Boost Your Sales by 42%...With ONE Great [Secret]

Summary

Brain Driven Brands – Episode 98: Boost Your Sales by 42%...With ONE Great [Secret]

Host: Sarah Levinger
Co-host: Nate Legos
Date: August 26, 2025

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Overview

In this episode, Sarah Levinger and co-host Nate Legos dig into a powerful, science-backed neuromarketing secret that drives up to 42% more sales for e-commerce and DTC brands—without raising ad spend. Drawing from high-performing brands like True Classic, Spotify, and Plants vs. Zombies, the hosts break down recent marketing studies and offer actionable tactics for anyone running or scaling an e-commerce business. The big focus: how the framing of your product benefits can make or break conversions, and why tying related benefits together is essential.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Related Benefits in Copywriting

(02:00 – 05:15)

• Quiz Kickoff: Sarah quizzes Nate on what messaging tactic can boost sales by 42%. Nate guesses several classic copywriting angles, but Sarah reveals it's about bundling related benefits in your messaging, not random or unrelated ones.

  • Quote [03:37 | Sarah]:
    “Products with multiple related benefits generate about 42% more sales than those with a single benefit. But only if they are related to each other.”

• Study Details:

  • Based on data from 1,059 healthcare products:
    • Multiple related benefits = 42% higher sales than single-benefit items
    • Multiple unrelated benefits = 66% fewer orders than single-benefit items
  • Example:
    • Related: “Anti-aging and skin firming” in a body lotion = Works!
    • Unrelated: “Anti-aging and tanning” = The effect disappears or reverses

• Tactical Tip:

  • When crafting product copy or lists of USP’s, ensure each benefit speaks to the same customer desire or problem.

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2. Real-World Application: Ad Messaging for Different Audiences

(07:58 – 11:49)

• Nate’s Reaction: Unrelated benefits dilute the message and can create doubt.

  • Quote [07:36 | Nate]:
    "When I’m looking at food or drink, and you see: ‘tastes great, kids love it, 80% less sugar’—that last part loses me. I just want great taste."

• Sarah’s Take:

  • Don’t try to “hedge your bets” by lumping together unrelated USPs for different audience segments in one ad.
  • Solution: Create separate, highly-targeted ads for each distinct audience, with three benefits closely tied to one another.

• Meta & Algorithm Matching:

  • If an ad’s benefits span multiple profiles, Meta’s algorithm dilutes targeting and results.

• Copywriting Practice:

  • Best-performing ads = headline, subhead, bullets, and visual all reinforce one consistent value.

  • Quote [10:00 | Sarah]:
    “Every time I test a new ad set, the ones where the headline, the subhead, the bullets, and the visual all communicate the same message — they do best.”

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3. Consumer Psychology & Benefit Selection

(11:49 – 16:24)

• Key Point: Most consumers are motivated by a single, core benefit—even if they consider other features.

• Personal Example:

  • Nate buys fancy charcoal toothpaste for dental health, not for whitening, taste, or trendiness.
    • Quote [15:01 | Nate]:
      “This all stems from how much I hate the dentist… when I go, I want it to be the easiest experience possible.”
  • Sarah probes into how deep-rooted anxieties (like dentist fear) drive product choice, not surface-level features.

• Actionable Insight:

  • When mapping ad sets or product pages, probe for the root emotional benefit that closes the sale.

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4. Tactical Testing & Implementation

(16:44 – 18:03)

• Challenge: Should you highlight one benefit phrased three ways, or three related benefits?

  • Nate and Sarah suggest A/B testing both approaches in their own campaigns.
  • Quote [17:06 | Sarah]:
    “I would love for you to run a test for us to see… Is it three related benefits or just one, said three ways?”

• Practical Advice:

  • Don’t be afraid of more creatives: create separate ads for each segment and benefit grouping.

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5. Key Takeaways & Memorable Quotes

• Core Principle:
  • Bundle related benefits — never mix in unrelated ones!
• “Don’t hedge your bets. Just make another ad. It’s cheap.” — Sarah [10:52]
• “Multiple related benefits together. Don’t throw in ones that aren’t related, it distracts people and you’re gonna lose someone.” — Nate [17:44]

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• [03:37 | Sarah]: “Products with multiple related benefits generate about 42% more sales than those with a single benefit. But only if they are related to each other.”
• [07:36 | Nate]: “When I’m looking at food or drink, and you see: ‘tastes great, kids love it, 80% less sugar’—that last part loses me. I just want great taste.”
• [10:00 | Sarah]: “Every time I test a new ad set… the ones where the headline, subhead, bullets, and visual all communicate the same message — they do best.”
• [10:52 | Sarah]: “Don’t hedge your bets. Just make another ad. It’s cheap.”
• [15:01 | Nate]: “This all stems from how much I hate the dentist… when I go, I want it to be the easiest experience possible.”
• [17:44 | Nate]: “Multiple related benefits together. Don’t throw in ones that aren’t related, it distracts people and you’re gonna lose someone.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Introduction & Host Banter: 00:03 – 01:31
• The Marketing Study Quiz & Big Reveal: 02:01 – 05:21
• Examples and Analysis: 05:21 – 08:43
• Personal Stories & Application: 11:49 – 16:24
• Tactical Implementation & Testing: 16:44 – 18:03
• Key Takeaways: 17:44 – 18:03

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Conclusion & Action Steps

Actionable Steps for Marketers:

• Assess your product messaging—do you feature several related benefits, or are you mixing in unrelated ones?
• For each major audience segment, create focused messaging that bundles 2–3 tightly connected benefits.
• Test versions that emphasize the same benefit in multiple ways vs. different-but-related benefits.
• Don’t “hedge your bets” in one ad—clarity and specificity outperform clutter every time.

Final Word:
Great messaging is as much about what you leave out as what you put in. Use science, segment smart, and watch those conversion rates soar.

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to Brain Driven Brands. I'm your co host, Nate. Nate Legos here with Sarah levenger for episode 98. 98. Don't believe it.

[B]

98. It has been 98 days. What would you call that? 98 episodes. That's the only way.

[A]

Episodes. They're called episodes.

[B]

I was trying to reframe it to sound cool, but then it didn't come out right. I'm tired, guys. Today Sarah is very, very, very tired. You can tell when you're stressed out because you get eight hours of sleep and then you wake up and you like there is no amount of coffee that's going to get you up and going. That's how Sarah feels today. I'm just real tired.

[A]

Yeah, we got to get rid of stressed and sleepy Sarah.

[B]

Yes, I'm trying my hardest. I am like I'm currently in the mode of paring back some of my life, some of my business, like trying to get it consolidated back down to a manageable amount. Because sometimes I think we get to the point, especially in D to C, where we think more must equal more. Like just the pile. And then you get to the point where it's like, ah, crap, that didn't actually do what I thought it was going to do. And now I'm just really stressed out.

[A]

Yeah, less is more. A big fan of the addition by subtraction kind of theory.

[B]

Yeah, I agree with that.

[A]

More is very rarely more unless you're talking about like, you know, whiskey or fake or something like pure goodness. But usually less is more. Red Bull's right.

[B]

I'm apologize for everybody. I have no idea what I'm gonna say on this episode because I'm kind of like loopy tired, just kind of stressed out. So we're gonna see. We're gonna start though today with something we haven't done in a minute. Actually, we are gonna do another study quiz. Do you wanna go today? When's the last time we done was. It was a while.

[A]

I don't know. It's been, it's been good for me not doing them because I. I think I'm like over lifetime on guessing correctly. So it's always a little bruised ego. But what do you got for me today?

[B]

This particular marketing tactic increased sales by 42%. Increase sales by 42% just by using a very specific framing copy. Like this is going to be your realm because it's very much like messaging, copy, writing, those type of things. So you can boost sales by 42% just by framing your. Would you call this Benefit in a particular way.

