Selling benefits not features is nothing new in marketing. A feature is something a product has, like battery life or memory, whereas a benefit is something the product provides, like all-day phone usage or space for lots of music.

Content marketing showcases product benefits through online content such as blogs, articles and websites. This can help companies enhance customer engagement and control what customers associate with their brand, improving brand recognition, driving website traffic and creating customers.

Even products that are everyday, ordinary or seemingly boring can be marketed successfully through creative, interesting content. This article explores the food, travel and finance industries as examples.

The food industry

Whether you sell tomatoes or truffle oil, every food company can benefit from content marketing which focuses on selling the benefits of their products.

Case in point: sugar.

Sugar is an everyday purchase, something that we all have in our pantries and all know how to use, but sugar’s reputation has taken a battering in recent years and isn’t the most fashionable foodstuff in the world. So, how do you build a website for something that isn’t very good for you and that everyone already knows how to use?

Sugar company CSR’s content marketing strategy embodies the ‘sell benefits not features’ maxim. Check out CSR’s website and you’ll be bombarded with recipes and baking tutorials for scrumptious cakes, delicious biscuits and yummy jams – all the things that wouldn’t be possible without sugar.

CSR takes a single ingredient and turns it into thousands of possibilities. If cake recipes can sell sugar they can surely sell flour and milk too. In fact, all food producers can take a leaf out of CSR’s book: who else but an egg-farmer would you ask for a lesson on how to poach the perfect egg? And who better to school us in smashed avo than an avocado farmer?

The travel industry

All facets of the travel industry can sell benefits online, everyone from hoteliers to travel agencies to transport companies can grow their businesses through engaging content. While travel is certainly not a boring subject, it’s important to focus on the right aspects of travel in order to create interesting content.

Life may be all about the journey, but travel is all about the destination. Travel-based content should get customers excited about the possibilities of their holidays — all the exciting activities, excellent restaurants and brilliant attractions they will experience.

Mixing in helpful content about administrative aspects of travel (things like budgeting, visas and vaccinations works well too), as long as the content remains engaging and accessible.

The finance industry

Finance can be a very dry topic. Savings accounts, loan repayments and mortgages are not sexy subjects. Effective financial content focuses on the ends, not the means. Instead of getting bogged down in the details of APRs and loan repayments, good financial content shows customers what they stand to gain: a new home, a family holiday, a new car or whatever exciting thing they’re saving for.

Content should get customers thinking about possibilities. This could be done by talking about up-and-coming suburbs in the local area, new cars coming into the Australian market or awesome holiday destinations – anything to inflame customers’ imaginations.

By creating content which encourages people to consider the opportunities a loan or mortgage could bring them, you’re controlling how your business is perceived: when customers think of your financial institution they won’t think of bills and repayments, they’ll think of holidays, cars and family homes. If even one customer comes in to ask about a mortgage after seeing your content think how great your ROI would be.

And while a blog post may be about strengthening your brand or improving your search results, really it’s about selling dreams and benefits to a bigger pool of potential customers.