Why evidence is more persuasive than adjectives: a lesson for marketers, salespeople and job applicants

There is a very easy way to make almost any piece of marketing weaker.

Add more adjectives.

Innovative.

Industry-leading.

Premium.

Trusted.

Exceptional.

Revolutionary.

Customer-focused.

World-class.

The problem is not that these things cannot be true.

The problem is that saying them does not give anybody much reason to believe them.

Customers have heard exactly the same vocabulary from your competitors. Recruiters see it on thousands of CVs. Investors hear it in pitches. University admissions teams read it in applications.

The words change slightly. The persuasion problem does not.

If you want someone to believe something important about you, your product or your business, one of the strongest things you can do is stop announcing the conclusion and start providing the evidence that allows them to reach it themselves.

That is the difference between:

We provide exceptional customer service.

and:

Our support team answers 91% of enquiries within 30 minutes during business hours.

Or between:

We are trusted by leading businesses.

and:

74% of last year’s revenue came from returning customers.

Or between:

Our software saves businesses time.

and:

A customer who previously spent six hours each Monday producing reports now completes the process in 45 minutes.

The second version of each claim gives the reader something to evaluate.

That is where persuasion becomes much more interesting.

Claims are cheap; proof is scarce

Anyone can describe themselves positively.

That creates an obvious problem for a buyer.

Imagine three companies competing for the same contract.

Company A says it provides “outstanding service”.

Company B says it provides “exceptional service”.

Company C says it provides “award-winning, world-class service”.

What useful information has the prospect actually gained?

Very little.

All three companies have essentially said:

We are good. Please believe us.

SalesAngel’s own approach to landing-page conversion makes proof one of its key conversion factors. Its landing-page framework asks the question that many businesses avoid: why should anyone believe your claims?

That question deserves much more attention than it normally receives.

Businesses spend enormous amounts of effort deciding what they want to claim.

Far less effort is spent asking what would make somebody believe it.

The adjective problem

Adjectives are useful when they communicate information.

A “waterproof jacket” tells you something specific.

A “12-month warranty” tells you something specific.

A “two-bedroom flat” tells you something specific.

But many marketing adjectives simply contain the conclusion the seller wants the buyer to reach.

Consider:

• reliable;
• experienced;
• efficient;
• innovative;
• high-quality;
• flexible;
• market-leading;
• trusted; and
• professional.

None is necessarily wrong.

But each immediately creates another question.

How do I know?

If your copy never answers that question, the reader has to take your word for it.

That is not strong persuasion.

Make the customer reach the conclusion

Good evidence often works because the audience performs part of the persuasion themselves.

Suppose an accountancy firm writes:

We are highly experienced in helping growing ecommerce businesses.

That is a claim.

Now suppose it writes:

Last year we prepared accounts for 86 ecommerce businesses with annual revenues ranging from £250,000 to £12 million.

You no longer have to tell the reader that you have experience.

They can see it.

A software company might replace:

Our intuitive platform is easy to use.

with:

New customers complete their first invoice in a median time of four minutes without onboarding support.

A recruitment agency might replace:

We understand the technology sector.

with:

During the past 12 months, 73% of our permanent placements have been in software, data and cybersecurity roles.

A training company might replace:

Our course delivers practical learning.

with:

Participants spend the second half of the programme working on a live project from their own organisation.

The evidence does more than decorate the claim.

It does the work the adjective was attempting to do.

Evidence does not always mean statistics

This is where marketers can go wrong in the opposite direction.

They hear that proof is persuasive and decide that every sentence needs a percentage.

It does not.

Useful evidence can take many forms.

It might be:

• a measurable result;
• a demonstration;
• a customer example;
• a before-and-after comparison;
• a case study;
• a screenshot;
• an independent review;
• a relevant qualification;
• a guarantee;
• a description of your process;
• an actual product feature;
• a client list;
• a sample of the work;
• an explanation of how something is done; or
• a credible third-party source.

The right proof depends on the claim.

If you say your software is simple, a product demonstration may be more convincing than a customer describing it as “amazing”.

If you say your consultancy produces commercial results, a detailed case study may be stronger than an award.

If you say your delivery process is fast, actual delivery data is more useful than a paragraph about your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Ask:

What evidence would I want if I were sceptical of this claim?

That question usually produces better marketing than asking how to make the sentence sound more impressive.

Specificity makes a claim easier to assess

Compare:

We help businesses generate more leads.

with:

We rebuilt the landing page and enquiry journey for a B2B client whose paid traffic was already substantial but converting poorly. Over the following testing period, its landing-page conversion rate increased from X to Y.

The second version gives us:

• the starting problem;
• what was changed;
• the metric being measured; and
• the resulting difference.

A good case study often becomes persuasive because it removes ambiguity.

The customer can judge whether the starting situation resembles theirs.

That matters because proof is strongest when it is relevant, not merely impressive.

