Feature listing vs value proposition. Image/ HelpScout

As businesses strive to grow their revenue, they often work tirelessly to constantly improve their products and services. But how do you communicate these product upgrades to your customers? Do your clients want to see the feature listing or value proposition? These are the only two ways to sell your products- tell consumers what they are getting or how your product will benefit them. If you’ve been wondering which one to go for, this quick guide will solve your headache.

What Is Feature Listing?

Feature listing is simply highlighting the things that are built into your product. It’s showing your customers the attributes, aspects, and capabilities of your product. Features are facts about your product. They include things such as weight, size, materials, and ingredients among others. For software companies, features refer to the functionalities of the product. 

Marketers can get the features of a product from the production or engineering team. Product features have to be planned, built, and executed.

What Is A Value Proposition?

Value proposition refers to a statement that summarizes why people should choose your products. It communicates, in the clearest way, the benefits consumers get by choosing to do business with you. Value propositions look to identify the challenges your customers face and highlight how your product will solve the problem.

The value proposition isn’t the business slogan or positioning statement. Some businesses confuse the value proposition for the two.

When doing a value proposition, here are the elements you’ll have to consider:

• Headline: The headline describes the end benefit customers will get from your business or product.
• Subheadline/ paragraph: In this section, you’ll give a detailed explanation of what you’re offering, who the product targets, and why it’s best suited for them.
• Bullet points: List all the features of your product and its benefits.
• Visual element: Use multimedia content to enhance your value proposition. Videos will make up 82% of global internet traffic by 2021, making video marketing a powerful content marketing strategy.

To create a great value proposition, you’ll need to identify all the benefits your product offers, then link these benefits to the value customers would derive from them. A good value proposition should be clear, concise, benefit-oriented, convincing, and able to build trust in your brand. Avoid overhyping the product with unsubstantiated claims as it’s damaging to your brand.

Make sure you have a clear picture of who your target audience is and how what you’re offering them is different from your competition.

Which One Should You Go For?

When you’re coming up with a digital marketing strategy for a new product, which one should be your focus? Should feature listing form the backbone of your email marketing? Or should your social media marketing strategy focus on value proposition? 

While customers may pay attention to the features of a product, they’re still interested in how your product will solve their problems and satisfy their needs. They want to know the outcome they should expect from your product. But you get the benefits from the features. So the secret is to find the perfect balance between feature listing and value proposition.