An ad caught my attention this weekend and made me think about the use of the word “Solution” in marketing collateral and ad copy. Is it possible that “Solution” has run its course as a way to describe to your target market that you have a product or service that can ease their pain and let them sleep better at night? I think maybe it has. I’m guilty of using the word as well in various content I write for the web or print. This weekend I saw it from the consumer or audience standpoint and the word did not tell me anything.

I’ve spent much of my marketing career trying to grab the attention of IT professionals who are always looking for solutions to network management issues. The term “Solution” fits well in marketing, but says so little. For example, it’s not a toothbrush, but a teeth whitening solution. Or, it’s not a universal remote, it’s a home entertainment solution. What’s the solution? When everybody has THE solution, your solution no longer sticks out as a solution – it’s one of many. I think the time has come to lay “Solution” to rest.

In reality, this is a good thing. As marketers we’re forced to take a much harder look at our audience. When writing about our products or services, we need to better understand the problems of our customers before we can ditch “Solution” and find better and more descriptive ways to present our company. Drew McLellan has an interesting post on multiple perceptions from an audience (tied to the loads of snow we got in the Midwest this weekend). His post ties in nicely with my commentary here. The word “Solution” has been a security blanket for too long for too many.

Interestingly, when I check my analytics logs for both this blog and my company’s website, I see no one coming to either site from a search engine using a keyword that contains the word “Solution”. That gives me a good indication that my audiences are not interested in this overused word.

Time to find a new solution!

A week ago I did a quick post highlighting the fact that I was amazed at how many small typos I made in many of my previous posts. I challenged you, my readers, to find 5 typos in that post. Michael, from SoloSEO, names three in his post comment and indicated he had found all of them, but didn’t want to spoil it for the rest.

Interestingly enough, that post got more traffic than any other post I had last week. Here was the text – the five errors are highlighted:

“I recently moved all my content from a previous blog to my new site and after looking over some of my older content I couldn’t believe some of the simple spelling mistakes I had made – and published! Granted blogging is often done at a quicker pace and with less review, but as a marketer, I should know better.

Whether your writing for the web, a brochure, or a quick company descriptoin, reviewing your spelling and grammar may be one of the most important tasks you do. What you’re putting on paper or the web creates an image of your business. Considering you have just a few seconds to win over potential customers, a bad image created from a spelling error can destroy your chances of winning a new client. To many mistakes could also affect SEO and SEM work.

So, I’ve decided to test my readers. I’ve planted some spelling errors in the text of this post. Can you find them? And no, I’m not trying to trick anyone – their are actual errors intentionally placed on this page. How good are your editing skills? Read the post and to find the answer, go to my About page.”

There was some debate via email as to whether “affect” is actually wrong. I think the correct use would be “effect”. Other readers did not agree.

The whole point of the post is that quality – affects or effects – what readers think of us, our blogs and our companies via our marketing. I’ve visited blogs where it is obvious that the author does not put the time into correcting his or her grammar or spelling. When that’s the case, I question whether I should take the time to return.
Does that matter to you?

I recently moved all my content from a previous blog to my new site and after looking over some of my older content I couldn’t believe some of the simple spelling mistakes I had made – and published! Granted blogging is often done at a quicker pace and with less review, but as a marketer, I should know better.

Whether your writing for the web, a brochure, or a quick company descriptoin, reviewing your spelling and grammar may be one of the most important tasks you do. What you’re putting on paper or the web creates an image of your business. Considering you have just a few seconds to win over potential customers, a bad image created from a spelling error can destroy your chances of winning a new client. To many mistakes could also affect SEO and SEM work.

So, I’ve decided to test my readers. I’ve planted some spelling errors in the text of this post. Can you find them? And no, I’m not trying to trick anyone – their are actual errors intentionally placed on this page. How good are your editing skills? Read the post and to find the answer, go to my About page.