Tried and tested (read: overused)

In copywriting, we have to capture attention and hang onto it. One of the greatest criticisms of marketing is that it tells people what they want to hear, rather than the truth. Here's a case in point.

I'm writing copy for a product that provides "unique professional insights."

How hackneyed is that? These days, everything's unique. In the world of self-publishing, personal branding, reality TV, make-your-own, and social media, unique is no longer a selling point. Well, it's not much of a selling point.

What is? Things that are communicated with less overused terms. Terms like:

• rare
• glowing
• compelling
• striking
  

Things like:

• intuition
• ability
• listening
• vision
  

Word choice matters. If you want people to sit up and take notice, sometimes you have to forget what's tried and tested, and instead opt for the new and far more intriguing.

And sometimes, you have to shape the truth.

The product I'm writing about actually has unique professional insights, but instead I'm calling them "rare" (a misnomer, I think), and talking about the creator's "unique perspective". It's a bit of a mashup, and it's a bit hazy on the accuracy front, but it's better than the same old, same old.