How do you think about features, advantages and benefits in the context of messaging?

I recommend creating an internal glossary for your company so everyone shares the same understanding. Here's how I think about it:

• Features - Specific functionality of a product.
• Core differentiators - What are the 3-5 unique capabilities you have that separate you from the competition? What are you better at?
• Solution - What problem do you help your target customer solve? A solution completes the sentence: “We help you…”
• Benefit - What overarching benefit do you deliver for your target customer solve? A benefit completes the sentence: “[We help you X,] so you can...”

We try our best not to get too caught up or carried away with our great product features! Ultimately - it's about the value we deliver to customers and so we try to infuse the business value into the messaging as much as we can. The other thing we try to do (sometimes successfully!) is to avoid jargon/'fluff' in the context of messaging....in other words, keep the messaging plain and simple. If our messaging resonates with the least technical of our customers, that's a win! The sales team can then engage customers with the right technical depth discussions as a follow up!

I think when it comes to features <> benefits in messaging you really can't have one without the other. Features are the what, benefits are the why - people need to be painted a picture of how you are going to help them solve their problems. A checklist alone doesn't make someone more productive, but a checklist that enables them to get their ideas out of their brains and ready to be collaborated on across their team tells a very different story. As a PMM it's our job to help bridge the gap between someone identifying the problem they may not even yet be aware that they have into the solution that your product/feature provides in a seamless way. Messaging and brand become the key differentiators when people are selecting a tool because at the end of the day most products can't win on features or price alone - it's about how you make the person feel and how you have articulated why your solution is the no-brainer option.

Lead with the why. Your messaging framework should be rooted in the positioning statement, which speaks to the problem you’re trying to solve, who you’re solving it for, how you’re solving it, and why you’re uniquely positioned to do so. Once you’re clear on that, you can summarize  it in customer friendly language. What’s the most important thing you want customers to take away from your message? This is your key message, around which the rest of the framework can be built. Your key message should be rooted in benefit to the customer, and supported by benefit oriented messaging pillars that further substantiate your key message. I’ve personally found that harnessing the power of three messaging pillars works best, because it gives you enough room to address the breadth of benefits your product offers, but is still simple enough for customers to remember. After nailing your messaging, you can figure out which benefit each product feature ladder up to, making it true. Often, a single feature will support multiple benefits, in which case you can either choose to align that feature to the benefit it’s most closely associated with, or include it more than once. It’s also helpful to think beyond features when considering proof points that back up the claims being made in your messaging. Proof points can take the form of customer testimonials, case studies, data points, and more.

Features, advantages, and benefits should support your message, not be your message. A lot of B2B marketers don't elevate their messaging above simple benefit statements. To encourage impactful messaging, I use a "pyramid" framework.

On the bottom are your Features and advantages. This will be expansive, but be sure to include the aspects that differentiate your offering.

The second layer are Benefits. These are intentionally vanilla. They will look like typical ROI line items: save time, save cost, increase revenue, etc. These benefits should align with the feature(s) beneath them.

The next layer up is Value. This is where you lean heavily into the perspective of the buyer/user and articulate how the Benefits support their Social and Emotional jobs-to-be-done. Do they want to be perceived as credible in their organization? Do they want to climb the ladder? Do they want to leave work at work instead of taking it home? Do they want to be more confident in stakeholder presentations or audits? This step can be challenging, but the more intimately you know your audience the easier it will be.

The final layer is Message. This is where you take the Value layer and articulate them in a resonant way in your audience's terms. This step will feel like copywriting, and it lets marketers put a nice creative bow on the technical details in technical details in the lower layers.