Also, I recommend George Orwell. His essay Politics and the English Language is an excellent primer for avoiding stale weasel language. Meet the team , if you'd like. Would that be interesting to anybody? So why are so many businesses saying the same things at the biggest party on the planet—the marketplace?
Unfortunately, years of language dilution by lawyers, marketers, executives, and HR departments have turned the powerful, descriptive sentence into an empty vessel optimized for buzzwords, jargon, and vapid expressions. Words expand to occupy blank space in a business much as spray foam insulation fills up cracks in your house. Basecamp wrote this on May 06 There are 13 comments. Sayam Khan on 06 May Yours is the first article I read in Inc now.
Amber Shah on 06 May Paul S on 06 May Noam on 06 May Great article from Jason as usual! Thanks for sharing! JP Richardson on 06 May Markus on 06 May By the way, writing good and creatively is freakin hard. Jackson on 06 May Jim on 06 May Fazal Majid on 06 May Maybe I am one of those purists.
I hate it when people try to blame SEO for bad writing not that you did personally. If you really understand SEO it has no ill effect whatsoever. Only the spam-centric keyword stuffers stuck in or so ruin their writing for the sake of SEO and in that case they fail miserably in long-term SEO anyway.
I have to agree with you on that one, Jenn. To me, SEO is like good editing of copy. It has to enhance, not detract, from the writing. Your email address will not be published. You see it all the time — the battle of the traditionalist versus the new age. Would that be interesting to anybody? So why are so many businesses saying the same things at the biggest party on the planet -- the marketplace? If you care about your product, you should care just as much about how you describe it.
In nearly all cases, a company makes its first impression on would-be customers or partners with words -- whether they're on a website, in sales materials, or in e-mails or letters. A snappy design might catch their attention, but it's the words that make the real connection. Your company's story, product descriptions, history, personality -- these are the things that go to battle for you every day.
Your words are your frontline. Are they strong enough? Unfortunately, years of language dilution by lawyers, marketers, executives, and HR departments have turned the powerful, descriptive sentence into an empty vessel optimized for buzzwords, jargon, and vapid expressions. Words are treated as filler -- "stuff" that takes up space on a page. Words expand to occupy blank space in a business much as spray foam insulation fills up cracks in your house.
Read around a bit, and I think you'll agree. Luckily, there are exceptions. Wonderful exceptions. These are companies with a personality and a point of view. They care enough to have their own voice. They want to communicate, not just say something.
They have a story to tell, and they want to tell it well. They write to be read. Woot is one of those companies. Woot is a Dallas-based business that sells one item a day at a deep discount. Here is how the company describes itself on its website:. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it's taken on a life of its own.
We anticipate profitability by -- by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices. Until then, we're still the lovable scamps we've always been. Don't you just love these people? Or maybe you hate them.
Either way, I'm pretty sure you have an opinion about Woot based on this paragraph. With just a few sentences, Woot instantly set itself apart from the liquidation crowd. Indeed, how the company communicates is a big part of how Woot built such a successful business.
Woot's deal of the day sells out just about every day. I especially love the company's response to the "Will I receive customer support like I'm used to?
Well, not really. If you buy something you don't end up liking or you have what marketing people call "buyer's remorse," sell it on eBay.
It's likely you'll make money doing this and save everyone a hassle. It's kind of kidding and kind of not. Some people may be offended, but big deal. Woot isn't trying to sell to every customer. It's trying to sell to the customers that can laugh along.
0コメント