How to Avoid Platitudes in Your Marketing Communications

Using platitudes is one of the quickest ways to devalue your marketing efforts. Even excellent production and deployment cannot help an advertisement if its content is generic and unengaging. Your marketing efforts should focus on the unique ways in which your product or service is essential to consumers and platitudes do nothing to differentiate your company from the competition. Despite this major hazard, platitudes are very common in business. We have tips for correcting common platitudes and making your messaging more effective.

Don't make hollow claims.

If you assert something about your business, provide evidence or a sound argument or else it's just a platitude. Every company can claim to have the fastest service in town, but if they don't attach a value to that claim, it doesn't help the customer make a decision. By adding proof, you can turn a platitude into a valuable marketing asset and assure customers that your marketing is true and in good faith.

Identify your unique values to the customer.

Your advertising should distinguish you from the crowd, not make you blend in. Advertising on the same strengths as your competitors is a common platitude that leads to wasted marketing dollars. Give consumers a reason that your specific product or service excels over the others.

Don't be obvious.

It’s inefficient to use your marketing materials to describe basic services. Your advertising should give customers new information that makes them more likely to choose you. Featuring information that customers already know in your advertisements is a platitude. Don't waste your money and your customers’ time with repetition. Instead, focus on engaging them with something they haven't heard.

Platitudes are still so common because they’re easy, but you get out what you put in when it comes to marketing content. If you take the easy way, customers won't have any reason to choose your business over all the others making the same claims. Take the time to turn platitudes into unique, valuable information and your business will stand out.