Most businesses have tons of bullshit splattered across their websites, emails, and social media accounts.
Some cynical people think that businesses have to bullshit; that bullshitting and sales/marketing are the same. This is completely untrue.
In fact, when companies are talking about their own product or area of expertise, they tend to bullshit the least.
The bullshit comes in primarily by doing one thing:
Pretending to care about things your customers pretend to care about.
If you make really good chocolate or really good task management software, tell me about who I will become and what problems I will solve and benefits I will gain from your product. Tell me about the stuff you and I actually care about – the core value proposition of your product.
Don’t throw in stuff about some cause that has nothing to do with the value prop.
“We also reduce carbon footprint!”
That’s when you lose your soul. You play the game of pretending to care about something irrelevant to your business, because your customers also pretend to care about it.
Customers will lie to you. They will tell you they care about things they don’t. You don’t have to indulge those pretenses to win.
You can win by calling their bluff. You can win by ignoring their bullshit and talking about what they really care about, not what they pretend to care about.
Good customers like to be told the truth about themselves.