I could still recall
days of writing telegrams. That was before fax machine, internet and email. Writing a telegram meant economy of words and so obvious verbs and needless adjectives had to be omitted.Today, with advent of email and other cheap sources of communication you don't have to be that paranoid about your message-except you are writing an advertisement. When writing a classified ad for example, every word must count in small space allowed and so word choice becomes very important.
But word choice is not only about being brief.
Even when crafting a long sales letter you should try and avoid using personal pronouns: "we, me, I, our,us". The sales message should be about your prospects and not about your company. The "we syndrome" is a common error but it can easily be avoided. A sales message should state upfront benefit to customer not parade how many awards company has received in past ten years. Whenever possible then copy should be written in third person.
There are some other words that are very common in advertising but are just too vague to have any force. Great copy is always specific. "How to make $3,567.23 from your home in 30 days!" has more force than "How to make money from home." Here are some commonly used words that lack force because their meaning is too ethereal:
"It" - State what "it" is rather than leave "it" for reader to figure out. This word can often be replaced by what 'it' represents or stands in place of.
"Quality" - This has a similar meaning to "personality". We often hear people say that someone has personality. But everyone has a personality whether good or bad. The same holds for quality. Every product or service has some quality which customer will be ultimate judge of.
Superlatives such as "tastiest, best, fastest, strongest, superior, minimize, optimize". The problem with these words is that they instill doubt in readers because these claims appear unsubstantiated. These words lack power because they are not measurable. Take word "superior" for example. What criterion or measurement was used to judge this product as superior and by how much?
"Solution" - This word cannot stand on its own. If you are selling a product or service it is also obvious that you are selling solution to a problem, so state what solution is rather than just using word.
