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The Content De-CrapifierFebruary 26th, 2008
Last year, MidMarketer developed a fun little tool we called the Content De-Crapifier. You’ve most likely heard of “bullshit bingo” or some of the other games that you can play at work to identify the crap words people always seem to throw around. It so easy though, to quickly add or throw in a quick “solution,” “global” or “synergy” into our marketing copy. It makes the content more valuable, right? No. Using these words waters down our messages and often distracts from what we’re really trying to communicate. Just a few of the crap words:
- Client focused- versus a self-absorbed money-focused organization?
- Dynamic- versus boring dolt?
- Robust- ok if you make or sell coffee
- World-Class- versus local-class or no class?
I wanted to give marketers some easy way to catch these words and take it a bit further, so the Content De-Crapifier was born. You simply paste in your marketing copy, and the De-Crapifier runs it against the “crap” database, highlights the crap and then (this is the “taking it further” part) offers suggestions.
A quick example… “Best of Breed.” How many times have you read or heard that from a company? I’ve heard it hundreds of times. What are they talking about? This one is such a great example, we ended up making a two-page sheet that people can download and print out- all of the crap words. The document is aptly named “Best-of-Breed is great if you’re a Poodle.”
Even if you identify these crap words, the harder part is replacing them with some valuable (valuable to your audience, that is) content. A great example of this is the crap word “robust.” So… your software is ROBUST, huh? OK, the first step is to get rid of the word. But then, the suggestion is to push your communication further. What parts or aspects of your software make it strong or sturdy? Talk about those versus just taking the easy path of using crap.
Identifying these words and replacing them is a tough, but needed task. Once you get in the habit of looking for them and fixing your content, you’ll be a happier and more successful marketer. Your audience will appreciate it as well!
You can download the crap word list or try the de-crapifier here.
Posted by Dan Swartz
Posted in: Misc.
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