Copywriters face a common conundrum: how do you inject copy with energy and excitement without it reading like a horrible heap of hype?

I’ve been reading around, trying to work out exactly what makes powerful copy that excites people but doesn’t turn them off with the ripe stench of fraud.

Copy that’s redolent of hype makes readers lose trust – and when trust is lost, so too are sales.

It seems that the factors that influence whether copy reads like hype or not can be easily categorised:

The Good Stuff

You can grab attention and get people thinking about your products by telling them captivating stories, or by painting a picture with words.

Powerful words also help your messages to leap from the page and smack your reader in the face. (Powerful words are difficult to quantify, because it depends very much on their context. And many ‘powerful’ words are overused – which dilutes their power. But any word that carries energy or powerful connotations in the context that you’re using them in can be considered powerful.)

Clichés will never be powerful – so avoid them.

The Bad Stuff

Energy becomes hype when you use exclamation marks too much!!! See?

Copy that has loads of energy but no evidence to reinforce claims made is prime hype material. If you want to shout about something that’s amazing, make sure you back up those claims with evidence (authentic testimonials, client names etc).

Unrealistic claims. Don’t exaggerate. If a product could theoretically make a person a million dollars in a minute, but real people had only managed to earn a hundred dollars in a week, don’t be tempted to trade on the potential power of the product. Keep it real!

Short version

Good copy doesn’t attract attention to itself – it attracts attention to your products and services.

Long version

Occasionally clients expect copy to have some ‘wow’ factor. Perhaps they were expecting poetic, glorious prose. Or perhaps they were expecting copy that their clients would remark upon. Or perhaps they just expected something more sensational.

In most cases, for most organisations, copy should not draw attention to itself. Good copy does not stand out. It draws attention to your organisation, your products and your services. The best copy is like a ninja – it moves silently and people read it without even realising that they’re reading something.

So when you employ a copywriter, or write copy yourself, don’t aim for copy that is loud or spectacular. Aim for copy that communicates clear messages, sinking into the background and focussing attention on you and your offer.

Blogging is hard work. It’s not a quick, easy way to build web traffic. It’s time consuming and easy to get wrong. So should web developers and social media consultants be less keen to offer them to clients?

Andy Budd recently blogged about social media consultants, and his post got me thinking.

As Andy points out, many corporate blogs are dull, unpopular and don’t reward the effort expended on them. Some organisations are never going to be able to blog well. If everyone’s too busy – or too bored – to blog, what’s the point in having one?

Should web developers and social media consultants think twice before loading another organisation up with a blog? Perhaps there should be a test to prove commitment to the blog before you’re allowed to have one.

Of course, the question of whether blogs are suitable for an organisation applies to other social media tools. And I think that’s the point – not all social media tools suit all organisations.

It reminds of me of pet ownership. Everyone wants a pet, but nobody wants to pick up the poop, or walk it. Well, you want to walk it at first, when it’s fun. But then it’s cold, or raining, or Top Gear is on, and you don’t want to walk it any more. Who is going to keep blogging when Top Gear is on?

(Picture courtesy of normalityrelief via Flickr)

“If you consciously restrict your vocabulary – and some companies do this – you end up with the linguistic equivalent of junk food…”

John Simmons -  We, Me, Them & It

I’ve previously blogged about the importance of not dumbing-down corporate communications. It’s clearly a difficult balance to get right; I’m also a big fan of clear, easy to understand writing.

So how do you get it right? How do you communicate clearly with your audience but retain some depth and idiosyncrasy?

Sadly, you’ll have to decide for yourself which words will help your cause and which will baffle your reader.

But I would suggest you make sure that anywhere you need to convey information, make it clear. Be more free and playful with anything less critical. Let your corporate personality shine through when there’s less risk of ambiguity – or someone missing a key fact just because they don’t know what an unusual word means.

(Picture courtesy of Marshall Astor)

I recently finished reading John Simmons‘ book We, Me, Them & It – How to Write Powerfully for Business, and was delighted to read this:

“Instead of saying ‘We’re committed to quality’, say ‘We check everything’. It just means a little bit more.”

Now what Simmons is espousing is honesty and directness. This kind of frank language is often frowned upon in business. Corporations think they must retain a lofty image. But who wants to do business with a distant, faceless corporation? People do business with people, so I think it makes much more sense to appeal to people with language that actually says something.

These days more and more businesses are realising the value of being human, and their copy and communications reflect this. As more people realise how refreshing it is to be addressed as a human, by a human, the more businesses will drop their formal, stuffy attitude.

But going back to the quote from John Simmons’ book- the interesting thing is that thousands of corporations say dull things like, “we’re committed to quality”, and thousands of people hear these messages and they roll over them, like another forgettable wave lapping the same tired coast. Such statements are forgettable because they’re meaningless. What does “committed to quality” mean? Committed to quality – in what way? How do you demonstrate that?

But “we check everything” tells how they’re committed to quality. It tells you: we care about what we do. We care enough to check.

(Picture courtesy of Tim Parkinson – [please note the picture hasn't got much to do with this post])