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Put. down. the. thesaurus.
Yeah, I’m talking to you. All you’re doing with that thing is making yourself sound silly. You’re not impressing anyone with your inextricably complicated vocabulary (see what I did there) - it’s just not the way into your reader’s heart.
I get though. I used to love using my thesaurus at school, especially studying communications. Using long sentences with big beautiful sounding words made me feel intellectual and I figured the more I could chuck in an essay, the more my professor would think I was the next Hemingway. But really, all it was doing was making me sound like I was trying too hard. And obviously, I was. If I had to look up a word, it wasn’t part of my vocabulary.
Here’s the trick to actually sounding smart- - stop trying to sound smart!
Powerful writing is lean and clean. If your reader has to pull out a dictionary to finish your email, you’re doing something wrong. If they get caught up in paragraph-long sentences and can’t catch a breath, you’re making it too difficult.
The value your audience gets from your writing should be placed at the top of your priorities. Meaning - don’t write to please yourself. Be direct so they don’t have to search around for the meaning (or definitions) behind your copy.
When you’re going out of your way to use big words and long sentence structures, your writing is going to feel overworked. And when it feels heavy and forced like that, it’s not going to be enjoyable to read.
That doesn’t mean your writing has to be a snooze fest. There’s room for creativity. There’s room to be playful. Just don’t make it ALL about the “art” of writing. Your main objective is to help your readers realise they MUST purchase your products and services and the best way to do that is to communicate as cleanly and simply as possible.
Think about explaining the process of Laser Hair Removal.
Below is likely similar to what you read when you bought your laser machine, right?
"With the aid of advanced technology, a specialised laser device shall emit concentrated beams of light, penetrating the epidermal layer to selectively target the melanin in the hair follicles. This precise energy absorption shall result in the thermal destruction of the follicles, inhibiting their ability to regrow hair."
Which is correct, and important info when researching your investment, but as someone that simply wants their underarm hair gone, do I need to know so many technical terms? Probably not.
Instead, we take the integral pieces of information that a consumer (not a skin therapist) needs to know to make a purchasing decision, and turn on the 'lean and clean' mode. This gives us something like:
“Our laser emits light that's absorbed by the pigment in your hair. It converts into heat, destroying the root so your unwanted hair can't grow back.”
Less words, but a stronger message.
Word count is not how you measure good copy - especially if your words don’t add value. Which is why this is the end of this blog because I've said everything I need to say.
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