Specificity Rules in Life Science Copywriting

Strong copywriting is specific. In my time in the life sciences industry, one phrase pops up over and over again. Product managers use it in their brochures with the best intentions. They have a product that can do a lot of things for a lot of people really well. Everyone should know that this is the product for them. What can it do for me?It can tackle “your most demanding applications.” Does anyone know what that means? We all understand it in a general sense. But is there any value here? Which customers will be sure that their application can be addressed by this product?None of them.There is not even a hint that it will work for them. in fact, there is no proof that ti works for anybody. And that is the problem.Specificity is powerful. What if instead we said, “This widget is especially useful for demanding applications such as detecting pesticides in cucumbers and identifying unknown environmental contaminants in cereal grains.”? This has the benefit of addressing one or two sets of customers directly which is two more than no specificity at all.The lack of specificity in your copywriting erodes trust. And trust is the key emotional trigger that most marketing campaigns in the life sciences are built on.What if a product manager objects because it excludes other applications where it may be useful? My response is, if you have more, mention them. If you don’t, then even the generic claim has no merit. Simply being specific about two examples adds strength and credibility to the argument for customers who have a different application.Without any specificity you will likely lose the interest of everyone who will read the generic claim as gobbledygook. What other bits of nonsense are you battling against?