A £10 million result for a multinational may be less persuasive to a five-person business than a detailed example involving a similar company solving the exact problem it currently faces.

The best proof answers the objection already forming in the buyer’s head

People rarely arrive at a sales page with no previous beliefs.

They may be thinking:

• We’ve tried an agency before.
• This looks expensive.
• It probably will not work in our sector.
• Implementation will take months.
• Our team will never use it.
• The results probably came from a huge advertising budget.
• That testimonial sounds too good to be true.
• This business looks too small.
• This business looks too large to care about us.

Proof becomes much more powerful when it addresses one of those doubts directly.

If prospects worry about implementation time, show how implementation works.

If they worry that your system only works for large companies, show a relevant smaller client.

If they worry about switching suppliers, explain the migration process.

If they think your results depend on enormous advertising budgets, show the economics.

If they worry about being trapped, make the contractual position clear.

Your proof should not simply say look how good we are.

It should answer the reason this particular buyer is hesitating.

That is why understanding the audience comes before collecting testimonials.

Testimonials are useful, but they are not magic

A testimonial can be excellent persuasion.

A genuine customer can describe an experience in language that feels much more credible than the company’s own promotional copy.

But marketers should not confuse a testimonial with universal proof.

The UK’s advertising rules make an important distinction here. CAP guidance on substantiation says genuine testimonials may be used in advertising, but testimonials alone are unlikely to substantiate an objective claim. If a testimonial makes a factual claim that requires evidence, the advertiser still needs appropriate evidence for it.

There is an obvious practical lesson even if you ignore the regulatory one.

Compare:

“Amazing company. Highly recommended!”

with:

“Before switching, our team spent most of Monday compiling the weekly report manually. We now generate it automatically and review the exceptions instead.”

The first expresses approval.

The second tells a prospective customer why the customer was pleased.

Specific testimonials are usually far more useful than enthusiastic but empty praise.

A review is more persuasive when it sounds like a person, not your copywriter

Businesses sometimes over-edit testimonials until every customer mysteriously sounds like the marketing department.

That destroys part of their value.

If twelve testimonials all contain your preferred terminology, all have identical sentence structure and all describe your product in exactly the same way, readers may become suspicious even when the underlying reviews are genuine.

Different customers notice different things.

One may value speed.

Another values support.

Another likes the reporting.

Another thought setup would be difficult and was surprised that it was not.

Another may have switched after a bad experience elsewhere.

That variation is useful.

It makes the proof richer and gives different prospective customers something they recognise.

There is also now a much stronger legal reason to take review authenticity seriously in the UK. Since April 2025, fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews are among the practices specifically addressed by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act regime. Businesses that publish consumer reviews also have obligations to take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove prohibited review content. The government provides a short guide for businesses publishing consumer reviews.

Do not manufacture the proof you wish you had.

Build the proof from the results and experiences you genuinely create.

Evidence works outside marketing for exactly the same reason

This principle is not unique to selling products.

Consider a graduate applying for a job.

They might write:

I am highly organised and have excellent time-management skills.

That is essentially advertising copy.

The recruiter is being asked to accept the applicant’s own description of themselves.

Compare it with:

I completed my final-year research project while working 16 hours a week and submitted each stage by the agreed deadline.

The second statement gives the recruiter evidence from which they can infer organisation.

Now consider a university applicant.

They might write:

I am passionate about psychology and have excellent analytical skills.

Again, those are conclusions.

A much stronger application might explain a particular study the applicant encountered, what they noticed about its methodology and why it made them interested in the limitations of psychological evidence.

The same communication rule applies.

Show the reader the thing that makes the claim believable.

For students, this is one reason good personal-statement guidance focuses increasingly on evidence and reflection rather than strings of desirable qualities. This guide to writing a personal statement, for example, shows how applicants can move from simply listing experiences to explaining what they actually did, learned and became interested in.

A university admissions tutor and a potential customer are making very different decisions.

But both are asking a version of the same question:

Why should I believe what you are telling me?

Replace the claim with its evidence

Try this exercise on your own copy.

Take a sentence such as:

We are a highly experienced team.

Ask:

What happened in the real world that makes us believe that?

Perhaps:

• the founders have worked in the field for 18 years;
• the team has completed 430 projects;
• staff have particular professional qualifications;
• customers repeatedly return;
• the company has solved the same problem across 17 industries; or
• the team members previously held relevant senior roles.

Now you have something useful.

Try:

Our consultants have delivered more than 430 implementation projects across 17 industries.

Whether that is persuasive depends on what you sell, but at least the reader now has information.

Do the same with:

We provide fast support.

What does “fast” mean?

Median first-response time during the past 90 days: 11 minutes.

Or:

We produce high-quality work.

What demonstrates quality?

68% of new projects last year came from existing clients or referrals.

Or:

Our approach is tailored.

What actually changes?

