by Scott on February 08, 2007
Buzzwords and buzz-phrases are everywhere and our careers might depend on tracking the right ones.
Here’s some wrong ones that, when put together form a read-made corporate strategy statement: “At the end of the day, a Gen-X, customer-centric, value-added paradigm which aligns our core competencies for synergy is a win-win!” – feel free to use it if you are applying for any newly opened CEO jobs.
In marketing terms, buzzwords are defined as “A trendy word or phrase that is used more to impress than explain”. Marketing folks by their nature want to put a catchy name to everything so there are plenty of buzzwords in the marketing domain. Business in general has its own buzzword backlash.
While marketing folks want to give a name to everything, IT folks want to give an acronym to everything. Like pithy names, acronyms are ripe for becoming buzzwords. Recent must-utters by the technically talented include SOA, Ajax, XML and SaaS.
Yet, what do you think of this premise:
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by Scott on February 07, 2007
We are going through a branding change. To better reflect the benefits of the Synap Software lead management solution, it has been re-branded from LeadsOnTrack to LeadsOnRails.
LeadsOnRails more clearly paints the picture of rail tracks, where LeadsOnTrack could mean any kind of tracks, or just “keeping track”.
Tracks remain an integral part of the product (LeadsOnRails users still use “tracks” to put a lead on a campaign path) yet not in the sense of “keeping track”. The new name helps avoid a message of keeping track of leads and contacts and reinforces the benefits of moving those leads forward.
With the LeadsOnRails name we are building marketing collateral (websites, one-pagers, brochures, etc.) around the product benefits that are also associated with railways:
Fast,
Reliable,
Powerful and
On Schedule.
p.s. My friend Mark Cohen warns in his usual humourous way that an analogy with railways may not be the most promising, considering Amtrak’s image. So, hopefully readers and users are thinking about freight trains, not passenger trains. (He also got a laugh out of the fact that the very next article after “It’s not you…” starts with the word “We” – if nothing else I_ can provide a small dose of semi-regular entertainment).
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by Scott on February 05, 2007
When small business owners wonder if their web, ad, or other copy should be written as “I” or “we”, I think the right answer is neither. The right answer is to refer to yourself, your company, or your product with its proper name. The other right answer is to refer to yourself, your company or your product less often and refer to your customers more often.
Widget’s R Us
I read a comment about the use of first person and third person in Jeffrey Fox’s How to Become a Marketing Superstar: Unexpected Rules That Ring the Cash Register. Fox intelligently makes the case for using third person form in web and marketing material.
Third person form (e.g. “Widgets R Us” instead of “we”) allows you to do two things and leads into a very important third benefit.
- Get your company or product name in front of your readers as often as possible. “we…we….we…” or “I…I…I” are not nearly as effective as “Widgets R Us…Widgets R Us…Widgets R Us” at making a name stick.
- Increase credibility in the mind of your reader. When you hear someone talk about themselves, don’t you automatically take it with a grain of salt, as they say? When you hear someone talking about a third person, that doubt is subconsciously reduced – even if just by a miniscule amount.
No one wants to read about you, but everyone loves to see the word “YOU”.
Reviewing copy for first vs. third person also gave me a chance to see if our company and product website had too much about us and too little about prospective customer benefits.
You can go on and on about how great you, your products, or your services are; but you really need to show what you can do for your customers. Reducing the references to yourself and increasing the use of the word “you” in copy is one way to show that you are in business for your customers.
People love to see references to them, even if with a tangential “you”. Companies that can point to customer benefits naturally find they write less about themselves (no matter if first or third person) and more about their customers.
I took another look at our product copy with the aim to:
1. replace references to “I”, “we”, or “our product” with “Synap Software” and “LeadsOnTrack.com” and
2. talk less about ourselves and let readers see the word “you” more often. (The first was accomplished easily, the later is more difficult).
I just made these changes so do not yet know if it has any impact, but I already like it better.
It is not about you, but it is about “you”.
p.s. One exception to this approach is when you are writing a personal note like a “Letter from Bob”, an entry in a web log, or any piece of writing that is meant to be a personal story or observation. Those, of course, should use first person.
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