Can you name a favourite book or passage that’s inspired you? How about a difficult conversation or throwaway line in an argument that you’ve never forgotten?

Words, whether we read or hear them, are incredibly powerful. They can impact our emotions, how we feel about ourselves, our mood that day, and even influence how we live our lives.

As content creation has increased, the respect we give to the power of the word has diminished. We’re now programmed to create more and more content. Content is king! Without it, you’ll fade into oblivion! The pressure to create can mean we become less conscious of the impact on the people reading or viewing that content.

Did you know the average amount of time spent on our phones doubled in 2020 to an average of seven hours a day consuming all forms of media?

I did some rough sums (using my phone’s calculator cos maths is not my thing). If we apply the average reading speed of 250 words per minute, that’s 105,000 words we’re seeing or hearing every day.

That’s 105,000 words we’re absorbing. 105,000 words that impact us as human beings, influencing our opinions, our narratives and a whole lot more.

In this blog, I will show you some examples of harmful and less-harmful content and give you a checklist you can run through every time you create something. So you can be more confident your content isn’t having an unintended harmful effect.

How are we unintentionally harmful?

I’m stating right now, I have 100% been unintentionally harmful through my marketing efforts. But I’m on an ongoing journey of unlearning and relearning. I don’t know all the answers and my current website copy is in no way a perfect example of harmless copy. 

We all have to start somewhere, and it’s my hope that by sharing this with you, we can encourage each other to be more aware of the impact our words have. 

Forever, and especially in the online world, so much of marketing has been based around fear. Copy tends to come from a place of negativity that focuses on pain points or makes us feel we’re not good enough.

I’ve used my own website homepage copy as examples below. I’m rewording it to demonstrate how a few alternative words, or written from another perspective, can elicit a completely different set of emotions. 

Harmful example:

As an ex-counsellor and marketing expert for over a decade, I’ve seen many people waste time, energy and effort struggling to find the right words.

Does this sound like you?

• You feel disappointed in the words you’ve written.

• It doesn’t represent who you are,

• You don’t know how to articulate your value AND

• You’re struggling to get people to work with you.

If someone read the above, they might feel:

• They’re somehow less than because I’m positioning myself as an expert and them as time-wasting dummies.

• Bad about themselves because I’m reinforcing any disappointment they might feel about their efforts.

• Like they are failing if they don’t have a long list of clients queuing at their door.

Less-harmful example:

As an ex-counsellor and marketer for over a decade, I’ve spent most of my career helping people either look good or feel good. And I’m going to do both for you. 

When we work together, you end up with copy that: 

• lights you up,

• fully represents who you are,

• shows everyone exactly what you have to offer AND

• entices people to do business with you.

If someone read the above, they might feel:

• Positive because I’ve focused on how they can expect to feel from working together.

• Hopeful because I’ve described the outcome of working with me.

• Heard because I’m verbalising the reasons they are looking for my help.

If you’re still reading, and have felt a bit prickly, you aren’t alone. I guarantee there are not many business owners that haven’t used marketing in this way.

It’s confronting to think you may have hurt someone. But we’ve been so conditioned to group-think when it comes to marketing tactics that we’ve stopped questioning if it even feels right; I mean, it must be if everyone else is doing it?

Where to from here?

Good question. And I don’t know much, but the first step is simply become more conscious of the content you create and consume.

Once you’ve written something, stop and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I making my reader feel less-than or unworthy?

2. Am I making them feel like they are currently failing?

3. Am I suggesting that without my product or service, they won’t ‘succeed’?

4. Am I reinforcing any stereotypes?

5. Am I being condescending?

6. How is my reader going to feel during and after reading this?

Using this checklist can help you become more conscious of the language you choose until it becomes second nature.

By ensuring to the best of your ability that you copy and content has a less-negative (and hopefully positive) impact on or your reader means you’re contributing to our world become a fairer place, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. 

More resources

There are so many great people doing good things. Here are some of the people I follow, learn from and are inspired by: 

Ethical Marketing - Rachel Kurzyp & Maggie Patterson

Dignitarian Brands - Speak Out Studio

Inclusive Content and Copy - Nailah King

Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash