Copy to Write Home About

Hmmm. I know you. As a representative for your company’s brand, you don’t want your brand to sound like a jerk. You don’t throw out a lot of meaningless sales talk that sounds ridiculous at best or condescending at worst in your day-to-day. When you have conversations, you’re honest, you’re genuine and you’re helpful.

And then you sit down foster the writing on a sales brochure, or to update your company’s LinkedIn page or your “About Us” page… and there it is. Clichés start to clutter, hyperbole hovers over every headline and all your good messaging starts to melt into serious cheesiness.

Tip #1: Cut the Crap, People

Reread your headlines and your blog’s latest “why we’re better than the competition” paragraph. Does every line say something valuable? Ask yourself, what does this really mean? If you can’t come up with an answer immediately, then cut that crap (!) or rephrase until you’ve got some concrete and meaningful content.

Tip #2 Toast the Tedium

Consider for a minute the following two sentences:

“Kinetic, the best creative agency in the region, has helped hundreds of clients grow their business profits by millions of dollars annually.”

Versus

“Kinetic, a nationally recognized, award-winning creative agency, has seen more than 40 of their most active clients increase their online engagement by a minimum of 42% in the last year alone.”

See what I mean? The two key takeaways here are first, while words like hundreds or millions may seem specific, they ultimately sound like a marketer exaggerating the truth. Be sure to use specific numbers to increase credibility and impact whenever possible. Also, using superlatives like “best” or “easiest” is a great way to sound insincere. Only use hyperbole when you can back it up and prove your point.

Tip #3 Forget About It

Take a minute to think about everything you learned in school — grammar, spelling, sentence structure and conformity. Now, forget about it. Well, not all of it. Grammar and spelling are important, obviously. But elaborate vocabulary that leans too formal or feels too academic is stifling for a brand, suffocates a business’s personality and strangles your opportunity to capitalize on what’s unique about your company.

If you ask me, great writing isn’t about sticking steadfastly to rules — it’s about knowing when it’s important to bend them and, even better, when to break them.

And, finally…

There’s no way around it. No matter what a business has to offer, it ultimately relies on words to connect, convince, convert and generate sales and engagement. And yes, words do matter and crafting the right messages for the right people to affect and impact them is always the goal.

But also remember who the company is. Be authentic, be honest and be brave!