I can’t answer this question for you. The balance is unique to every business and their customers.
You must find the answer through experimentation, talking to your customers, and keeping an eye on competitors and how they are finding success!
Would you like some help with finding this balance or describing the features and benefits of your products?
I can help! I work with farmers on everything marketing, from strategy to implementation.
Let’s chat about how we can work together. Fill out the form on my contact page.
Excellent post!