through my growth course, mentorship program, speaking engagements, and writing i’ve been asked to critique 100s of websites.
in doing so i realize why everyone hates marketers: marketers are liars.
while morality is out of scope for this blog, there’s a quick way to improve your website that i call objective copywriting.
objective copywriting
fix your subjective, lying, cheating copywriting like this:
- “easiest” → “easy“
- “The best…” → “we’re proud of …“
- “#1 burger in NYC” → “rated #1 in BurgerBros magazine“
verify claims like a PhD cites peer-reviewed articles. ask yourself: would i sell this to my mom’s friends?
how to hyperbole
remove self-aggrandizing language like “unique” or “special” and let customers say it for you. then quote the testimonial:
“unique and amazing”
–Sarah from TechCrunch
a few more OK phrases, if true:
- first
- most affordable
- fastest
- patent-pending
the clever fallacy
avoid “product Freudian slips.”
i coined this term to describe when marketers leak solution attributes they think are interesting into their value proposition.
for example, copy like this is on 1000s of websites right now:
- “the new way to book home cleanings”
- “the new way to buy a car”
new is not necessarily better. it’s OK to challenge the status quo, but the status quo is exactly that because it works.
over-personalization
can a vegan and a carnivore walk by the same restaurant and think “that’s for me?” should they?
JavaScript makes it easy to convince every visitor your product was made for them. the truth is: it’s not. marketers who play the long game understand that for each website visitor you alienate, you earn the trust of another.
Godin says “people like us do things like this,” and that’s all you need to know about building and selling products honestly.
You could rather say they are enthusiastic people that like to use power words.
If we look at the best (money/impact making) internet marketing people, they all adopt this exact tactic one way or another – because it works.
you’re being generous, but i agree giving others the benefit of the doubt is optimal for one’s mental health.
After meeting an Italian a few months ago, I can tell you that the word “marketero” is somehow associated with a car salesman over there. That was somehow surprising considering that there should be at least a different perception between marketers and sellers. But as always, probably what appears in our mind when hearing a specific word influences us more than it should.
Story Telling == Leveraging Worldview(s)
Story Telling == Leveraging(framing to push more product/services) Worldview(s) – cognitive orientation……..
Further quoting” All Marketers Are L̶i̶a̶r̶s̶ tell Stories ” ― Seth Godin, the book referenced by Ryan
“We believe what we want to believe, and once we believe something, it becomes a self-fulfilling truth.” So a lot of the IM crowd believes that X software or X training will bring about quick riches..etc.
I think IMers leverage the worldview( cognitive orientation) of “Overnight success”, “Quick Riches” and the laundry list of pains associated with lack of Money, and can’t say IMers do this any better any better than Marketers in other verticals.
Anytime a marketer has a “Realistic Customer Profile”(thx Ryan), and a full understanding of the behaviors and cognitive orientation of said market… she is now left with a blank canvas and stencil to paint a story/art that appeals and speaks to that customer, in the process ( “for each website visitor you alienate, you earn the trust of another.”) – alienating some and magnetizing others.