He took since 2013 comparing copywriting with the masterry I love to use this metaphor.
draw with words is a wonderful resource for creating engaging, exciting, and personal copy (so far #1 creative writing tip). And this is more necessary than ever in the era of INDIFFERENCE, in which we see brands that look like clones and give the same generic responses:
- «Your goals are our goals».
- «We help you achieve success».
- «Made with love».
- «go up to the next level».
- «Your trusted company».
I know, you yawn too just reading these messages.
What will you find in this post?
These headlines, which a priori they sound good, they are the ones that lead a person to think that your product or service is not what they need or that your company and even you are not trustworthy due to rigid, automatic and lazy written texts.
Texts that wave without you noticing a beige flag that indicates that your personal or commercial brand is soporific or uninteresting.
What is a beige flag?
behold a new concept that TikTok and the new generations have given us. A term that has gone viral thanks to the tiktoker @itscaito.
The beige flags are those warning signs that usually indicate that the conversation you are going to have with the other person will be bored and that the possible date may not come to fruition.
Examples of beige flags on dating apps?
- Offer generic or cliché responses in the description or at the beginning of the conversation, such as “I enjoy a sunset” or “My favorite plan is sofa, blanket and Netflix”.
- talk about the typical best sellers that everyone likes and that they do not allow to get something more personal about you.
- Profiles half complete.
This content creator called on her followers a few months ago to put more effort into dating apps and post more attractive profiles.
And it is wonderful for me to bring this concept here and extrapolate it to the business world, because, after all, in love as in business we seek the same thing.
We want to find someone with whom we have a CONNECTION.
If you dive a few minutes on the internet, you will realize the number of beige brands that we find.
Most of the texts you read on the internet are photocopies.
We see rigid, automatic texts written without passion.
And isn’t passion what we have left over when we decide to create a company and start selling our products or services?
We go through life saying that we are not typical and we are not aware of the tone with which we are presenting ourselves to the world.
So I started talking about it and sharing everything I think about the copy that brands write in general.
New podcast: “Beige flags or signs that you are a boring brand”
- 00:00 – Why I have been comparing copywriting with love for 10 years
- 01:50 – What are beige flags on dating apps vs. beige flags in the business world
- 05:30 – What is it that makes you become a brand in the crowd?
- 06:00 – How are most of the commercial texts you see on the internet
- 06:52 – Which is the greatest for me? beige flag of a brand
- 07:37 – Other beige flags: clichés, obviousness, excessive adverbs, adjectives or exclamations, generic language, writing for everyone…
- 11:22 – Why some companies generate more interest than others
- 13:13 – What leads us to sell the most conventional from ourselves
We are afraid of feeling different
We want to be, but at the moment of truth we are afraid of leaving what others are doing. We fear standing out, we prefer to fit in. And this happens because it scares us.
This makes me think of a syndrome that is widespread and little talked about.
Do you know the high exposure syndrome? They also call it the tall poppy syndrome.
We are invited to be genuine, to differentiate ourselves from the rest, but, on the other hand and implicitly, we are recommended to go with the flow, not stick our heads out.
He tall poppy syndrome It tells us that when people stand out too much in some area, they generate hatred in others.
That hatred cannot be called envy as such. Rather it is related to the fact that the success of others makes one’s own limitations more visible.
Hence, high exposure syndrome is also called tall poppy syndrome, because the prevailing logic is to cut those flowers that grow more than others, so that the others do not lose out by comparison..
In companies, businesses and the workplace in general we do the same.
We feel insecure and do not show our true personality. What’s more, we write what we think people want to hear.
If this 2023 you don’t want to be ignored, stop looking like something you’re not.
Talk about yourself with passion, without fear of exposing yourself and writing from the peculiarity that characterizes you, because this is the only way to be perceived as a huge and attractive green flag.
Be authentic, communicate honestly and embrace your brand purpose to tell what makes you special. In the episode of this new podcast I talk to you in detail about this topic.
About LOVE —like this, in capital letters— I will speak live with TINDER next week.
Yes, I didn’t expect to get so intense with the love metaphor either, but life is that surprising and this year I want you to be more aware than ever of how the words you write affect all areas of your life.
You can now activate the bell on YouTube as a reminder.
On February 14 at 4:00 p.m. we have an appointment to discover how we can genuinely connect with a person we like. In addition, I will analyze live several anonymous profiles that Tinder has given me.
Come, even if you have a partner, because this kind of copywriting is going to be different and it’s going to help you connect with a large part of the copy you work with to present yourself.
You will also see that the line between what we experience daily in the communication of our companies and what happens in dating applications is very fine.
It will be next February 14 at 4:00 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time) and together we will discover:
✅ How love and copywriting are related.
✅ The step that you cannot skip and that you first have to define if you want to attract the right people.
✅ The most common mistakes when flirting (we will analyze 10 real Tinder profiles).
✅ The 3 basic pillars to write a Tinder profile worthy of match.
✅ How to break the ice in the first conversation.
And, if you stay until the end, you will learn how to create credible and original messages that make it clear that you are the person they are looking for right now.
Remember: you are much more than what you say.
But others don’t always know this, and you’re inadvertently forcing them to make deductions for which they often don’t have the time or inclination.
If you change your words, your rules of the game will change.
What is for you the biggest beige flag of a brand? I read you here below.
