It’s a cruel fate that the expert knowledge that enables you to offer a great service or product to clients could be the very thing stopping people from finding out more about you or buying.

Boy it makes me mad. *Shakes fist*

Oh wait, I’m not mad with you, none of this is your fault, it’s that fabulous intelligence of yours coupled with the quirks of copywriting that’s doing it.

But it doesn’t change the fact that your expertise could be the reason you’re not seeing traction with your marketing copy. Why you’re not getting the leads you want or the sales from your marketing campaigns.

So what could be causing it? Well, one of the common reasons I see a lot of smart people fall prey to is…

Playing “Guess The Silent Song” (when your customer keeps losing)

Back when my parents were young they used to play a game with friends (after a few drinks) called ‘Guess The Silent Song.’

One person would sing a song in their head while remaining silent (they could bob their head to the beat and for emphasis). The others had to try and guess what the song was.

I know.

Now, how often do you think the players guessed the song correctly? Not very often is absolutely the right answer.

The scary thing (other than the genes I inherited) is that you might well be playing the same game with your customer without even knowing it.

It happens when you take for granted that your customer knows the same information as you when it’s unlikely that they do.

For example, look at the below copy:

Why attend the conference? 

Learn best-practice from the experience of other industries. Network with your peers and the industry’s foremost thinkers and access exclusive research developed by our expert, international speakers. 

This was taken from a marketing brochure for a niche industry conference. It sounds very much like what is written for a lot of B2B conference marketing materials I’ve help rework.

So what’s the problem?

Well, as you might have already guess, on face value this information tells us nothing.

There are no selling points because there is no specific information. This style of copy is the equivalent of my mum nodding her head to a song only she knows while dad tries to work out the tune and melody.

It’s not going to happen.

The problem is that the writer knows all the specifics. They know what best-practice techniques will be shared, who the leading experts are, which well-known companies attendees will be able to meet.

But they’re not sharing this information with the most important person: someone deciding whether or not they’re interested enough to attend. 

If you suspect you might be falling foul of this intelligence affliction, here’s a quick rule of thumb you can use when reviewing your copy.

When reading your copy ask yourself if every line tells your customer something specific about your product or service. 

 If you’re describing your product as ‘high-quality’, what does that mean? That you meet set industry standards? That you have a 98% recommendation rate by previous customers?

Share this knowledge with customers in your copy and make sure you avoid playing the ‘Silent Song’ game with your customers. (Feel free to play it with friends and family!)

Want more practical tips to stop you writing ‘yeah-yeah’ copy and get you writing ‘tell me more!’ content? Write With Influence will be opening it’s doors shortly to new members. It’s awesome. But don’t let me make you play the Silent Song game, click here to read more about it.