Doing business is difficult enough without having to reach for the urban dictionary and thesaurus. In an effort to outdo competitors, it’s easy to become bogged down in over the top descriptions, adjectives and buzzwords. Stating your company will ‘provide innovative human resource solutions’ makes it harder for potential customers to connect with your message when ‘find the right person for the job’ says it all simply and clearly. Over-complicated sentences can confuse, mislead or simply bore the reader.
The use of buzzwords and phrases can also very quickly date sales and marketing content. Terminology which sounded so very on trend six months ago may now sound stale and old-fashioned. Using copy full of current slang or jargon creates a need for constant copy maintenance, and may take a significant amount of time and resources away from your core business to do so.
On websites, the amount of copy is also relevant. Studies by the Nielsen Gorman Group found that too much content was one of the biggest turn-offs for web users. People want plainly stated facts and if they can’t find them quickly, they leave a website in a hurry.
Web content fall into two categories: that which states exactly what the customer needs to know about a product or service (weight, dimensions, cost, colours) and that of the ‘Wow, I didn’t know that’ variety (proven outcomes, interesting alternative uses for a product, options for purchase) which engage the customer and hold them on a site for much longer.
Too many facts that are off the topic will only irritate the reader. Bulking up content with irrelevant detail loses potential customers too time poor to wade through it all.
You can keep readers’ attention by using relevant facts, simply stated. Giving people what they want to know in a short space of time can make your content a winner.