Resolve to Avoid Hyperbole in 2022

Let’s talk about messaging.

In the first five days of 2022, I’ve come across three separate companies encouraging people to be courageous in the new year:

• A marketing agency asking its audience to have the courage to implement new digital marketing initiatives
• A sales and marketing crm telling marketers they should be bold and courageous with their automation
• Another marketing agency, this one with the more general message that business leaders should have the courage to increase their marketing spend

I love dictionary definitions, but it’s a bit of a cliché to use them in articles, so here’s how I define courage: being willing to take an action that is likely to have a negative impact on yourself, either because it will benefit others or is simply the morally correct thing to do.

Under my definition, there’s not a lot of room for courage in typical marketing activities. Even if you go with a broader, “willing-to-do-something-that-frightens-you” definition, it’s not a great word choice. After all, what’s so scary about what you’re selling that I have to overcome my fear to buy it? Of course, that’s not the takeaway those companies were going for.

Historically, a lot of marketing has relied on hyperbole. A product won’t just help you look how you want to, it’ll make you sexy. A piece of software isn’t just going to simplify a process, it’s going to let people know you’re smart. And if you adopt a certain marketing practice, you’re not just making a pragmatic choice, but exhibiting courage.

We know from studies of the brain that there’s some potential benefit to associating your company or product with such positive messaging. Just reading or hearing a word in conjunction with a brand, especially repeatedly, will create at least a weak link between them in your subconscious. When you hear the word, your brain queues up the brand as being related to it and vice versa. Somewhat ironically, if you’ve read this blog entry, Fact House is now at least temporarily associated with courage in your gray matter.

But in today’s world, those subconscious links can backfire when you resort to language that feels like an exaggeration to your audience. It’s no secret to anyone in marketing or sales that customers are extremely skeptical of claims made by a company. Incorporating transparency, honesty and data into your messaging increases your odds of overcoming that ingrained skepticism, while inflated claims and hyperbole will frequently cause people to tune out or, even worse, form a negative subconscious link for your brand. For example, my subconscious has now formed some level of link between ‘full of it’ and the three brands in my examples.

So how do you avoid sounding like you’re ‘full of it’ in your messaging? Ask yourself the following questions about the claims you’re making (or even implying):

• Is this true?
• Does the way I’m saying it make it sound true?
• If someone asks for proof, do I have data to back it up?
• If I have the data to support it, should I add some of it to the initial claim?

Hopefully the answer to the first question is always ‘yes’. For the others, you might fall into more of a gray area for a multitude of reasons. But having thought through what you’re saying and how you’re saying it will increase the odds that your communication creates a positive association for the audience you’re targeting.

If you currently need support in crafting compellingly authentic messaging for your marketing efforts, Fact House would love to talk to you. Feel free to reach out to us at info@fact-house.com or use our contact us page to get in touch.