Make Sure You're Not Misusing This Word

by Glenn Fisher

It’s damaging.

It’s disingenuous.

And for me it’s a sign that you’ve either hired a lazy (or even bad) copywriter...

Or worse, your product or service is weak.

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And all this thanks to the misuse of one simple word!

Don’t worry though; it’s a simple fix...

Make sure you’re not misusing this word

Whether you write sales copy yourself or if you need to review others’ copy for your own business; being able to spot the misuse of this word will significantly increase how effective that copy is.

So, what’s the word that’s so often misused?

The word that will stunt your sales?

It’s ‘unique’.

"But Glenn, that’s one of the ‘Four Us’. A good piece of sales copy should be useful, ultra-specific, urgent and... unique!"

Indeed, it should. You’re exactly right.

But you should not just state that something is unique. The key is to state WHY it is unique.

Now, my hair is pretty unique.

I doubt there’s another person out there who’s wearing the exact same number of strands that are all the exact same length as mine and are all going off in the exact same directions.

Yes, my hair is unique.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good.

In fact, it’s quite bad.

But whatever Vidal Sassoon might think of my hairstyle is irrelevant. The important thing is that you realise that simply stating something is unique is not enough.

Good copywriting must go deeper.

If I was trying to say why you should like my hair, I might say it’s quite thick. It’s medium brown. There’s not much grey.

When I was a kid I could use it to cover up my ears, which used to stick out a bit.

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Nowadays, if it gets too long it starts getting a bit curly.

You see, by digging a little deeper behind WHY something is unique, you start to pull out interesting details.

Let’s apply that theory to a product or service...

You’ve just got to dig that little bit deeper

Say Richie Forbes comes to you and says: I’ve got a betting service for you.

Good stuff, you say, but why should I be bothered about your betting service over the hundreds of others available out there.

Because it’s unique, he says.

You slap him in the face and tell him to get real.

Then, once you’ve calmed down, you ask the all important question...

Why is it unique?

Aha!

Well, there’s the fact that you only need to place your bets on a Friday before you have your lunch.

Interesting...

And then there’s the fact that the bets are based on statistics and very niche elements of a football match like corners, number of goals scored, red and yellow cards and so on.

Right. Now we’re getting somewhere.

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Those interesting little details are starting to come out.

And it’s these interesting little details that will make a sales message much, much stronger.

If those interesting details are missing from your sales copy, if it just says ‘XYZ is unique’...

You need to go back to the product or service and dig deeper.

Keep digging until you uncover that special detail that makes the product or service stand out and then use that detail to strengthen your sales message.

If you’ve got a good product or service, a product or service that you believe in, the special details that do make it unique will soon reveal themselves.

You just need to tease them out.