Does Anybody Read the Boilerplate?
Other than lawyers (who get paid to both write and read it)? Or, PR folks who have to scan for typos in the “about” boilerplate of press releases?
C’mon - admit it - we all blithely click “I agree” without reading when downloading or buying on the Web. For all we know, we’ve just agreed to give the company our first born son and to pay to ship the little guy by UPS…without airholes.
So, pretty much nobody really reads the stuff. Yet some company poobahs get obsessive about the wording. (”No, no, no! You silly PR person - Acme is the ‘world’s leading supplier of’ NOT ‘a major supplier of’ roadrunner traps! Hmpfff”) And, months can be spent ya-yahhing and wordsmithing “page 28, section five, paragraph three, line 12″ in contract negotiations - all for fine print that nobody reads after the deal is signed (1) If they do, the relationship usually has far worse problems than a stray “therefore” or “party of the second part.” Contracts, no matter how iron-clad, don’t prevent lost revenues and lengthy litigation. (This doesn’t mean, however, you should do contracts without an attorney. Just that you need to balance good sense with good legal advice.)
Two wacky ideas:
1. Cut to the chase in contracts. “Here’s what we’ll do” and “here’s what you’ll do” - in plain English. Sure, you’ve got to put some legalese in re warranties and such, but if you can say it in one word versus three, do it. The longer the contract, the longer it’ll take to get signed, particularly if you’re dealing with a big company. Also, the more “if” “or” and “except” “wording you have - the less friendly you’ll look to your resellers, customers, and partners.
2. Put something different (and short) in the “about” section of your press releases. You are, after all, sending that deathless prose to real people who read about a thousand of the dang things a day. Give the bare minimum background (with your web site and phone number for more info) and then something like, “Hey, thanks for reading this far! Did you also know that…” That personal touch might catch the reader’s weary eye, give them a chuckle, and get you some coverage.
(1) Sometimes they don’t read it during negotiations. Back in my days of toiling on Mahogany Row, the corporate counsel and I inserted a bit of total nonsense here and there - just to see if the da boss was really “reviewing” the contracts. We never, ever got a call. And, yes, being responsible grown-ups, we took out the nonsense before final signature.
Read More: From The Bad Pitch blog re boilerplate in press releases.
Tags: business development, boilerplate, entrepreneur sanity check, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, PR, press releases
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November 13th, 2006 at 10:44 am
One more thing on the 400-word PR boilerplate trailers: you pay by the word to send press releases over the wire, so having a big wad o’nothin’ can cost you, too.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:22 am
Speaking of people not reading contracts … one of the things that came out during the FTC hearings last week was that people don’t read privacy policies anymore (they used to … remember?). According to surveys of online consumers, they just assume the text link “Privacy Policy” on your web site means that you won’t share their information with anybody.
And, as far as most microbusinesses go, that’s pretty accurate. As for those corporate privacy policies … if only they knew!
November 13th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Maureen, good point. And, attornies way back when used to get paid by the word and the verbosity has become inherent to the profession.
Dawn, another good point - and another bit of policy/”we told you” stuff from companies we don’t read (and should.) But then, all boilerplate is completely one-sided. We either agree or we don’t get the credit, the product or the software.