[A]

Okay, well, a couple. Couple ways I know how to increase sales through messaging. Are they. And I get three.

[B]

Three guesses.

[A]

Number one, are they kind of comparing the value of the product to how awesome the people are who use it or buy it?

[B]

Oh, that would be such a good idea. But no.

[A]

You should be. All right. Are they talking about how much it costs them to make the product? Whether they're hard costs or the labor that goes into it or the materials it's made from?

[B]

You can use that in this, but it's not exactly that. This is such a hard one. I feel bad. I always pull really hard ones for you. Sorry.

[A]

All right. Is it like some kind of aspirational message? They're painting a picture of the ideal lifestyle that their customers want to live.

[B]

It is not. Nope. And it has nothing to do with the veil.

[A]

All right, what do you got?

[B]

Okay. Okay.

[A]

So by the way, all those were great copywriting tips. You guys should be doing those. So I. I don't want to count this as like, I was wrong. There was just different right answers.

[B]

So the marketing tactic, according to science, products with multiple related benefits generate about 42% more sales than those with a single benefit. But. But only if they are related to each other.

[A]

Oh, that's interesting.

[B]

Benefits have to be related to each other. Now this I found really interesting, like, teeny tiny caveat of this, because in general, most of the time, people like to put bullet lists or like benefit lists that are like completely separate things. Right. Like, it's BPA free, it's easily washable, it's like whatever. Right. People are doing all kinds of weird stuff. But according to this study, having benefits that are easily relatable mentally makes it much more powerful.

[A]

Did they have an example?

[B]

Yes. So the one that they have is like body lotion. So their related benefits for this one was anti aging and skin firming related benefits. Right. A single benefit of anti aging didn't seem to do much like just put one benefit on there. It doesn't really seem to drive more sales. And. But if you have multiple unrelated benefits, like it's anti aging and it's a tanning lotion, they're so differentiated that it. It won't boost sales as well, I guess.

[A]

So they said anti aging and skin firming, those are the same things. So, like, is this really just a lesson of, like, you should find multiple ways to communicate?

[B]

Possibly. Yeah. Your top value props multiple times. So this was interesting because it was across 1059 healthcare products, those with multiple related benefits generated 42% higher sales compared to those with a single benefit. When multiple benefits weren't related, Those products had 66% fewer orders compared to single benefit products.

[A]

That's very interesting.

[B]

That's a lot. Actually. 66% fewer orders if you have multiple benefits that are not related.

[A]

Yeah. Cutting your conversions in half. We don't like that.

[B]

4.4.8X more people prefer to cold medicine with multiple related benefits over a single benefit.

[A]

Wow, this is interesting. Well, I wonder like for us, obviously Q4 is coming up, so we're gonna roll out the headline that we wrote together of, you know, show your man he's worth every second.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I wonder if we talk of about like, show your man he's worth it, like, and he'll appreciate you. Every day he puts it on. That's saying the same thing. Just from the other perspective.

[B]

I don't know. See, I see that different.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

Show your man he's worth it and he'll appreciate you. Totally different things you think is showing him something. This one is getting something for yourself.

[A]

Well, yeah, but that's what the women want, isn't it?

[B]

It's not actually the same thing. Technically. Show your man he's worth it should be paired with something like he deserves to be seen too. That's the same thing. Right.

[A]

So keep it on him.

[B]

Keep.

[A]

Keep it online. Okay.

[B]

So. And multiple. I think what they're saying is three. I didn't see anywhere in here that.

[A]

They were just lists of three crush. I know that.

[B]

Yeah. It seems like list of three do well. And if anybody wants to like read this particular study, we have it down in the show notes. But I get all of my studies from science says dot com. Thomas McKinley is the guy that does this. He is freaking fantastic. And I love his website because all of their studies are very, very well backed. So these are, what would you call it, like marketing studies that have been proven multiple times in multiple cases. And he's got some really interesting stuff in here. But this one in particular, I was like, oh, this. I mean this kind of applies directly to you guys.

