Why Your Marketing Sounds Like Everyone Else's
Try this exercise. Take your website hero copy, the one paragraph that introduces your business. Cover up your company name and read it again. Now imagine your three biggest competitors using exactly the same copy on their sites. Would it work for them? Could a customer tell the difference?
For most businesses, the honest answer is yes, it could work for any of them. The copy is generic. The claims are interchangeable. Nothing about it is distinctively yours.
This is the swap test, and it is one of the fastest ways to see whether your marketing is doing its job.
Why Marketing Becomes Bland
Bland marketing is rarely the result of bad writers. It is the result of three forces that pull every business toward the same words.
The category convention. Every industry has a vocabulary that becomes the default. In professional services it is "trusted partner" and "tailored solutions". In SaaS it is "transform your business" and "next-generation platform". In creative it is "passionate team" and "unique vision". These phrases became conventions because they once meant something. They no longer do. They are noise.
The fear of specificity. Vague copy feels safe because it cannot be wrong. The moment you say "we work with manufacturing businesses in the North East with 10 to 50 employees", you have excluded everyone else. That excludes everyone else feels risky. So most businesses default to "we work with ambitious businesses of all sizes", which means nothing to anyone.
The committee effect. When marketing copy passes through multiple stakeholders, every distinctive edge gets sanded off. Someone says "let's not be too aggressive there". Someone else says "can we be more inclusive?". The result is copy designed to offend nobody, which also means it engages nobody.
What Distinctive Messaging Looks Like
Distinctive marketing copy does three things at once:
It uses specific language. Concrete nouns, real situations, named outcomes. "Helping small manufacturers cut waste" is distinctive. "Driving operational excellence" is not.
It has a clear point of view. It says what you believe, not just what you sell. "We think most business websites are built to impress designers rather than convert visitors" is a point of view. "We build great websites" is a claim.
It excludes the wrong customers. Distinctive copy makes it obvious who you are not for. That feels uncomfortable but it is what makes the right customers feel chosen.
The Three Words That Fix Bland Copy
If you want to start making your messaging more distinctive immediately, three words change everything.
Specifically. Force yourself to be specific everywhere. Not "businesses", but "scaling B2B service businesses". Not "results", but "doubled qualified enquiries in six months". The word specifically becomes a discipline.
Unlike. Define yourself by contrast. Unlike most agencies, we work directly with founders. Unlike most accountants, we do not bill in six-minute increments. The word unlike forces you to identify what is different.
Because. Behind every claim is a reason. "Because" forces you to explain why. We can do this because we have spent ten years working only with this kind of business. We make this claim because we have measured it across 200 clients. The word because shifts copy from assertion to argument.
Where Most Businesses Should Start
If your marketing sounds like everyone else's, the problem is almost never the writer. It is the strategy beneath the writing. Bland copy is positioning ambiguity dressed up as a wording problem.
Before you rewrite your website, audit your positioning. Are you crystal clear on who you are for, who you are not for, what you specifically offer, and why someone should choose you over the alternatives? If any of those answers are fuzzy, the copy will default to fuzzy too.
Get the strategic foundations clear first. Then writing distinctive copy becomes straightforward. You are no longer trying to invent meaning. You are simply expressing meaning that already exists.
If you would like a senior view on where your messaging is going generic and what to do about it, get in touch. Start a conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the swap test for marketing copy?
Take your marketing copy, replace your company name with a competitor's, and read it back. If it still makes sense and could plausibly be from them, your messaging is not distinctive.
Why does so much marketing sound the same?
Most businesses copy what their category does. Most messaging is written by people too close to the business. And most copywriting follows templates that prioritise sounding professional over saying something specific.
How do I make my marketing copy more distinctive?
Start with positioning, not copy. If you do not know precisely who you are for, your copy will default to vague. Get the positioning clear, then write to it directly.