Thank you, Magnum P.I. for making me a better writer.

I'm going to say something controversial: Tom Selleck is a national treasure.

If you’re old enough to remember Magnum P.I., you’ll recall the fast cars, tropical locales, and the chest hair. Oh, the chest hair!

These days, Selleck has traded in the helicopters and Ferraris for desk duty at 1PP, playing Police Commissioner Frank Reagan on the cop drama Blue Bloods.

While some people really love reality TV or sci-fi thrillers, Blue Bloods has become my guilty TV pleasure because it’s predictable and entertaining in the sit-on-your-couch-and-veg kind of way that doesn’t involve any of the brain damage of having to think about what’ll happen next.

Crime is committed, main characters investigate and prosecute, case closed. It’s perfect late-night watching. And it’s Tom Selleck!

Tom and the Gang

If you’re unfamiliar with the premise, the Reagan family spans three generations of New York City law enforcement—a retired Police Commissioner, the current one (Selleck), two detectives (one deceased), one beat cop, and a District Attorney—and their sprawling family tree.

In one episode, Nikki, college student, and daughter of District Attorney Erin Reagan (played by Bridget Moynahan) arrives at her dorm to find her roommate on the floor unresponsive. Instinctively, she calls 911 and asks for…a “bus!”

At first, I thought that choice of word was pretty funny. It just struck me as odd, considering that if I were in that situation, I’d certainly be calling for an ambulance like most people would. But after conferring with my firefighter friends, I confirmed that emergency responders regularly use “bus” in their daily interactions and it made me realize for the first time how in-tune the writers of the show are with both their characters and their audience.

Given the laxity of writers on other shows (think Grey’s Anatomy, Code Black, and a host of others) with respect to getting the language and terminology right, this was a welcome moment of accuracy and attention to detail.

Imagine if Nikki had called dispatch and asked for an ambulance. Of course they’d still have sent one, but it’d be clear to the dispatcher character that she was talking to a civilian instead of someone “in the know” (even though Nikki was only tangentially related to the job), which may have changed the tone—the very course—of the conversation and perhaps even the outcome.

People like us use words like these

I stewed on that exchange for hours. Not because the scene was particularly riveting, but rather because it was the first time I’d noticed just how closely writers of a popular TV show tried to adhere to the vernacular of its characters’ lives and how important that is in writing—whether you’re in entertainment or in marketing for businesses.

On TV, writing dialogue that plausibly passes as real life is essential for building a credible story (assuming that’s the goal) that engages viewers. And in business marketing, it means using the right words and phrases to build credibility with and engage prospective customers.

As marketing writers, we strive in our work to assume our clients’ identities—the style, the tone, and the voice of their brand—to become an extension of their team. It’s the primary reason companies hire us: write great content that target audiences won’t know came from someone outside the organization.

A large portion of that challenge is identifying the difference between a client’s internal language and the one they use with customers and prospects and then finding a happy medium between the two to use in outbound communications. Just as the dispatcher could glean that Nikki had a relationship to law enforcement when she chose “bus” over “ambulance,” your target readers will identify your brand as either a reliable source of expert information or a phony trying to make a buck.

Misusing common industry terminology, overusing jargon, or just not explaining a process properly or thoroughly will quickly expose you as an outsider—a phony—in a prospect’s eyes and kill your chances of converting them to a paying customer.

Because to them, as Seth Godin would say, “people like us use words and phrases like these.”

The words you choose to use will make or break your content quality

Word selection—diction, if you will (my high school English teacher would be ecstatic right now)—is an often overlooked element to strong marketing writing. Understanding and conveying complex concepts like cloud technologies, automation, or other common subjects in the B2B tech world is important. But conveying those concepts with the right words and phrases is absolutely imperative.

However, that doesn’t mean you have to suddenly become an expert in everything overnight. Instead, use these three tips I use to be smarter and more strategic in my word choices and therefore sound more expert than I really am:

Review competitors’ copy: A little opposition research goes a long way. Since you’re competing for the same audience (and eyeballs), taking a quick glance at your competitors’ marketing copy is an easy way to see how others are talking about the subjects, topics, and technologies you want to write about. Pay careful attention to the adjectives they use to describe the customer experience, the phrases they use to explain how the technologies work, and the tone of the copy.

Listen to how your current customers talk: There’s an old saying that “success leaves clues.” And if your company already has some happy, existing customers, they’ll be a treasure trove of insight. Identify the style, tone, and structure of your customers’ marketing materials and social media feeds to look for trends or similarities among them. This will help you understand the words, phrases, hashtags, and images they use to convey their value to their customers so you can begin to incorporate them into your own writing.

Interview a sales exec and a SME: Your sales team is on the front lines of your business. Every day they’re talking to prospects and influencers about business challenges and how to solve them. Who better to shed some light on the way prospects talk about those things? Set aside 15-20 minutes to interview a seasoned sales exec about the words and phrases they hear on a daily basis. Or, failing that, send a short questionnaire they can fill out in their very limited spare time (hence, “short” questionnaire).

Meanwhile, make sure to also have a short Q&A with someone on the technical side—a solution architect, engineer, or developer, etc.—who can help explain the technologies in greater detail. It’ll provide you the opportunity to ask pointed questions about how things work and compare the answers to the insights your sales team has provided so you can begin to translate them into more manageable, customer-friendly terms.

Unexpected influence from unexpected sources

Like most people, I had a late-night void to fill. I started watching Blue Bloods because a) it was conveniently rebroadcast during boring, infomercial-only time slots and b) because it’s Tom Freakin’ Selleck. But never in a million years did I envision that re-runs of a typical TV cop drama could be influencing my writing.

Turns out that my guilty TV pleasure has become a constant source of wisdom and insight. And I’m amazed how one scene from one episode opened my eyes to such a seemingly obvious truth about writing and communication: the words you choose matter—on TV and in business.