Feelings Sell, Features Don’t: The Messaging Shift Your Biz Needs
You know your offer is incredible. You know it’s packed with helpful features, thoughtful support, and juicy takeaways. But for some reason, when you talk about it – when you write about it – your audience just... doesn’t bite.
Or they bite really slowly. Or they ghost halfway down the sales page you spent days working on.
That’s not a sign your offer sucks. It’s a sign your messaging is leading with the wrong stuff.
The solution? Flip the script and focus on what people actually care about.
Because the most powerful messaging you can write – the kind that stops the scroll, sparks action, and makes someone say, “OMG it’s like you’re in my brain” – doesn’t start with the features of your offer.
It starts with the feelings.
LIL KEY TAKEAWAYS: THIS BLOG AT A GLANCE
The brain buys on emotion first, logic second – because your amygdala (emotional brain) kicks in way faster than your prefrontal cortex (logical brain).
People don’t care about what your offer does until they understand what it means for them – which means your messaging should start with the feeling payoff, not the feature.
The ME-ME-ME POV is real – and it’s not selfish. Your audience is wired to look for relevance, relief, and results. Make it obvious how your offer connects to what they want.Feelings = “So what?” and Features = “What.” Use your features to support emotional resonance, not replace it.
Use the Feeling > Feature Framework to translate what your offer has into what your audience will feel.
Want help building your messaging game plan? The Mini Messaging Marker is your no-fluff, all-focus tool for turning confusion into connection.
Quick Recap: What Is Brand Messaging, Anyway?
Messaging is the foundation of what you say about your brand, your offer, or your next big thing. It's not about sounding fancy – it’s just your game plan for communicating clearly, consistently, and in a way that actually connects.
Think of messaging as the what stuff: what you believe, what you’re offering, and what you want people to know (and feel) when they hear from you.
Whether you’re updating your website, writing an email, or refreshing your IG bio – your messaging guide is the go-to resource that keeps you grounded and clear on what matters most.
At its core, your messaging should answer one key question: What do I want to communicate above all else?
Everything else – it flows from there.
Want the full deep-dive? I break it all down in my Messaging 101 blog (Start there if you need a quick refresher).
Feelings > Features: Why Your Messaging Needs to Hit Where It Hurts (In a Good Way)
When I talk about Boundless Copy’s approach to writing anything (website copy, sales copy, email copy, you name it), I always talk about something called Feeling-First Philosophy™.
That FF Philosophy is a non-negotiable approach to copy – because we’re always focused on hitting people right in the feels to give that emotional brain a lil tickle.
But why do we care so much about feelings, and why is our Feeling-First Philosophy such a big deal?
Because of the human brain, of course. Here’s a lil dip-dive into what goes on in the human brain and why feelings are a prime focus.
The Human Brain: Emotion First, Logic Second
Think about your own brain for a second.
It’s main job isn’t to help you determine what’s the right thing to buy – it’s designed to keep you alive and breathing.
And when we start talking about our brains from a survival standpoint, feelings have always been more useful than facts.
Our emotional brain (we call it the limbic system, which includes the amygdala) is older than our rational brain. Like, really old. Like, think caveman-old.
It’s the first thing that helps us make snap decisions about safety, danger, trust, and belonging.
→ Is this good or bad?
→ Safe or risky?
→ Am I in or out?
Here’s how your emotional brain works – it’s fast and it’s subconscious. It doesn’t wait around for a 10-module course outline before forming a decision.
Back in the day, that helped us avoid eating poisonous berries or wandering into bear-infested woods. Today, though, in a modern world, it helps us scan a website in five seconds and think,
“I like this person.”
“This feels right.”
“Oof, this gives me weird vibes – I’m out.”
That’s why feelings are so powerful in sales and messaging: they’re tied to our primitive decision-making system.
Then we get to features.
They live in the prefrontal cortex. That’s the rational, slow-processing, executive-function part of the brain.
