Superman has his Kryptonite

Earlier this week we started a series on copywriting, and on Monday I told you the #1 marketing sin in copy, what my mentor Bill Glazer calls Copy Kryptonite. To review the tip, visit the blog. Below we’ll discuss more copy kryptonite.

Again, thanks to Bill Glazer for allowing me to borrow his term, Copy Kryptonite. There really is no better way to describe these copywriting sins. We’ll go over one that virtually guarantee your copy will suffer.

First, one that I see often and that’s writing from a ‘me’ perspective. You’ve seen this and you’ve probably even done it yourself:

“We’ve been in business for 37 years…”
“We’ve got the most state of the art…”
“We’re the #1 supplier to…”

Blah, blah blah. Boring and WHO CARES. You need to write your copy from a ‘you’ perspective, they ‘you’ being your customer. Here’s a tip, take all the ‘we’ statements and turn them into you statements. BIG tip, turn those you statements from features, to the BENEFITS your customer
will get from the ‘we’ statements.

Here’s how we do it for our retail supply business when we sell point-of-sale computer systems (POS). We’ve been selling and supporting POS systems since 1991, and have installed over 1,000 systems for retailers. Big whoop, right? We turn around and make that a benefit for the client using ‘you’ statements.

For example:

You’ll want the service and support of years of experience and 1,000’s of set up and installations so you’ll never be alone and never have to worry about your technical support abandoning you on a moment’s notice, leaving you standing around wondering what to do.”

See how we took what could’ve been a bunch of ‘we’ statements, and turned them into ‘you’ statements.

Here’s a challenge for you. Go through some of your sales material and see how many times you say ‘we’ vs. ‘you.’ Then go and turn all those ‘we’ statements to ‘you’ statements with a benefit to your client. It’s easier than it sounds and will make a huge difference.