Category benefits are not product benefits

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Here's a surprisingly common error: a company arrives (with great fanfare) at a benefit statement. It's a reason for customers to buy their product. Something to put on their website, their brochures, etc.

That's all fine. But here's where the wheels come off the wagon: they confuse a product benefit with a category benefit.

A category benefit is exactly what it sounds like - a benefit of every product in your category. My favourite example is cloud software. One of the main benefits of cloud software is that you can access it from any device; you don't have to fire up a CD-ROM or schlep into the office to use the software if you're at home.

This is all pretty self explanatory stuff. But in the early 2010s, a lot of cloud software companies had a bit of a collective delusion, and forgot that this benefit was a benefit of the cloud in general - not a benefit of their product in particular.

So, there was an absolute explosion of the same two words on basically every website: anytime, anywhere.

It's compelling stuff! But it's a compelling reason to use cloud software in general - not any specific product.

Mercifully, most cloud companies have realised the error of their ways and come up with more specific benefits. But if you google "anytime, anywhere" alongside the word "software," you'll find a whole bunch of companies who haven't got the memo yet.

 

It's an easy mistake to make

A strength and a weakness of internal marketing teams is that they are very close to the product and company that they market. This is positive for a lot of reasons. The biggest one is that they have deep product knowledge that is really hard to match as an outside consultant.

But the weakness is that they can be a bit internally-focused. When you live and breathe the same product, day and and day out, you can forget that your product is just one of a zillion different options available to your customers - and that your benefits need to be unique, not just category benefits.

 

Do a review

Take a look at your own messaging with this in mind. Your website is a good place to start. Take a look at your benefit statements, and really ask yourself if they are all product benefits or a category benefits.

And if you find a category benefit, think hard about whether it needs to stay. If it's not saying anything unique about your product, or giving people a reason to buy your product, it's probably taking up space that could be used by a more specific product benefit.

Let me know how you get on.

Sam

PS: If you like what you read, make sure you follow me on Linkedin. I post bite sized versions of stuff like this a few times a week.

PPS: Let me review your home page for this error (and heaps of others). Costs $799 and I can have it turned around next week. Super quick, easy way to improve your home page and make it more persuasive. Find out more and book your review.

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