Saying something is so doesn't make it so:
How to Create Real Credibility
By Jonathan Kranz
True story: I once had a client in Florida who asked me to write a brochure about a famous insurer’s policies for healthcare professionals. In the creative brief, I was instructed to position the company as an innovator in the field of managed care protection – special coverage for physicians in case the cost of delivering a patient’s care outstripped the doctor’s compensation.
So I did some research and did the best I could to talk about the insurer’s pioneering products and describe exactly what was novel and significant about them. Here’s the feedback I got: “I counted, and the word ‘innovator’ appears only three times in the entire brochure. Please be sure it’s on every page.” The real-life material I wrote, the stuff that actually substantiated the claim of innovation? Cut. The resulting brochure became a real piece of . . . “innovation.”
Folks, a declaration just isn’t enough. It’s not even the beginning of enough.
Because the important thing is not your saying it; it’s getting your prospects to believe it. Suppose we wanted to communicate the idea that your company is a leader in its industry. Let’s consider some of your options and evaluate their merits:
Just say it
You write, “We’re the leading blah, blah, blah in our industry.” Definitely your least effective option. Don’t believe me? Google your competitors on the Web and guess what, you’ll find that they pretty much all say the same thing. With about the same level of credibility. Zero.
Get someone else to say it
Better. Especially if the source is a recognized authority in your field. If Peter Lynch were to describe your mutual fund as “the leading consumer fund” in America, we’d be inclined to give the statement some weight.
Back it with numbers
Now you’re cooking. A 65% market share speaks for itself, especially if the next best competitor is at 22% and the rest of the pack absorbs the remaining 13%.
Illustrate it
Turn up the heat. Take your numbers and put it in a chart or graph people can see. In many cases, a picture (or illustration) is indeed worth a thousand words.
Give it a story
My favorite option: Tell a story that allows readers to draw the conclusion for themselves. One of my current clients has implemented a “zero waste” policy that has completely eliminated trash that would otherwise go into landfills. On the company website, we talk about how the policy began, how it was executed, what it accomplished. That, and the company’s comprehensive recycling and hardware refurbishment policies, tell a powerful story about the company’s passion for the environment. We never have to say, “We’re the leading green ABC company in the XYZ industry.” Instead, readers deduce it for themselves. And because they do it themselves, they believe it. It becomes their declaration.
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Kranz Communications
(781) 620-1154
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