Words4TheWebwise – Copywriting and Website Design and Development
Banishing the fluff – Empty phrases and meaningless slogans
Last time here at Words4TheWebwise, we looked at some of the meaningless phrases that so often appear on websites. Here are a few other examples seen all too often online.
‘A reputation for quality.’ This makes me curious as to where this reputation of yours originates from and what you did to earn it.
‘We stand behind our product and/or service.’ I know what this is supposed to mean, but it always makes me think that the person is standing behind the counter and refusing to come out and serve me or answer my questions.
‘We will beat any other offer.’ Really? You will beat any deal I have been offered, no matter how ridiculous it is or how low the price is? This is one promise that any company has difficulty keeping.
‘We pride ourselves on our attention to detail’. This might mean that they will check over the small print in any contract you sign with them, but it remains unclear as to how they might deal with other aspects of the transaction.
‘We are fully committed to your success.’ This is an interesting statement since they haven’t met you yet, so you have to wonder what form this commitment might actually take.
‘We are a people oriented company’. This is normally what I would expect, unless you were running a pet store, perhaps?
‘Now even better.’ This makes me wonder just how bad the company was before and if there is perhaps something they’re not telling me about how much they still need to improve.
‘You can expect great things from us’. I suppose if you were thinking of doing business with these people, you would expect great, or at least reasonably good, things, but you have wonder if they can actually deliver.
‘Everything you love and more’. This is a very nice thing to promise, but it does suggest that the ‘more’ part is really composed of things that I don’t want or need at all.
You need to banish the fluff of meaningless phrases and a good copywriter will ensure that your site is free of things like this. To help drive traffic to your site, you need to make effective use of keywords, which we will examine in Words4TheWebwise next month.
Simon Rose – Author and Copywriter.
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