[A]

Yeah, that's super interesting.

[B]

Multiple benefits relate them together though. That's. I haven't seen that.

[A]

I have. I've felt this as a consumer when like I see a list of, you know, usps and like one of them doesn't belong there at all. And I'm just kind of like, I don't care about that. This hat, like this. This is going to tell you a lot about me when I'm like looking at food or a drink or candy, and they throw in a bullet point that's like, oh, by the way, like, it tastes great, you know, it's chocolatey, kids love it. And it's 80% less sugar. That one pisses me off. That one makes me think, like, it's not gonna be good. You should have stayed on taste the whole time, you know?

[B]

Yes. And I think this is where it comes into play. My watches fell off. Don't mind me. I think this is where it comes into play.

[A]

Shitty. Not in a regional grain watch.

[B]

That's why it's a bright thing. Okay. I think it's really interesting that you call this out because I think that marketers assume we got all these really cool benefits, whatever, we're gonna slide in another one. That's like the benefit, right? And it's like, that's ridiculous. Like, you were doing so well with taste. You hit sugar. And as a mom, I'm like, my kids won't eat anything that. That Right. Like, no sugar in it. Because I've tried that in the past and it didn't work. You got too much recall happening with customers if their brain has tasted no sugar products in the past, which I'm sure they have. And it hated that. That last benefit is going to skip them right out.

[A]

Do you think we should be framing different ads with different, like, sets of benefits? Because we do have benefits that are unrelated to each other. Like, we have a set of benefits for the gift buyer. We have a set of benefits for a guy who's buying it for himself, who's a watch guy, like, really cares about the nerdy watch mechanics of it. Then we have a guy who's buying for himself that just cares about the whiskey or just cares about the material. It's.

[B]

Oh, man. Yeah.

[A]

Should we be launching ads where it's like, each one's gonna have a list of three benefits, but just for that thing, I would.

[B]

Yeah, I would. Mostly because, and this is something I've been studying with Meta recently, is I think the closer you can get to a person, obviously the better the ad is going to perform, the cheaper it's going to cost to this person's behavior. If you're adding three different benefits that might hit three different people in one specific ad, Meta is going to try and send it to all three and it's going to kind of wash out. So I think if you have one ad that goes to one person, headline wise, the bullet points also have to back that up. And I've seen This in many, many tests. This is not just, like, Sarah's opinion. Every time I test a new ad set specifically on, like, psychology side, the ads that do best are the ones where the headline, the subhead, the bullet points, and the visual all communicate the same message.

[A]

We've definitely made this mistake.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Yeah. Like, we have definitely launched ad Creative where, like, the entire ad is masculine for the guy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Talks about the positive identity. Identity that he sees in himself or wants to see in himself. And then the last bullet point is, like, makes a great gift. And it's like, well, that's not for him.

[B]

That's not for him. Don't do it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, no. Okay. All right.

[A]

Chill out. I do one thing wrong as a marketer, and Sarah gets all mad at me. It's been 98 episodes. We're going to find a mistake.

[B]

How dare you. You should not be making mistakes anymore. God, no. Everybody, even the greats make mistakes. Okay. Mostly because it's difficult to see this stuff right. When you're in it making ads all day. This is the thing that I hate. I really.

[A]

We definitely looked at it as, like, well, let's hedge our bets in case a woman.

[B]

Yeah, don't do that. Don't hedge your bets. Just make another ad. It's cheap. It takes you two seconds to make it static. This is the reason why I wish to God meta had this where you could design ads in a mock feed. Design your ad in a mock feed. Because we design in a vacuum. It's almost on Canva Figma. It's outside of the ecosystem is actually going into. Psychologically, that causes us to go for a couple different things. It causes us to optimize for usually professionalism. We want the square to look gorgeous, which I'm like, I think that's important. But I. I think the messaging is way more critical. And second, I. I think it causes us to assume that people are going to see it the way we see it in the vacuum.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's not at all what's happening here. So this is why I'm like, I actually agree with this 100%, and clearly the science backs it up. Very important for you to match your messaging. Difficult to do this at scale. Like, at volume. I should say not at scale, but at volume.

