We all want ways to simplify and codify what we do – to turn a process involving instinct and empathy into something measurable and repeatable. So we bash out these strongly held catch-all views, as if demonstrating our expertise was the same as making everyone else out to be inferior.
Telling other copywriters which words are allowed is bland and boring. What’s significantly more interesting is looking at why these buzzwords continue to creep in, even when every copywriter vows to never use them.
Let’s talk about innovative solutions
I work with a lot of freelance clients in the tech space, taking complex, technical ideas and distilling it down into something human and benefit driven. In that world, ‘solutions’ is almost unavoidable – it’s there in the briefs, it’s there in the structure and navigation of a website, and it’s sometimes there in the copy.
Why? Because it’s an authentic word that people are using. And that makes it a word we might have to use.
When you’re sitting in an endless Teams meeting as part of a project, people use the word ‘solutions’ all the time. I think there are a few key reasons:
- Habit. People hear it and repeat it to match vocabulary with their colleagues.
- Evasion. People are trying to avoid other words that are equally bland, like software.
- Value. ‘Product’ brings to mind a commodity; something sold back and forth at low value. ‘Solution’ is an attempt to make a product sound more sophisticated.
- Striving for benefits. People are trying to extend to a benefit – if we say ‘software,’ it’s just software. If we say ‘solutions,’ we’re implying that we solve a problem.
- Breadth. When you can do twenty different things for your customers, a word like ‘solutions’ is vague enough to capture them all without really getting into the specifics.
Together, those factors make ‘solutions’ a bit of well-worn jargon that people actually use. It’s the language inside the business; it’s also the language you’ll find customers adopting wherever they hang out. Is it any surprise that it slips into the copy, too?
Adopting or avoiding jargon with intent
The issue isn’t using words like ‘solutions,’ not really. It’s using them accidentally and incidentally, filling a space with a low-effort word you haven’t considered. That’s not what a good copywriter does. Anyone worth their salt is carefully weighing up the words they choose and using them with real intention.
If there’s one overarching goal, copywriters need to mirror the language and vocabulary of their prospects. You need to meet your audience where they are, speaking the same way they do, to build rapport, trust, and engagement. And sometimes that means using technical terms or words that have become cliché. And that’s fine with me (as long as you did it on purpose).
Equally, removing the jargon takes an intentional approach. It’s not enough to blanket outlaw certain words because someone in the marketing team has decided they’re worthless. Not if they’re still the words that crop up on every phone call and in every meeting. That’s inauthentic – and that breeds distrust with your potential customers.
When you remove potential words, you get nowhere. When you offer a better alternative, it’s easier to shift how people speak and, in turn, write.
That’s where strong messaging platforms and style guides come in. Nobody should be desperately reaching for ways to describe what you do; they should be supported by clear, re-usable bits of copy that tell them exactly what to say and how to say it. These references show people what good looks like, which words you use, and which words you avoid. It remains mind-blowing to me that so few established brands can tell me in a single sentence how they describe what they do. And that leaves all the other people that write for the business – the internal comms teams, the marketing folk – out there to fend for themselves.
I’ve worked on loads of guidelines to help brands know what to say and how to say it – read about those projects here.
