Tired of using the same old, same old words to describe your business, product or services? Imagine how your customers feel.

One client of mine (a major provider of computers, printers and servers) created a matrix of preferred words to use for three distinct audiences. Though they rarely deviated from the list, the matrix worked well for them because the words were verbs.

But adjectives … now that’s a whole ‘nother subject.

Energize your copy (and your customer’s response) with some fresh, new adjectives and descriptive phrases.

~ Create a column of words that you commonly use in your business writing. Next to that column, add another column of alternate words and phrases. For example, the word optimize means “to make as perfect, effective or functional as possible.” Alternatives include enhance, improve, increase, augment, expand, enrich, advance, innovate, perfect and upgrade.

~ Find inspiration in everyday things. One food writer I know of says that she looks for adjectives in her own life and suggests using sports, music or nature as a means of finding descriptives.

~ Feed off others. When reading fiction, non-fiction, the newspaper, a magazine, whatever, jot down words and phrases that you like. Maybe you won’t use that exact phrasing in your work, but it will likely jump-start the creative side of your brain.

~ Read a thesaurus (writers do this just for fun) or tap into OneLook Reverse Dictionary, a free resource and terrific idea generator.

~ Train your mind to think creatively. An artist friend of mine once dared me to look at the same object every day on my commute to work (I chose a particular house). She promised that eventually I’d see things about that object I’d never seen before. She was right. And it opened me up to really seeing things and even having a design perspective that I naturally do not possess. Take your product or visualize your service and really sit with it. Look (or imagine) it and write down what you see. Do it again and again and again until you have four, five or ten new ways to describe it.

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