“Don’t use a big word when a singularly loquacious and diminutive linguistic expression will satisfactorily accomplish the contemporary necessity.”
We want to emphasise how powerful words can be in your marketing collateral, on your website and even on your social media posts.
We have said many times before, that a common mistake to make, is to assume that your audience knows exactly what you are talking about and all of the insider trade jargon makes you sound knowledgeable. In the marketing space, we see this ourselves, a lot.
“How to improve your CPA” “Do you want a bigger ROI.” “Has your SEO failed the EAT test.” etc. Marketers like an anachronism as much as any other industry.
It can be an easy rabbit hole to fall into. Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense if your headline read, “Your website found on page one of Google.” or “Stop wasting money on poor advertising.” They sound harsh and simple but that’s the whole point. No ambiguity, clear words telling you exactly what you will get.
We practice what we preach. For example, one of our long-standing clients is an “Effluent Removal” tanker company. Our job was to increase turnover and raise awareness. We simply put, “We empty septic tanks in Swindon and Wiltshire.” at the top of their website. That’s it, straight to the point, and explains from the get-go what services you will receive. The next section of their website highlights the three steps to getting your tank emptied in a simple frictionless way, a little bit about the Team for reassurance and proof of trust and that’s it. An uplift in turnover, higher rankings (often first), and all because of a few word changes. The browser does not have to burn brain calories trying to navigate through meaningless pages of text muttering, “I just want my tank emptied…”
We accept that at first, this feels a little unnatural but it is worth bearing in mind that the very recent updates to the Google search algorithms now look kindly upon pages and text that are clear, helpful and will prove to be useful for the person searching.
Whilst beautiful, poetic, and flowery Prowse may look great spread over a relaxing tropical beach picture on the front of your website it will have zero impact. Trust us.
Make time to look at your website and the marketing you currently employ. Is it obvious what you do? How will using your service improve your customer’s life? Do you have a memorable strapline? And most importantly of all, what happens to your customer if they don’t choose your business?
Presenting a clear solution, overcoming philosophical problems (see future blogs), and demonstrating how your services will help improve your customer’s situation are the building blocks of modern marketing.
Never fear. If you can’t do it, choose So&So marketing so you can concentrate on running your business.
See how that works?
If we may be so bold as to use our own website as an example, the first words you see are “Good marketing changes everything.” Then comes the how. “Converting web design, graphic design and marketing to help scale your business with ease.” Again, we tell you who we are helping and let you decide if you want to continue exploring.
We have very deliberately placed key headings in certain areas on our homepage to form a narrative. You can scroll through our page just by grabbing the headlines and you will still have an understanding of how we can help you. That’s what most of your visitors will do too.
So to sum up, don’t be afraid to cast a critical eye over your marketing and be honest with yourself. If you are brutally honest enough, you should find that a lot of the words on your website and leaflets should end up on the cutting room floor. Replace them with clear, positive, transitional, and powerful words that will kickstart your marketing, boost your sales, skyrocket your business, and build something people will love… etc
Sometimes, we can’t help ourselves!
