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This week, I thought I’d go back to the root of marketing communications.  You see, in my opinion, there’s nothing more important to how a company presents its unique value proposition than the language and message it uses.  If you’ve done that well, it won’t matter (much) if you use skywriting, sandwich boards or even go door-to-door.

I believe that too many companies in our industry still go out of their way to dilute their key message.  It’s not that they intend to do so.  But somewhere, somehow, we’ve come to believe that if we don’t use the same buzzwords used by everyone else, our message will somehow be less effective, less businesslike.  The result, however, is that it becomes more like the messaging (and, by proxy, the products) delivered by everyone else.  In the mind of the prospect, that makes our firm more like the others, too.  NOT the goal of marketing or sales, last I checked.

I keep a list of clichés that I try not to use on my website.  I’ll admit, I sometimes use them.  They can be somewhat like passwords into the business club.  But when I write copy for a client, I do my best to avoid sounding like the others.  Just stop and think about how many phrases or words we use simply because others use them:

Solution:          Unless you’re in the chemistry field, this word has come to mean…well, nothing.  A “solution” can be a consulting evaluation, a widget, a piece of software, a technique, a strategy.  To the reader, it means nothing special.   And when you use the word “solution” over and over to describe your most important product or service, you’re simply telling everyone else that it’s all (or none) of the above.

Turnkey:         An oldie but goodie.  It’s supposed to mean (to use another dated term) “plug-and-play,” or “no (little) assembly required.”  In some cases, that’s important.  But the term is so overused in our industry today that it has come to have as much significance as the fax number on your contact page.

Exceptional Customer Service:          Ok.  Admittedly this is important.  But it’s also claimed by virtually every company in the real estate and mortgage industry.  When almost every firm out there claims to offer it, it’s no longer unique.  It also becomes, as an old manager of mine used to call it, wallpaper.

Revolutionary/Game Changer:       Unless you’ve discovered a cure for cancer, very few products or services truly deserve these once-powerful descriptors.  Unfortunately, many claim them nonetheless.  The result?  A message full of sound and fury, signifying…well, nothing.

There are many more, but you get the point.  It’s not bad to have turnkey solutions which expedite premier customer service.  But it is bad to use that phraseology in your marketing. 

You see, in this day and age, we are absolutely inundated with information. 

Perhaps they've located a turnkey solution?

Much of it is copy.  And much of it just plain looks like other copy.  Much like images of the models in suits shaking hands over a laptop as if they’ve concurrently discovered Nirvana,  these terms simply shut down the reader’s brain, pushing him or her to move on.  Especially when we read on the Web, we tend to scan and categorize.  Seen it before?  Means nothing?  Filter out, move on to something that does mean something to me.  The terms I mention above are among those that cause the reader’s attention to stray away from our key message and product.

If you truly believe your product or service is unique and helpful, why sell it short by borrowing the message of others to sell it?