Stop writing content that makes you cringe when you read it a week after it’s published

So easy to make these mistakes

Image by Tuna on Unsplash.

Go through your inbox and you’ll find yourself responding to messages with, “I bet whoever wrote this is blushing beet red by now. The word ‘cringeworthy’ was designed for this.”

We’ve all made at least one cringe-creating mistake and I bet you’ve seen plenty of examples, too.

In my experience, these mistakes don’t happen because business owners don’t know any better. The problem is, we get busy and we take good advice out of context. We apply a piece of advice that’s great for someone else’s marketing story archetype …but dangerous to ours.

We’re encouraged to knock out a blog post in fifteen minutes or less. I’m a pretty fast writer but I make cringeworthy mistakes when I do that. I have to review…and review again.

We’re told to begin with a story of something embarrassing so we appear vulnerable. Who can forget that email about the person who lost their underwear at an inopportune moment?

We’re told to be controversial. Take a stand. Criticize your industry. Take aim at the competition. We’re not warned, “But don’t come across like a victim.”