Your Message is Meaningless (And How to Fix It)

If you just mentally said something involving “solutions,” “synergy,” “leverage,” or “optimisation”, congratulations, your message is meaningless.

Don’t feel bad. You’re in good company. I asked 50 business owners to describe what they do. Forty-seven of them used the word “solutions.” Precisely zero of them could tell me what specific problem they actually solve.

This is why people forget you thirty seconds after you’ve explained your business. Your message doesn’t mean anything to them.

The Noise Problem

Here’s what you’re up against: The average person sees between 4,000 and 10,000 marketing messages every single day. Every. Single. Day.

Your carefully crafted message about “providing innovative solutions for dynamic businesses” is competing with 9,999 other messages. And losing. Badly.

Why? Because it doesn’t mean anything. It’s corporate wallpaper. Verbal beige. The business equivalent of elevator music, technically present but completely ignorable.

Maya Angelou said it best: “People will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

Except here’s the thing: If your message doesn’t make them feel anything, they’ll forget that too.

The Jargon Pandemic

Somewhere along the way, businesses decided that sounding professional meant using words nobody actually uses in real life.

• “Utilise” instead of “use”
• “Facilitate” instead of “help”
• “Optimise” instead of “improve”
• “Solutions” instead of… well, anything specific

We’ve created an entire business language that actively prevents understanding. It’s like we’re trying to confuse people.

Here’s a real example from last week: “We facilitate synergistic solutions that leverage cutting-edge methodologies to optimise stakeholder value.”

Translation: “We have no idea how to explain what we do.”

1. It Names a Specific Problem

Not “business challenges.” Not “pain points.” A specific problem that keeps specific people awake at night.

“You know that panic when a client asks for their invoice from six months ago and you have to search through 47 different folders?” That’s specific. That’s meaningful.

The Worcestershire Widget Works Example

Let me show you what I mean with a real transformation from a Kidderminster manufacturing client:

Before: “Worcestershire Widget Works provides innovative engineering solutions leveraging cutting-edge technology to deliver optimal outcomes for diverse stakeholders.”

After: “We make the tiny metal parts that stop massive machines from breaking down. When factories can’t afford to stop, they call us.”

Guess which one gets remembered? Guess which one gets shared? Guess which one actually generates enquiries?

Finding Your Meaningful Message

Here’s how to craft a message that actually means something:

The Purpose-Driven Advantage

If you’re running a purpose-driven business, you have a massive advantage: Your message can be about something bigger than just the transaction.

People don’t just buy products or services, they buy into purposes. But only if you actually tell them what that purpose is.

Instead of: “We provide sustainable packaging solutions.” Try: “We’re helping businesses stop drowning the planet in plastic.”

Instead of: “We offer ethical financial advice.” Try: “We help you grow wealth without funding things you’d hate.”

Instead of: “We deliver social media management services.” Try: “We help good businesses get heard above the shouty ones.”

The Brave Specificity Challenge

Here’s what stops most businesses from creating meaningful messages: The fear of being specific.

“If I say I help overwhelmed bookkeepers, what about stressed accountants?” “If I focus on Worcester businesses, what about Birmingham?” “If I mention manufacturing, what about retail?”

Here’s the paradox: The more specific your message, the more meaningful it becomes. And the more meaningful it becomes, the more it spreads beyond your specific audience.

A message for everyone is a message for no one. A message for someone becomes a message worth sharing.

Local Messages That Matter

Working in Worcestershire gives you another advantage: Local specificity.

“We help Bewdley businesses survive the floods” means more than “We provide business continuity services.”

“We keep Kidderminster manufacturers competitive with China” beats “We offer efficiency consultancy.”

“We help Worcester independents compete with the chains” trumps “We provide retail marketing solutions.”

Local isn’t limiting. It’s clarifying.

The Quality Over Quantity Truth

You don’t need more messages. You don’t need to be posting constantly. You don’t need to be everywhere.

You need one meaningful message, shared consistently, with the people who need to hear it.

Better to send one monthly email that people actually read and remember than daily posts that get scrolled past and forgotten.

Better to have one clear message on your website than seventeen different value propositions that confuse everyone.

Better to be remembered for one specific thing than forgotten for trying to be everything.

Testing Your Message

Want to know if your message is meaningful? Test it:

The Pub Test: Would you actually say this to someone in the pub?

The Memory Test: Tell someone your message. Call them tomorrow. Can they remember it?

The Share Test: Would someone naturally share this when describing you to a friend?

The Action Test: Does this message make it clear what someone should do next?

The Feeling Test: Does this message make people feel something; hope, relief, recognition, excitement?

If it fails any of these tests, it’s not meaningful enough yet.

Your Message Makeover Challenge

Here’s your challenge for this week:

1. Write down your current message. Whatever you say when someone asks what you do
2. Put it through the “So what?” test
3. Ask three clients what problem you actually solved for them (in their words)
4. Rewrite your message using their language, not yours
5. Test it on someone who doesn’t know your business
6. Refine until they get it immediately

The Bottom Line on Meaningful Messages

Your message is your promise. Make it mean something.

Stop trying to sound professional. Start trying to be understood.

Stop using jargon. Start using human.

Stop being everything to everyone. Start being something specific to someone specific.

Because in a world drowning in meaningless messages, meaning is your competitive advantage.