[A]

But would you say that when a consumer makes a purchase, they really only care about one value prop.

[B]

Like.

[A]

Like, one benefit.

[B]

I think so. Okay. So. And we can do a test on this. Let's. Let's test Nate's shopping. What kind of toothpaste do you use?

[A]

Oh, it's a weird one. I use like. Like a charcoal and bone powder.

[B]

You crack me up. You do not come across as the type of consumer that wants, like, castile. So.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And, like, charcoal toothpaste.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Nate, you're kind of bougie. Like, I don't know if you knew this. Yeah, but you're.

[A]

But how good does my smile look? You know?

[B]

I mean, you do have a lovely smile.

[A]

Shout out Invisalign. They sponsored this episode.

[B]

Hell, yeah. I did Invisalign for a few years, and then I got real stressed out and stopped using it. And then I had one tooth that was, like, not perfectly straight, and I told him I was gonna quit. This is a side trail, obviously. I'm tired. The lady comes back, and she was like, are you sure? I was like, ow. First of all. Second of all, is my teeth, like, yes, I'm taking apart. And then I never went back. Shout out to my orthodontist. I'm so sorry. I've been meaning to come back in the last couple years. I'm just tired. And that's on consumer journeys Back to toothpaste. Nate uses a charcoal. Why charcoal?

[A]

The. The. There's some ingredient, like, in the. The bone powder that's in it that's supposed to, like, re. Enamelize teeth. I don't know. It's supposed to be. Just be, like, the best thing for your teeth. So, like, that was my one thing.

[B]

I cared about, like, marrow bone.

[A]

Don't know. I think it's from cattle. Yeah, there's.

[B]

That.

[A]

There's eggshell in it.

[B]

Nate is consuming and also brushing his teeth with as much beef as he can possibly get.

[A]

Yeah, obviously. A look at the world's most expensive toothpaste. For those looking for the ultimate luxury in oral care, the world's most expensive toothpaste may just be what you need. Priced at $300 per tube.

[B]

Oh, my God. That's hilarious. Okay, I digress. As a consumer, you went after charcoal because it was something that was supposed to fortify your teeth. Did you look at anything else while you were, like, shopping for this, or was it just like, oh, that makes sense, and then you bought it?

[A]

I did. Like, as soon as I discovered, like, what these ingredients were supposed to do, I looked at similar toothpastes with them.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

The one I chose felt, like, the most natural and, like, the highest quality.

[B]

That's interesting. Okay, so charcoal toothpaste, though, in particular, is really interesting because it turns your teeth black. Or it usually does. Okay.

[A]

Yeah. When you're brushing?

[B]

Yeah, yeah. When you're brushing, it turns your teeth black. Okay. Oh, this is fascinating. So this is a great example of what Sarah does all day, every day. Shout out to tether insights. I'm trying to get an answer out of Nate that would tell me whether or not any of the other benefits that he ran into were a part of his decision making process. And to do that, typically I like to run metaphorical questions or pictorial questions that would help us pull that out. My problem is I'm too tired to come up with one. So in general, though, it sounds like your choice in. In charcoal is basically. What's the word? A functional one. Is that correct?

[A]

Well, and now that I'm thinking about it, it's a layer deeper. This all stems from how much I hate the dentist.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Get crazy anxious going to the dentist.

[B]

Why?

[A]

I don't like it. Just.

[B]

I mean, have you had a bad experience at the dentist?

[A]

Don't remember. Don't know. I think my brain has blocked it out. But the reason I care so much about, like, taking the best care of my teeth possible is because when I go to the dentist, I want to make sure it's, like, the easiest experience possible.