It’s great at budgeting. Terrible at falling in love with an offer.
So, think of it like this:
When your copy leads with features, you’re asking the brain to analyze.
When your copy leads with feelings, you’re asking the brain to recognize – to tap into memory, personal experience, and gut instinct.
And while we can make decisions with both of those things, the emotional gut punch is what really resonates with people.
Emotion tells the brain:
→ This matters
→ Pay attention
→ Do something about it
And that’s the goal, right? You want your reader to do something – book the call, sign up, shout yes at the top of their lungs.
Don’t make people connect the dots on their own. Lead with the dots that make them feel something.
Once they’re emotionally invested, that’s when the features come in to support the decision they’ve already made in their gut.
We’re Wired for the ME-ME-ME POV – Use It
Every single one of us is walking through life wearing invisible glasses labeled “ME-ME-ME POV.”
It’s not personal. It’s not rude. It’s not a flaw. It’s literally how the human brain filters reality.
Our brains are built to scan for relevance. And this is especially relevant in a fast-moving, info-drenched world. We’re constantly evaluating things like:
“Does this matter to me?”
“Is this safe for me?”
“Could this help me fix something, feel better, or avoid pain?”
Now, this might sound like narcissism, but it isn’t – it’s survival, and it’s how our brains are designed.
Which means when someone lands on your Instagram caption, your homepage, your launch email (whatever it is), they are not thinking: “Ooh, I wonder what this brand has been up to!”
They’re scanning lightning-fast for stuff like:
“Do I need this?”
“Does this solve a problem I’ve been obsessing over?”
“Is this going to make me feel how I want to feel?”
If your message doesn’t hand them those answers on a silver platter, they’re probably gone. Not because your offer’s wrong or the details don’t apply to them.
But because their ME-ME-ME filter didn’t catch a signal that said, “Hey, this one’s for you.”
Here’s the hard truth:
Leading with the features of your offer assumes they’re already paying attention.
But for a lot of your audience, they’re not (yet anyway).
You have to earn their attention by speaking directly to what they feel, not what you built.
Think of your messaging like a trail of breadcrumbs you’re slowly dropping through a crowded forest. Every word should say: “This is about you. This is what you’ve been looking for. Keep going.”
That’s how you get them to stop scrolling. That’s how you earn their trust. And that’s how you lead them to the details after they already feel seen.
Features = “What” & Feelings = “So What?”
Let’s get something straight right quick: there’s nothing wrong with features.
I’m not telling you to ditch details and never share the tech specs. They’re important!
Your sales page should include what’s inside the offer. People do want to know what they’re buying.
But if your messaging starts and ends with a glorified checklist?
You’re just giving them the what. While they’re sitting there wondering, “So… what?”
That’s where the connection breaks and the dots don’t sync up.
Your offer’s features don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re not just logistical info. They are tools – tools your person is going to use to solve a problem, feel better, or change something that’s not working.
If you don’t connect those dots for them, they likely won’t do it themselves.
So let’s say your offer includes:
10 self-paced modules
A private Slack community
A bonus workbook
Weekly Q&A calls
Classic lineup. All useful. But your reader’s brain? It’s asking:
“What does that do for me?”
“How does that feel in my life?”
“Is this going to fix the thing I’ve been silently Googling at 1 am?”
How can you make sure you’re hittin’ on feelings? You reframe. Instead of just listing what they’ll get, you explain what they’ll experience:
“10 self-paced modules so you can learn on your own time, without the looming guilt of falling behind.”
“A private Slack space where you’re never stuck spinning your wheels solo again.”
“A bonus workbook that actually makes strategy feel doable – not just theoretical.”
“Weekly Q&A calls so you always have backup when things get messy, confusing, or just plain stuck.”
Now we’re talking. Same exact offer. Same deliverables.
But you’ve bridged the gap from what to so what.
This is how you make your messaging work harder. This is how you stop sounding like a pitch and start sounding like a breath of relief.
