The theme for this week is concrete language – language that creates a very clear vision in your audience’s mind.
Businesses – especially service businesses – tend to use vague language when describing their business often because they want to make sure they cover all potential customers and markets.
The truth is (and this is totally cliche but true) if you try to speak to everyone you speak to no one.
It’s much more powerful to be very specific and speak to one ideal client well, rather than in general terms to many.
Here’s an example of a vague tagline:
We help businesses brand better.
This is great, but shit – there are so many types of businesses and even the word “brand” doesn’t really tell us what you do. Are you a designer? Are you a… what are you?
How about these?
We design websites for death metal bands.
We write taglines for plumbers.
We do logos for people named Jeff.
All of these companies help businesses brand better and you better believe anyone named Jeff is getting their logo done with you!
Be as specific as you can be. It’s a sliding scale that should feel appropriate to what you actually do.
And the bigger you are and the more marketing power you have the more leeway you have.
But if you’re a small business, the general rule is: Be specific. Be concrete.
