A Near Disaster - I Almost Used "That Word" in Copy
I am with Marte on this one. The phrase "call me for all of your real estate needs" just sends chills up my spine. To me it's pointless, shows a lack of thought process and shows that someone has not given much thought to the services that they really provide. Can you please stop using that phrase? Why not just your name, phone number & title. If someone wants to contact you for a real estate services, it won't be because of your plea: call me with all of your real estate needs. One way for anyone to get me to NOT call them is to have a tag line line that says "call me for all of your _________ needs.
No – it’s not a 4-letter word. It’s not even an off-color word to most people.
But to me as a copywriter, it is a dirty word. It’s the sign of a lazy copywriter – one who can’t think of what to say or doesn't want to be bothered with saying it. Or worse, one who has nothing to say. Or perhaps one who doesn’t know what the heck she’s talking about so needs a filler.
Every time I see this word jumping out at me from a newspaper ad or an
email, I SWEAR that I will never, ever, ever use it in my own copy – and there it almost was.
Now I realize it does fit once in a while – just not most of the time.
What is this offensive word? "Needs."
Most of the time, it either doesn’t mean anything or it’s so all-encompassing that it’s a lie.
For instance, when a real estate agent puts an ad in the newspaper saying “See me for all your real estate needs.” Now, come on. No one agent can or would handle every kind of real estate in every location. That’s just silly.
Our local accountant’s ad says she can take care of all your bookkeeping needs and the hardware store ad says they can meet all your hardware needs. I kinda liked the old hardware store ad. The previous owner said “If I don’t have it and I can’t get it, you don’t need it.” I guess that took care of “needs.”
Business after business promises to "take care of all your (fill in the blank) needs."
When does it fit in real estate? When you’re asking your buyer to make a list of his or her housing wants and needs.
If you want your message to be effective, drop the “needs.”
Take the time to tell your audience what you have to offer. If it doesn’t fit in one neat little sentence, write more sentences. Or more paragraphs. Or even more letters or web pages.
But don't try to cover it all with just one word, because in trying to cover it all, you cover nothing.
Image courtesy of Dreamstine.
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