Banned words?
Yep. Forbidden. Prohibido. Interdit.
Why?
Because these words are just filler – padding sentences without adding meaning.
These words waste your reader’s time; and squander precious pixels.
- Innovation. If you have to point out you’re innovative, then you probably aren’t.
- World-class. Pretty meaningless unless you’re a world-record holder like Usain Bolt.
- Breakthrough or groundbreaking. Seriously? Or are you exaggerating your contribution to mankind? Have you discovered the God particle?
- Market-leading. Which market are you leading? And do your customers care?
- Cutting-edge or state-of-the-art. Come on. Do you have nothing better to say?
Don’t undermine your credibility with gobbledygook. Instead: Be specific. Use metaphors. Or simply shorten your sentence.
Great article, as always, Henneke. The words that also get me grinding my teeth are those that describe what you *should*, by definition, be doing as a business owner, as if they are somehow special: ‘great customer service’, ‘fast delivery’, ‘excellent products or services’ — if you look at their opposites, ‘rubbish customer service’, ‘really slow delivery’, ‘very average products or services’, you realise how daft is to shout about anything that should be par for the course when you’re running a business. They are not features or benefits, they are a given.
“If you look at the opposites…”
That’s a good idea. It makes it immediately clear how silly it is to talk about “great customer service” without specifying what it means.
Thank you for adding your thoughts, Julie. Much appreciated. 🙂
Heh. Neat point. I’m probably guilty of this.
“Premium” and “High-quality” are two words I would like to ban 🙂
“Premium” sounds as if you’re charging too much. 😉
Here’s my own personal list of marketing hyperbole. Presence of any of these words now makes me stop paying attention immediately:
Killer
Awesome
Unstoppable
Massive
Wildly
Amazing
Astounding
Skyrocket
Avalanche
I agree that these don’t work for sales copy because they’re exaggerated claims. You can never say your product is awesome – better leave it to your customers to say that 😉
Interestingly, these words do seem to attract attention in blog post titles.
Thanks, Glenn!
To this list I would add my single biggest bug-bear: “leverage”. No one actually says “leverage” in the real world of human speech, so why shouldn’t sales and marketing materials speak to people in a less jargon-laden manner?
In my corporate communications work, I immediately replace that word when editing or revising texts. 9 times out of 10, when people write/say “leverage” they really just mean “use” or “benefit from”. Try to insert one of these alternatives the next time you come across the “l’ word, and I have a hunch you’ll find that it works just fine!
Oh yes. And shall we ban “utilize”, too?
Thanks, Sarah!
Yes yes yes! “Use” will do nicely in every case 🙂
I agree wholeheartedly that ‘utilise’ should be banned, because it is generally written as a synonym for ‘use’. However, I’ve understood its proper meaning to have a subtle difference from ‘use’ – viz, ‘to make use of’. That implies adoption, advantage or simply making a virtue of necessity. If it was written with any of those intentions I would applaud it. Sadly, I rarely have cause to clap.
Anybody had enough of “thought leader” and “value added content?”
“Value-added content” is quite ugly. And you probably can’t call yourself a thought leader or a guru (that’s even worse) – I’d prefer specialist or expert.
I hate ‘limited time offer’ – you know they don’t mean it, they always come back and say – extended due to demand –
Also – the mails that say they got something wrong and they are sorry – too many too often.
Yes! Extending your limited time offer is a quick way to lose your credibility. Extended due to lack of demand probably?
Thanks Henneke. I’ve noticed lately many warnings against using these long-time favorites, especially cutting-edge and breakthrough. Time to relegate them to the dustbin of history–then shove that chiche’ in after them.
Slightly different question, but what do people think about the word “cheap”? On one hand, many people think it sounds “cheap and nasty”. On the other hand, who is going to search for or respond to “economical ipod”?
“Cheap” is a better word than “economical”, “cost-effective”, or “low-cost” because as you say people search for “cheap”.
If your positioning is to be cheap, then I think that’s the word you should use. The question is – do you want to position a product or service as cheap?
Indeed! I’m sure there are a thousand worthwhile articles to write about that issue too.
While more people search for cheap, are they the kind of people you want to attract? If you are a small provider, it is almost always a mistake to compete on price. Also, if you are going that route, it may be better to put in the word “free.” You will get more traffic and more attention to your related, high-quality stuff. Finally, you can just show your prices and let other people decide whether it is cheap or expensive or just right for them.
A great conversation, Henneke. Put another vote for me on “utilize.” It’s just senseless. 🙂
I agree, Aaron. Better leave doing cheap stuff to the big companies who can scale their operations to drive down costs.
Thanks for stopping by to leave a comment 🙂
Interesting one of the highest search term in our niche is ‘cheap xxxx’ but the adword copy or metadata has been changed to ‘low cost’ and consequently increased click through rate. Go figure
Wow, that’s interesting. I can’t imagine why that would be. Shows that you should always test these things.
Thank you for stopping by, Azzam.
Hi everyone,
Henneke, I remember you once were comparing ‘world-class security’ with ‘bank-grade security’. The second one is copy on Dropbox website, if I remember well. It would be nice if you can write a post with examples of compelling writing.
Well remembered – I wrote about it in this KISSmetrics post about the Destructive Power of Adjectives.
And good idea about writing a post about compelling copy. I’ll add that to my list. I shouldn’t just rant about bad copy 😉
Have you seen my guide to writing seductive copy like Apple (also on KISSmetrics)? You might find that useful in the meantime 🙂
Thank you!
No, I missed it, thanks for the link 🙂
a whiff of fresh air
Hi Rose, welcome to Enchanting Marketing 🙂
I’m assuming you’re not suggesting to ban the phrase “a whiff of fresh air” but just agreeing that certain words should be banned?
hi henneke…..your site, your approach, your opinions……definitely a whiff of fresh air!
i look forward to breathing in more.
A rose by any other name would whiff as sweet.
Here are 2 more: “Designed to…” Don’t tell me your products is designed to do something. Tell me that it does. “Designed to” sounds like a legal department hedge in case it doesn’t actually do what it is supposed to.
Yes, that’s a good one, Chris! I agree with you. 🙂
Worse than “innovation” is “NEW innovation”!
Yes, that’s ridiculous. Bah.
Ew. That is redundant again.
I hate ‘solution’. I hate it with a passion.
Yep, I’m with you on that. Bleeergh.
Henneke, I’m reading and re-reading your books and will start working through them while I launch my own blog. Thanks for being an inspiration.
I’m with Glenn. My body recoils every time I see “Killer” used as an adjective. It not just that it lacks sensitivity (which it does) but can sound a middle aged person trying to be hip. I feel bad because even people I respect have used it, on book covers no less.
Amazing is one of those words I should replace, but like. I use it with little children. Plus it has a Z.
p.s. I love your drawings.
Hi Jenny – thank you so much for stopping by. 🙂
Yes, killer is a cheap way to attract attention – plus it’s getting overused.
Good luck with launching your blog! Let me know if you have any specific questions, I can help with?