Where to focus your messaging: features vs. benefits vs. outcomes

The Proof Point

The TL;DR

Features, benefits, or outcomes - where should your marketing strategy zoom in? With a sea of opinions out there, here's the lowdown from some folks who really know their stuff.

Anthony Pierri (FletchPMM), Emma Stratton (Punchy), and Chris Orlob (pclub.io) tell us where to shift our focus in messaging to B2B companies to be successful.

What’s working in B2B marketing:

CONVERSATIONAL, CRYSTAL CLEAR MESSAGING Speak plainly, or you might as well speak alien. Keep it simple, keep it straight, and watch visitors turn into leads.

What’s not working in B2B marketing:

MIMICKING THE GIANTS

Find strength in your niche market. When it comes to start-ups; narrow & deep will outdo wide & shallow.

The key takeaways:

• Tailor your messaging to the audience's pain points: Understand and directly address the specific problems that your target audience is facing. Mirroring customers' pain in messaging helps build trust and understanding. Using visual aids and credible niche targeting to resonate with risk-averse buyers is extremely effective.
• Contextualize everything based on where your buyers are: This is the technology adoption lifecycle curve comes in handy. Messaging should be customized to appeal to different groups, from early adopters who might prefer customizable solutions to the late majority looking for pre-built, low-risk options.
• Humanize your message: The "barbecue exercise," a strategy to strip away jargon to create a human-oriented, relatable message can significantly differentiate a company from competitors who rely on dry, indistinct language.
• Balance outcome and feature-driven messaging: While many believe that leading with outcomes is the most effective, focusing on the "what" and "how" makes messaging more memorable and effective. Send a balanced message that appeals to the intelligence of sophisticated buyers yet remains specific and tangible.
• Niche-ing down can lead to bigger opportunities: Achieving relevance often means excluding a larger part of the market to focus on a specific niche. A focus on a niche market, like Tesla, led to significantly larger opportunities, a key strategy, especially for early-stage startups. This reinforces the power and potential of targeting and growing from a narrowly defined market.

The things to listen for:

[00:00] Intro

[10:30] Be specific and differentiate in crowded markets

[15:35] People need a branding agency for tech

[18:24] Effective sales messaging focuses on customer pain

[25:09] Focusing on sales is challenging in this economic climate

[26:57] Product expansion leads to strategic complexity and stress

[30:37] Create content, target niche, reduce risks, and find success

[35:11] Startups can succeed by owning niche markets

[37:32] Use provocative messaging to engage pragmatist buyers

[45:19] Avoid dry business speak & write conversationally

[46:12] Encourage natural communication & simplify complex jargon

[49:43] Jargon's value in specific contexts