Many companies, particularly those offering consulting services or services with a high level of abstraction do a supremely poor job of conveying to their site visitors exactly what it is that they do. Perhaps they want to appear sophisticated in their self-description, or give the impression that what they do is so complicated that only four-syllable words can effectively convey the true core of their activities.
To state it bluntly: you need to write sense in order to sell your service.
This complex brand of language does nothing for your marketing. If you write a description of what your company does which is easily understood, but not perfectly accurate, you’ll be far more successful than if you perfectly describe what you do using language which requires a PhD in semantics to comprehend! It’s not necessary to describe the nature of your business in that kind of precision — you’ll have the opportunity to explain exactly what you do further while you discuss projects with your prospective client.
I’m not suggesting that you deceive your audience, however. There’s a huge difference between imprecise descriptive text and deceptive descriptive text.
Take, for example, a company which provides, as their principle service, management of pay-per-click campaigns, but also provides consulting on a wide range of search marketing issues. It is inaccurate to say that they are a PPC management company, because this is not their SOLE occupation. It does, however, efficiently convey two things: the company’s specific specialty and the industry that they are involved with. Deception would involve making a claim about the company which was false, rather than simply incomplete.
If you want to draw somebody in to further investigate what you offer, they need to understand some level of what you offer from the beginning. When the first scan of your copy leaves them wrinkling their brows with confusion, you’ve possibly already lost the sale. If that first look tells them that you provide at least an aspect of what they’re looking for, they’re much more likely to investigate further, initiate a conversation with you to explore services, or establish a contract.
Always let somebody who doesn’t know what the company does read your copy and provide feedback. Distance from the subject is priceless — and nobody inside your company has it.
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