Sometimes I wonder who these people are that write the marketing copy. Do they really think that we are impressed when they say things like:
We are passionate about what we do. And, we are really excited to announce . . .
Aaargghh. Stop. Please.
Do you think they would ever say:
We used to be passionate about what we do, but to be honest, now we are drones who
just sit around and yawn and wish the day would be done so we could go home.
- - or - -
We are pretty bored with what we do, but we keep doing it anyway, because hey, a job is
a job, right?
When we see the same tired tropes every day, they become meaningless. I’ve always hated press releases that started with “we're excited to . . . “ In my first software company, I actually banned the use of “we're excited . . . “ It was not allowed. Ever.
In fact, I’m very excited to announce that this policy is also in effect with the new Silicon Beach Software. None of our product or marketing materials will ever contain this phrase. (I promise, this blog post is the last time you’ll see the phrase from us.)
And do you see what I mean? Who on earth would actually be excited about announcing a simple, straightforward policy? I’m not actually excited, to be honest, but I am pleased that I can once again implement this policy. I will admit that it does give me a certain amount of satisfaction to not subject people to this trite phrase.
Instead, I like to just talk to everyone, in a normal conversational style. A real person telling another real person something that will hopefully be a little bit interesting. For example, it’s not over-hyping to say that SaviDraw is the first program to have voice commands as shortcuts. It’s a simple, straight-forward fact. And, hopefully interesting to people because it’s something new.
I also like to under promise and over deliver. I find that if I do that, then people will actually get a bit excited about our products. And that's what we’re after – our customers getting excited, not us getting excited about a press release. I mean, c’mon, excited about a press release??
I remember once that I took a tech support call and after taking care of his questions, the gentleman said, “what are you working on, what’s your next product?” I told him we couldn’t pre-announce products anymore because things were getting very competitive and then he said, “well, let me know what it is, because I'll buy it.” I was taken aback a bit and said, “how do you know you’ll want to buy it when you don’t even know what it is?” His answer: “If it’s from Silicon Beach Software, I'll buy it.” I will never forget that moment.
And right then, I knew that we were doing something right.
I think it was under promise and over deliver.
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