Stop the Madness!

Stop the Madness!
Or, why hype, hyperbole and too many claims
will turn off readers and potential buyers every time!

What's wrong with a lot of hype and "fantastic" claims about a product? Plenty.

· First, your readers and potential buyers aren't stupid, so don't talk to them as if they were.
· Don't make a claim you can't authenticate with documentation or an objective test. This is fairly simple – it means don't lie.
· Finally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is relentlessly on the lookout for consumer fraud – advertisers selling but not delivering what they promise.

Know your limitations
There are plenty of "hypers" out there, selling a "miracle" pill, weight-loss machine, slicer/dicer, you name it. But just take the time to look closely at the next 20 or so ads, articles and web pages you see and you'll very likely realize that most companies play it safe.

Why? Simply because the smart and successful organizations want your business and your repeat business – and they want you to tell your friends to do business with them as well. Repeat and referral customers form a company's foundation, while first-time and one-time customers are often acquired at a loss.

Fuzzy just won't do
Don't make a claim and surround it with vague qualifiers. It's far preferable to concentrate your efforts on claims that are honest and objective – ones that can be tested and proven to be true or false.

If you make a claim about your product or service, the FTC expects that you have the ability to fulfill your promises. In fact, the law states that substantiation must be based on fact and objective evaluation, not opinion or ambiguity. So here's what "fuzzy" will get you – prospective buyers who are turned off, and a possible lawsuit. And if those all-important, existing customers lose faith in you, they'll likely take their business elsewhere.

Allison Nazarian is president and chief copywriter of Get It In Writing, a Florida-based company that helps businesses nationwide harness the power of words to sell, inform and publicize. Allison can be reached at 561.487.3917 or anazarian@getitinwriting.biz.

Copyright© Get It In Writing, Inc. May be reprinted without permission of Get It In Writing, Inc and Allison Nazarian if in full, unchanged format and with complete attribution to author.