The 40 tells · Words · No. 04
Why "unlock" makes writing sound machine-made
Flagged "Unlock"
"Unlock your potential", "unleash your creativity", "supercharge your workflow". These verbs treat the reader as a locked box waiting for the product. They are big, vague and borrowed from video game trailers.
Because they promise a transformation instead of a result, careful buyers discount them, and everyone else has seen them so often they slide past.
Before
Unlock your team's full potential and unleash a new level of productivity.
After
Your team stops chasing status updates. Every task, owner and due date sits on one page.
The fix
Swap it for the concrete thing. What does it do, in words a buyer can check?
Write this instead
- the specific result
- a before and after
- a number
What the checker matches
Any of these, in any case:
- unlock
- unlocks
- unlocking
- unleash
- unleashes
- unleashing
- supercharge
- supercharges