Avoid Messaging Karaoke

This is actual copy, cut and pasted from the home page of an actual public accounting firm:

<Name> is a full-service, certified public accounting practice located in <city> whose objective is to provide timely and accurate professional services. The firm was established in 2002. <Name> is a growing firm and has the capacity available to professionally service new accounts.

This is a press release that landed in my inbox five minutes ago from a Fortune 500 … uh … “solution”:

Released today, <name> enables businesses to monitor consumer online chat about their brand and competition, and take action to improve their performance and provide a differentiated customer experience.

And another press release:

We have a proven ability to deliver highly impactful results for our clients by leveraging a variety of data sources and advanced analytic approaches.

One more. This is from a LinkedIn company page profile:

<Name> is a contemporary, future-focused consulting services company equipped for the next era of business with the latest in management thinking and enabled by cutting-edge Web technology and services. We are building innovative next generation business models and performance improvement capabilities for large corporations highly differentiated by a commingling of new and emerging specialized competencies.

All those buzzwords make me feel sad for the poor copywriters. They were likely browbeaten into corporate conformity by a wrongheaded stakeholder.

The worst part of all of those examples isn't just the buzzword bouillabaisse. The worst part is they could be describing a hundred different companies, rather than one unique company.

It's what I call Messaging Karaoke: a bunch of companies singing the same exhausted words and tired phrases.

What sets you apart? What's unique about your story?

Don't tell me what you do.

Show me who you are—and then show me why you matter to me.

How to Avoid Messaging Karaoke

“What if … there were a law firm that made life easier for you?” asks the home page of Levenfeld Pearlstein, a Chicago law firm.

Right away you see that Levenfeld Pearlstein is not like other law firms. It seeks to build business relationships with clients as trusted strategic advisers—not just as guns-for-hire lawyers.

And it weaves that client-centric story throughout everything the firm does—from the home page copy to hiring to case work and more.

There's a lot to love how LP tells that lawyer-as-your-partner story throughout its marketing.

I love the brand voice on its website; for example: “We offer the same level of skill and expertise without the bitter big-firm aftertaste.” Professional—but relatable.

But I particularly enjoy its About Us page. LP calls it “Our Talent,” as if the attorneys have side hustles as supermodels.

The firm noticed that the attorney profile pages were the most visited on its site. That makes sense, right? If you want to hire an attorney, you want to know exactly whom you are hiring.

So the firm created a series of partner profile videos to elevate the attorney bios. But here's the interesting part: The firm interviewed its attorneys not with usual questions, like Tell me about a recent case or Where did you go to school?

Instead, it asked unusual questions about unconventional topics: What did you want to be when you were little? If you could time-travel, where would you go? What is your most prized possession? What's your personal motto?

“My personal motto is Lead where you are,” Angie Hickey says in one video on that Our Talent page. She's a strategic adviser and former CEO of the firm.

“Leadership” isn't a job title, Angie says, adding: “I believe everyone has an opportunity to influence those around them.”

The video is nicely shot. But it's not scripted or overly produced: There are a few umms and ahs. But it's real. And it's perfect because Angie speaks from her heart. She's showing you who she is and (by extension) who the law firm is.

That approach is unusual for a professional services firm. And that's intentional. LP's Our Talent page extends the overall story the law firm tells:

• They are here for you in extraordinary ways.
• They obsess over relationships.
• They're showing—not telling—who they are, and what makes them different.

And all of that rolls into how they do their work.

* * *

Your own story is like Miracle-Gro, fertilizing whatever content marketing or social presence you ultimately create.

Articulate yours. Write it down. Apply it like Levenfeld Pearlstein does.

Your story will align marketing externally, and align writers and content creators internally.

It'll get everyone on the same page, in that every person creating content on your behalf will look through your story lens, metaphorically speaking, and ask: Is this telling our bigger story? Is this content steeped in our larger mission?

Ask yourself these questions as a starting point to avoid Messaging Karaoke and instead craft your story:

1. What is unique about our business?
2. What's interesting about how our business was founded?
3. What's interesting about the founder(s)?
4. What problem is our company trying to solve for others?
5. What inspired our business?
6. What aha! moments has our company had?
7. How has our business evolved?
8. How do we feel about our business, our customers, ourselves?
9. What's an unobvious way to tell our story? Can we look to analogy instead of example?
10. What do we consider normal and boring that other folks would think is cool?
11. What's our vision? How will our company change the world?

That last question is especially salient, because it's central to your bigger story:

• How will you change the world … even a little bit?
• How will you make it better for all of us?