Promises, premises
It’s a challenge to describe the who-what-how-why of your expertise. And let me tell you, it’s a triumph when you figure out how to do it in just 10 words.
The challenge is less about chiseling down the word count than it is about zeroing in on what you do best.
I had been working as a copywriter for about 15 years before I found my own, current, favourite description of my work: The exact words you need to land clients you love.
A few reasons this works for me:
It conveys my obsession with individual words; assessing, choosing, and working through — not just the right content or message or sentence — but each, exact, individual word.
It highlights the emotion of love, which most businesses aren’t going to go with but is right for me. For me and my people, work is about unleashing the love you have for your craft, your process, and the people you surround yourself with.
“Landing” a client is a long-lasting, end-to-end, satisfying result. It’s attraction + connection + selling + keeping. It feels grounded and secure, not flighty or transitory (which I admit soothes my anxiety around security and stability… one more sneaky way the real Kate shows up in this sentence).
And damn if it’s not the most satisfying 5-word parallel structure that balances what I deliver (the exact words you need) and the transformation that creates (to land clients you love). Right?
I really really love this sentence and anointed it the Holy Headline of my website.
When we’re working together on Word Rules, I strive to craft the short-and-sweet Promise for clients… but we don’t always get there. (And I don’t typically ask people to wait 15 years while I noodle it.) We land on taglines — which are shorter, meant to lock in with a logo. And lots of headlines — to sprinkle through websites, LinkedIn, etc. And elevator pitches — quick, but not 10 words quick. Sometimes we unearth the diamond. Sometimes we just plant the seed.
That ultimate distillation of what we do, who it’s for, how it works, and why we love it might be something an entrepreneur has to craft for themselves, after rooting around for a long time in the muck of who they are, what feels essentially gratifying, and whatever magic they will admit to themselves they create. But until then…
Another way I’ve been working on the Promise is by playing around with the Premise, which I read about in Jay Acunzo’s work. I really appreciate this guy’s dedication to the hard, human, creative work of communicating what matters.
In this essay, Jay writes “A premise is the specific, defensible purpose for your project or platform, pulled from your personal perspective. It's something you assert is or should be true. It's the big idea driving a project or an entire platform or brand. There's a problem. It frustrates you, but you have a specific vision for how to solve it. You're going to take us there. As a result, we care. Because we care, we might act.”
Way more enlightening than this description is his list of examples:
A Premise starts with that most-reviled word “should.”
Which many of my colleagues have banned from their copy. But which, here, in this sense, is a great place to start. Because we’re out here trying to make the world better, so we should be trying to change what isn’t working: “…it's a statement of fact that something is broken and the solution should be THIS. What? That's your perspective. That’s what they know you for.” (Jay)
Taking a stab at my premise, I came up with: Experts should be able to explain what they do in language they love.
There’s that love word again. 🙄
Because I know lots of people who have lots of copy, but it’s not copy they love. It’s accurate, but not personal. Maybe it works too — it stands out, it sounds good, it is true, it drives sales — but it’s not them. We’ve all had that website we don’t send people to, because we’re a little embarrassed by the way it represents us. Hey, me too. For years!
So my premise is, Don’t settle for copy that’s not copy you love. Keep working it.
Good copy will be persuasive, compelling, converting, and make sales. That part’s a given. Table stakes. My thing is to start there, then look at every word, every option, every connotation, every syllable, to get the tone, rhythm, insinuation, flavour, and colour right. So you love it.
Again, it’s a process, and you won’t, we won’t, land it the first try. But that’s what I believe is worth fighting for — the exact words you need to land those clients you love.
After 15+ years of working your magic, what is your premise? What is your promise? Have you found your Holy Headline? Can I help you begin?