Do Not Call Yourself Luxury

Imagine a specialist realtor named Marcus Bell who sells houses on the water in Annapolis, Maryland. When he moved his business upmarket, he rewrote his website in one evening. He opened it with the words he saw on other top agents’ websites: “Luxury Waterfront Specialist.”

In April, the Pryors are moving to Annapolis from Philadelphia, and they want a house on the water. They find Marcus’s website and open his listings page. It shows two houses on the water among many condos in town, the same mix as every other agent’s page. The Pryors call another agent.

Suppose instead that Marcus opens his website with a fact: “I sell houses on the water in Annapolis, about 12 a year, and most of them sell before they’re listed.” The Pryors see the same listings page. They call Marcus to ask about the next house on the water before it is listed, and he meets them that week.

Marcus offered the same service and the same listings both times. In the first version, “luxury” promised that his work was hard to get, and his listings page looked like any other agent’s. In the second, his website gave a place and a number, and nothing on the listings page said otherwise.

So replace each word like luxury, premium, or bespoke with the fact it stands in for. Here is what the word promises, and what one wedding photographer did about it. Then you will see which facts can take the word’s place, and why a softer word goes wrong.

A client checks the word luxury against the rest of your page

In the course’s view, calling your own business luxury makes a promise to the client. It promises that your work is hard to get and made for them.

A promise invites a check, so the client looks at everything else they can see. A calendar open to anyone next week fails the check. So does a list of services that looks like every competitor’s. The word promised more than the rest of the page shows, and the client notices the gap.

A fact makes no promise about how special your work is, so there is nothing for the client to test. “About 12 houses on the water a year” only has to be accurate. A client usually accepts it and moves on. It also tells the client something specific about how you work.

A wedding photographer rebranded away from “luxury” clichés

Dale Weeks is a wedding photographer who has shot about 400 weddings. Ten years in, he rebranded his business for the first time. In his words, “More personality, less ‘luxury wedding photography’ clichés.”

Weeks describes himself as “all about colour, relaxed energy, and not taking things too seriously.” His website now shows that, with “bold colours, no stiff formalities.” The rebrand reached his writing too: “That shift has also changed how I write about weddings.”

A cliché is a phrase so many businesses use that it no longer tells a client anything about any of them. So when you drop a cliché, put a fact in its place. The fact can be how many clients you take a year, or where you work.

Four kinds of fact can take the word’s place

Each kind below comes with a sentence a professional could put on a website:

A place and a kind of client. A tutor can write, “I teach families in Chelsea whose children are preparing for the same three schools.”
A number. A home organizer can write, “I take on six households a year.”
A limit. A coach can write, “I take new clients only by introduction from a current client.”
A name. A florist can write, “I have done the flowers for the Lakeside Club’s spring dinner for eight years.”

A specific fact tells the client which kind of professional you are and whom you work for. An adjective does not.

If you have no number, limit, or name to state yet, use your place together with the kind of client you serve. Every business works somewhere for someone in particular.

Why swapping luxury for a softer word goes wrong

Imagine an event planner named Mara Quinn who has “luxury events” at the top of her home page. She has started to feel that the phrase sounds showy. She has a wedding that weekend, so on Thursday night she takes a few minutes to change it. She puts “curated celebrations” in its place.

The next week, Nora Delaney finds Mara’s page while planning her wedding for 60 guests. “Curated” is a word any planner can use, and nothing next to it says what Mara does. To Nora, it is the same promise as “luxury” in a different word. She compares Mara’s packages with two other planners’ packages and books one of the other two.

In the version that works, Mara puts a fact where the word was: “Weddings for 40 to 80 guests at family homes in the Hudson Valley.” Nora is getting married at her parents’ house in Rhinebeck, so she calls Mara the same day.

How to replace the luxury words on your website

Count the words luxury, premium, bespoke, high-end, and exclusive on your website and in your social media bios. Note any words like them too, such as elevated or curated.
For each word, write the fact it stands in for. Use one of the four kinds above: a place and a kind of client, a number, a limit, or a name.
Start with the most visible word, which is usually in your tagline or the first sentence on your home page. Replace it with the fact, not with another adjective. For example, an interior designer might change “Luxury interiors” to “I design about eight family homes a year on the North Shore.”
Open two competitors’ websites and set their taglines beside your new sentence. If either competitor could use your sentence unchanged, add the kind of client you serve or a number. Keep adding until neither one could use it.

Next: You will see why reasons added after your price make it sound less certain. You will also see what to say instead.