When I first started writing, there was this voice in the back of my head that kept asking the same question over and over again.
I let this question change how I wrote. It made me doubt myself.
Quite frankly, it made me a worse writer.
Do I sound 'professional' enough?
At the time it felt like a sensible question to be asking myself. After all, professional is a good thing, right?
Looking back though, the issue wasn't that I wanted to sound professional. The issue was that I wanted to sound like everyone else. I wanted to sound like one of the 'big boys'.
The problem is that I wasn't everyone else. I wasn't a 'big boy', and I didn't want to be.
'Professional' = generic
The honest truth is that I wasn't trying to be 'professional', I was trying to be generic, because there is a comfort in generic. Generic is safe, and easy.
It's why when a new band or artist blows up, hundreds of imitators with similar sounds get signed and pushed down our throats.
It's why every barbershop I see nowadays is decorated like a gentleman's club from the 1920's.
That's not to say that safe is bad, because it's not. Safe is safe. But safe has one fundamental flaw.
Safe doesn't stand out
Which brings me to one of the biggest mistakes I see new startup companies doing, over and over.
Their website is full of generic web copy. Headlines and statements that could apply to a hundred or even a thousand other companies or competitors.
The web is full of landing pages promising to "Boost your team communication", "Make reporting easy", or the most cliched of them all; "Get organised".
But if you show me one of those headlines, I'll show you pages and pages of Google searches promising the exact same thing.
"But Company X does it, and they're a huge success..."
This is an argument I've heard countless times, but it's backwards.
The truth is that Company X can afford to have generic copy, because people have already heard of them.
No-one is signing up to Slack, Todoist or Jira because of the heading on their landing page. The chances are that the visitor knows full well who they are, and what they do, and they're either there to register, or to check certain features and details.
You're probably not Company X
If you are, congratulations! You don't need to give a shit about my advice, you've already made it.
You're probably not though. If you're reading this then you're likely part of a new company, a startup, or an indie hacker trying to get eyes on their product.
And if you're one of these, the last thing you want to be is generic!
You want to stand out, you want to grab the reader with something meaningful from the first sentence.
Every line of copy should make the reader want to read the next line.
How to avoid being generic
It's definitely easier said than done sometimes. It's easy to lean on these cookie cutter statements when you're not sure what to write.
I've got a few things you can do though to help you to focus your web copy.
1. Who does this apply to?
The first thing to do is take your web copy, especially something like your H1's and H2's, and then run as many companies you can think of through it like a filter.
If your copy applies to a bunch of other companies or tools, it's probably too generic.
2. Does it directly address a problem my target demographic face?
The next question is focused directly on your target market. People want you to solve a problem of theirs, and your web copy is your opportunity to tell them which problem it is you're solving.
If you're not talking about a problem of theirs, they're probably not going to keep reading. Focus on one problem at a time, and confidently tell the reader that you're the best solution.
3. Ask people what they think you do
This is a really cheap and easy trick. Find some people that have no idea what it is your business is or does, show them your web copy, then ask them what they think you do.
If the answer they give back is vague or confused, it's a good indicator that your copy is too generic.
If their answer is a good representation of what you do, you're probably on the right path.
It helps if these people are within your target demographic, but it's fine if they're not. If the only people you have access to are the people sat around you in the coffee shop, that'll do just fine.
4. When in doubt, test!
A/B testing is your best friend when it comes to web copy. It's easy to set up something like Google Optimize on your site, then you can test different variants and ideas quickly.
If you're concerned that your copy is too generic, write two variants that are more specific to the problems you're solving, add them to your A/B testing tool, and see which is most affective.
I guarantee you'll see better results with the more specific variants, but this way you'll know which one resonates better with the reader.
Personality matters
The last thing I want to say on this topic is that despite our inner instincts, people don't want 'professional'. They don't want generic. They want to see your personality.
If we've not heard of a company before, then we seek a connection. A reason to like or even dislike the company or product.
If you put personality into your copy, then people can form an opinion of you. Sure, some people may decide you're not for them, and that's fine. But some people will decide to give you a chance because you made them smile, or because you showed that you're not a faceless organisation, but a group of people (or maybe just one person) who wants to help them.
Because at the end of the day, that's exactly who you are.