[B]

So. What? What? Okay, so I'm still trying to connect the charcoal thing because that's a very specific type of toothpaste. It's not like you're using purple toothpaste. What's that brand that uses the purple one? I can't even remember. I think they're called purple probably, but those are teeth whitening. Anyways, I can't get down to it because I'm so tired I can't pull it out of my brain. But it's interesting, specifically the charcoal piece of it and the benefit that you drew up at the very beginning was the fact that it fortifies your teeth. And that apparently is related to your anxiety from the dentist.

[A]

Yeah, because I don't want to get cavities, and then I have to go get those filled and like.

[B]

So if I had an extra benefit on there that just said you can whiten your teeth, would that do anything for you?

[A]

Yeah, I don't really care.

[B]

You don't care? Oh, you don't care about all the teeth? Which is so funny, because as a consumer, I'm into teeth whitening.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, like, I don't want my teeth yellow, obviously, but, like, the main driver is like, let's make them healthy so I don't have to get root canals done.

[B]

I feel like a better way to to frame this. So apologize. All you people just listen to us talk for 20 minutes about basically nothing but better way to frame this is I need now to go back and design two different ads for you. One that talks about just the benefits of charcoal and one that talks about charcoal at the headline, but then like random stuff and see which one you would purchase from. All right, I'll go back and do that.

[A]

I'm super excited to make ads like this for us. While you're talking, I have my ad brief for next week up and I'm taking notes because, like, I'm going to draw the line of, like, hey, there's three people that we sell watches to. We usually kind of blend some of those USBs together. I'm going to separate them, make sure Meta delivers them to the right people and see how it goes.

[B]

Well, and I wonder, I would love for you to run a test for us to see. Is it three related benefits from a watch standpoint or is it one benefit? Just said three different ways.

[A]

I think it's going to be that. Yeah.

[B]

Okay. I might have to have you do both.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Okay. Just both for us. Yeah, and see, because I want to see one.

[A]

Chris, if you're listening, test both just.

[B]

Like one with one benefit, but, like, figure out three different ways to say it. And then one with three benefits that are, like, related, but they're basically just different signifiers. All right, this would be fascinating.

[A]

Yeah, that's a good episode.

[B]

Anything else? Let's.

[A]

What did we learn? Say multiple related benefits together.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Don't throw in ones that aren't related. It distracts people and you're gonna lose someone.

[B]

Yep. Yeah, I agree. Because apparently, according to this study, 42 more sales. Great. By offering three. Thanks for Chad. This is lovely. Where could people find you?

[A]

Yeah, you guys can follow me on Twitter at Nate Legos. I have a podcast, which you already know. I don't have to tell you about it. So it's really good. Some say it's better than this one. I don't say that. I've never said that.

[B]

But no, you're so vague.

[A]

Some people are like, it's really good. Did I tell you I got another. I got another DM this week.

[B]

Stop.

[A]

Is awesome. I also like listening to brain driven brands. I'm like, thanks. Thanks for putting it in that order.

[B]

You like listening?

[A]

No, no. Someone DM'd that to me. Oh, I don't listen to anybody.

[B]

When do you.

[A]

I don't believe in podcasts.

[B]

To our show. Well, that was nice. Of them. I'm glad that we are at least in the roster. We are second, but we are still in there.

[A]

Okay, I'll say that Brain, Drew and Brands is the second best marketing podcast. How's that?

[B]

All right.

[A]

That's a pretty high praise I don't appreciate.

[B]

I don't appreciate being second when you are technically the co host, sir. I. I have nothing. That's all I got.

[A]

Like guys, follow Sarah. Hit her up at tetherinsights IO hit her up at school, dot, whatever. She'll put the link in the description, some URL. But it is a valuable community so you can check it out.

[B]

Professionalism on the show. You guys are great. Thank you for putting up with my scattered brain today. Brain Driven Brands is part of the Learn and Laugh series on the Quickfire Podcast Network and is presented by Tether Insights. For more information go to tetherinsights IO.