If you’re a business owner, you’ve likely spent hours perfecting your product pitch. You know every single feature: your 24/7 customer support, your cutting-edge software integration, your superior materials, and your competitive pricing.
And yet, when you put those features front-and-center in your marketing, you hear… crickets.
Why? Because your audience isn’t looking for a list of features; they are looking for a solution to a feeling.
When your messaging fails to resonate, it’s not because your product is bad; it’s because you’re speaking a language of “What” when your customers are only listening for “Why.”
The Great Disconnect: Features vs. Feelings
The core problem is this disconnect:
- Features (The “What”): What your product is and what it does. (e.g., “Our platform offers one-click expense tracking.”)
- Benefits (The “So What”): How the feature helps the customer. (e.g., “You will save two hours on bookkeeping every month.”)
- Emotions (The “Why”): The underlying feeling or aspiration the customer is trying to achieve. (e.g., “You will feel less anxiety about tax season and reclaim your weekend.”)
Most businesses stop at the benefits. But the truly resonating messages push through to the emotion.
Stop thinking about what your service does and start thinking about how it makes your client feel. For instance, a lawn care service doesn’t just use “nitrogen-rich fertilizer”—that’s a feature; instead, they sell the emotion: pride in hosting backyard parties this summer.
Similarly, consulting isn’t just about “providing bi-weekly strategy calls that’s the mechanism; it’s about selling the deep emotional benefit that comes with it: clients feel supported and know they are never alone when making big, often stressful, business decisions.
This shift from features to feelings is the secret to creating truly resonant messaging.
Unlocking Resonance: The Empathy Pivot
To unlock messaging that actually resonates, you must stop focusing on your company’s capabilities and start validating your customer’s current emotional state. This is the Empathy Pivot.
- Identify the Core Anxiety
What keeps your ideal client awake at 3:00 AM? It’s rarely “I need better SEO.” It’s “I’m terrified my competitors are getting all the new business,” or “I don’t know where my next client is coming from.”
Your Action: Start all messaging by explicitly stating this pain point. Example: “Tired of feeling stressed out every time a receipt lands on your desk?” This instantly tells the customer, “They understand me.”
- Ditch Jargon for Emotional Vocabulary
Every industry has jargon (KPIs, scalable, synergy). These words are cold and abstract. Your message needs to use warm, human words that speak to the heart.
ROI – Use Profit, Growth, Financial Freedom
Efficiency- Use Time Saved, Stress Eliminated, Peace of Mind
Integrations- Use Seamless, Effortless, Simple
Your Action: When reviewing your marketing copy, replace any word that sounds like an instruction with a word that evokes a feeling.
- Sell the “After” State
Your features describe the process (the difficult journey). Your resonant messaging should describe the destination (the ideal life after they buy).
People don’t buy a drill because they need a drill; they buy the drill because they need a hole—or, more accurately, they need the feeling of satisfaction that comes from hanging a picture on the wall.
Your Action: Before writing a campaign, define your customer’s emotional “After” state: Confidence, Freedom, Security, Relief, or Pride. Make this the headline of your marketing, not an afterthought.
Ready to Stop Whispering and Start Resonating?
If your messaging sounds just like your competitor’s, you’re stuck in the “What.”
The secret to powerful marketing isn’t having the best features it’s having the deepest understanding of your audience’s “Why.” This approach builds trust, connection, and ultimately, sales.
Ready to make the Empathy Pivot and unlock messages that actually resonate with your ideal customers? Let’s talk about building your messaging roadmap today.
