What You Don't Want to Say in Your Marketing Materials

Sometimes the most innocent looking words set our marketing materials on the path to perdition--which, in this case, is the path that leads away from customer engagement and a sale.

I recently spoke at BizConNH, a strictly business-to-business event where business owners and entrepreneurs traded information, made contacts and exhibited their products and services. As part of my "Write to Sell" presentation, I listed three words and phrases with the power to undermine your message: not, can and simply.

"Not" infuses your message with negatives. Instead of saying, "It's not possible to find better service," boast that "Our service is the best in the region." (And please explain why!) "Simply" sets up false expectations for the customer and for you. Nothing is ever as simple as we'd like it to be. Remember when computer geeks used to show up in your office, hit a zillion keys at once and tell you, "Simply do that" while you looked on completely baffled? Avoid simply; it often covers a vast amount of information you ought to be sharing with the customer, and it's frustrating for everyone when "simple" doesn't work.

But the most subversive word is "can." That tiny word has the power to squash a positive, energetic, authoritative statement into wishy washy mush.

Consider the difference between "We deliver in 24 hours" and "We can deliver in 24 hours." The "can" adds nothing to the statement but weakens its promise. If you're worried that you might not deliver in time, change the claim to 36 hours or less. Let your confidence show.

I'll give you the same challenge I gave my BizConNH audience: go through any marketing document, circle every instance of not, simply and can. Change the negatives to positives; figure out what "simply" truly means; and get rid of as many can's as you possibly can. Let me know the results.