Every project begins with customer interviews and conversion-data analysis before we recommend an offer or funnel structure.

That final example is important.

Process can be proof.

Showing how you work can make a broad claim such as “bespoke” much more credible.

Build a proof bank, not just a testimonial page

Many businesses collect testimonials reactively.

Someone sends a nice email.

Someone leaves a five-star review.

Someone mentions the business on LinkedIn.

These are valuable, but they represent only a fraction of the evidence available.

Create a proof bank.

Record things such as:

Not every business will have every form of evidence.

That is fine.

The exercise reveals two useful things:

1. proof you possess but are not using; and
2. claims you repeatedly make without much evidence behind them.

The second category can be particularly valuable.

It may reveal where the marketing problem is actually an operational problem.

Sometimes weak marketing exposes a weak proposition

Suppose you want to say:

Our support is better than our competitors’.

You search for evidence.

You discover that you do not record response times.

You have no customer satisfaction data.

Customers frequently wait two days for replies.

There are no support guarantees.

You cannot therefore fix the marketing simply by finding a cleverer phrase.

The claim is weak because the underlying proposition is weak.

This is one reason evidence-first marketing can improve the business itself.

It forces uncomfortable questions.

What exactly are we good at?

How do we know?

Does the customer notice?

Can we demonstrate it?

Would a competitor be able to make exactly the same claim?

If the evidence is poor, perhaps the next task is not writing.

Perhaps it is creating something genuinely worth proving.

Be careful with “best”, “leading” and other apparently harmless claims

The temptation to replace evidence with grander language can also create regulatory problems.

Under the CAP Code, marketers need documentary evidence for objective claims that consumers are likely to understand as capable of substantiation. CAP’s substantiation guidance specifically warns that context matters: words that look like marketing puffery in one setting can amount to objective claims in another.

Claims such as “leading”, “No. 1” and similar comparative language can carry meanings that require evidence. CAP has separate guidance on leading claims.

The practical lesson is straightforward.

Do not choose the strongest-sounding claim.

Choose the strongest claim you can credibly support.

That is better marketing anyway.

Put proof near the claim it supports

A common website structure looks like this:

Hero section:

The UK’s most trusted solution for growing businesses.

Then six screens later:

Testimonials.

Then another three screens later:

Case studies.

The visitor has been asked to accept the main claim long before encountering the evidence.

Instead, think of claim and proof as a pair.

If you say:

Set up in days, not months.

show an implementation timeline.

If you say:

Built for finance teams.

show the finance-specific features, customers or workflow.

If you say:

Customers switch because our reporting is clearer.

show the reporting.

If you say:

Used by 2,000 businesses.

put that number where it supports the decision.

Do not make visitors conduct an archaeological excavation to find the reason they should believe you.

The evidence should become stronger as the commitment becomes larger

Someone reading a social post is making a tiny commitment.

Someone submitting an email address is making a slightly larger one.

Someone booking a sales call is giving you time and contact details.

Someone paying £20,000 is taking a substantial commercial risk.

The greater the requested commitment, the more proof the buyer is likely to need.

A short testimonial may be sufficient to encourage somebody to click.

It may not be enough to close a substantial B2B sale.

That sale may require:

• detailed case studies;
• references;
• technical documentation;
• demonstrations;
• security information;
• commercial evidence;
• implementation planning;
• contractual reassurance; and
• conversations with real people.

Proof is not a single section on a landing page.

It should develop throughout the sales journey.

That fits naturally with SalesAngel’s broader approach to persuasion: every interaction with a prospect forms part of the sales journey rather than existing as an isolated marketing asset.

Use the “what does this prove?” test

There is a useful editing question that works on almost any sales page.

Take each important statement and ask:

What does this prove?

Then reverse it.

Take each major claim and ask:

Where is the proof?

Suppose the page says:

We understand our customers.

Where is that visible?

We are different.

How?

We have a proven system.

What evidence demonstrates that it is proven?

We save clients money.

Which clients, how much and under what circumstances?

We provide outstanding support.

What happens when somebody needs support?

We are trusted.

What behaviour demonstrates trust?

You will quickly discover which parts of the page are communicating evidence and which are simply decorating the business with flattering language.

Your customer does not need more reasons to admire you

Businesses naturally write about themselves from the inside.

We care.

We innovate.

We are passionate.

We have an amazing team.

We put customers first.

Some of that may be true.

But your customer is usually attempting to make a more practical decision.

Can you solve my problem?

Have you solved it before?

Will this work for a business like mine?

What is likely to happen if I say yes?

What is the risk?

Why should I believe you rather than the five companies making similar promises?

Evidence answers those questions.

Adjectives usually do not.

So the next time your copy says that your company is innovative, experienced, trusted, effective or exceptional, do not immediately reach for a thesaurus.

Ask a better question:

What happened that makes this true?

Then put that on the page.