So, you're a designer with an "intuitive eye for scale and proportion."

Or, you're a showroom manager who sells furniture that "connects people, technology and space."

So what? What does that mean? What’s in it for me? Those are the questions that all your prospects ask, all of the time.

And those are the questions that so many design professionals and industry partners fail to answer on their websites, in their social networking, and in their marketing materials.

Which is why you should ask yourself this about your online and print promotional content: do the marketing words that you choose to use spell out the benefits of what you offer? Do they attach sufficient value to who you are and what you do? Do they enlighten others about all that you do, and all that you can do?

Do they help those you need to know "get" what you got?

Not if your website and social media copy include vague, meaningless jargon about your "timeless, intriguing and softly polished designs" or your "integrated approach to project delivery."

Understand that your prospects don’t care that much about your interior design products and services. They care only about if and how they can benefit from them.

What matters to them is how you can save them money and time and headaches. And how you can help them update and upgrade their space. And how you can help them sell their home more quickly for more money. And how your office furniture can help them increase their team’s productivity and sales.

Go ahead. Talk all you want about your "innovative color schemes" or how you offer "a new vision of space and its enhancement." Then, ask yourself: do others get what that means?

Do you?

It’s especially important to be quick, as well as clear and concise in your messaging. The average visit to a website today is four seconds and two clicks.

Your window of opportunity to get your message across may close as soon as visitors visit your website home page. Half of those visitors will never get beyond that page.

That’s why you should do on your home page what 99 percent of interior design professionals don’t do on theirs.

Tell ’em who you are — Include a compelling personal intro, that links to a killer bio inside.

Tell ’em what you do — Briefly explain who and how you help with your design, remodeling, and other services.

Tell ’em why you’re special — Speak to your firm’s specialness. Give your unique selling proposition, your “Only,” your brand.

Give ’em a call to action — Ask them to call, provide their contact info, buy this, download that, etc.

Address the "why" in your every call to action.

Say: Make an appointment, and we'll give you ideas on how to increase the value of your home.

• or, Check out our website, for an article on the ten most common mistakes doctors make in furnishing waiting rooms.
• or, Buy our cabinets, because they carry the best guarantee in this area.
• or, Hire us because we're the only local firm with 27 years’ experience providing "eco-friendly" design solutions for vacation homes.
• or, Send us a referral, and we'll send you a check for $150 when they place their first order.

Bottom line: Use words that will have the most positive impact on those who you most want to influence. You simply can’t afford to use jargon that confuses and confounds the people who mean most to you and your business.