Strategy Note 6: People Buy Feelings
People buy feelings, not features.
Many businesses list specifications and capabilities as if their audience were making spreadsheet decisions. Storage capacity. Response time. Number of sessions included. The quantifiable, comparable, logical details that seem like they should matter most.
Meanwhile, the brands that create devoted followings don’t focus exclusively on mentioning what they do. Their primary focus is on how it feels to work with them, to own what they make, to be part of what they are building.
The difference is stark.
Features can be easily compared. If you compete on features, you invite comparison shopping. Someone will always have more features, better features, cheaper features. The comparison never ends, and you rarely win.
Feelings cannot be compared in the same way. When someone chooses you because of how you make them feel, the question is no longer "is this the best option?" but "how soon can I start."
This is not manipulation. This is how human decision-making actually works.
We make decisions emotionally and justify them logically. The feeling comes first—desire, trust, belonging, relief, excitement—and then we construct rational explanations for why the decision makes sense. The features matter only insofar as they support the feeling.
The businesses that understand this lead with emotion and follow with logic. They describe the transformation, the experience, the identity shift. Then, almost as an afterthought, they mention the features that make it possible.
The businesses that get this backwards lead with features and wonder why their conversion rates are anemic. They are making logical appeals to emotional creatures.
Consider how you actually make purchasing decisions. When you chose your phone, was it really about the camera specifications? Or was it about how you felt using it, how you imagined yourself with it, what owning it said about who you are?
When you hired your last service provider, was it the number of years of experience that clinched the deal? Or was it something harder to articulate—a sense that they understood you, that working with them would feel a certain way, that they were "your people"?
The features were there. They mattered. But they were not what made the decision.
Translating this into your own work means stepping back from what you deliver and asking what your customers actually feel when they work with you. Relief that someone finally gets it. Confidence that they are in good hands. Excitement about what becomes possible. Belonging to something worth being part of.
Name those feelings explicitly. Build your messaging around them. Let your audience imagine themselves experiencing what your best clients experience.
The emotional benefits are not marketing fluff you add to make your features sound warmer. They are the actual reason people buy.
Stay Curious,