Because people don’t wake up craving “access to exclusive frameworks” or “lifetime portal logins.” They’re after calmness, confidence, community, and clarity.
They want to feel something. And if your messaging and sales copy don’t help them feel it, they’ll go find someone else who does.
Using Feelings to Better Your Messaging: The Feelings vs Features Framework
Like I said, humans don’t really click with the abstract or the tech-specy stuff. We need concrete examples to help hit us where it matters.
In other words, shiny features and dry details won’t do it – we need to feel something to click with it. When our brains are hit with info, we sometimes go into a version of the fight or flight mode instead of an emotional response.
In the sales world, emotion is sometimes the shortcut to action because our brain’s emotional center is much quicker at processing info than our logical center.
Remember, when we feel something emotionally, we’re more likely to act – even before our logic kicks in. The why (feeling) behind that feature is what’s gonna make them lean in, not the feature itself.
The Feeling > Feature Framework
If all you’ve got is a list of features and you know you need to move toward feelings, but have no idea where to start, I’ve got a quick hack that I use on the reg to kick my brain into feeling mode.
I call this the Feeling > Feature Framework, and it’s a quick way to shift from the features to feelings mindset. Here’s how it works.
List the top three features of your offer: what are the main things your offer has or can do?
Ask WHY that matters: What’s the emotional result that happens for your customer when they use or experience that feature?
Reframe each feature into the feeling behind it: Instead of “our course has 10 self-paced modules,” you can say “the freedom to learn at your own clip, with none of the deadline guilt.”
Repeat for all the features you want to mention: Watch your features (boring! skippable!) turn into powerful feeling connectors (the good stuff)
A Few More Brand Messaging Hacks (For Good Measure!)
Need a few more hot tips to rethink your messaging? There’s so much more to a solid messaging strategy than just feelings and features.
I’ve got full blogs that detail all the ins and outs of messaging:
I’m also sharin’ my quick shortcuts for shaking up your messaging mind to say the right things about your offers.
The 5 Whys Framework
Not sure how to get to the root of a problem? And worse…not sure how to talk to your people about it? It’s time to get down to the what stuff your people care about. Here’s how the 5 Whys exercise works:
When to Use: When you’re struggling to understand your people’s root issues (and how to talk about them)
The 4Ps of Messaging
The 4Ps of messaging is a quick breakdown of the what stuff that helps you get unstuck. Not sure who you’re talking to? Walk through the People. Not sure what they’re dealing with? Work through Problems
When to Use: When you’re full-stop stuck on your messaging framework and have no idea what to say about your stuff. This helps you get back to the basics!
Spoiler: I’ve got a full blog on this one right here (The 4Ps of Brand Messaging) and one for each of its parts!
Double Spoiler: Mini Messaging Marker walks you through this exact process with side-by-side examples to help you build up a mini messaging guide you can use to talk about your stuff!
The Get-Who-Need-To-By Shortcut
Feeling completely overwhelmed by messaging in general? Try a 101 approach. This teeny hack makes it simple to get back to the root of messaging – figuring out the what stuff.
When to Use: When you need a 101 approach to messaging (the what stuff) without all the complicated layers. This helps you put your messaging strategy into perspective so you can build it up better.
Need Help Getting Your Brand Messaging Right?
If you’re feelin’ hyped up to dig into your brand messaging but also lowkey overwhelmed by where to start – I got you.
Mini Messaging Marker is my bite-sized-but-mighty tool to help you map out your messaging foundation fast (without the overthinking spiral). Think: zero fluff, all focus.
It's perfect for:
Pinning down what your offer actually does and why it matters
Clarifying the language that’ll click with your dream people
Giving your copywriting a clear direction – without hiring a full-on strategist
Focusing on the feelings, not just the features
You don’t need to be a messaging expert. You just ned a hot jolt of inspo for what to say to sell your latest and greatest thing.
