Phrases that have passed their sell by date.

[ppentertainments]

"State of the art" - nah. Everyone's using the same generic kit these days. It's part of the reason I do so well on the retro kit because it's different to what everyone else is using. The only thing (apart from price/brand of kit) which separates most of us these days is whether or not we DMX the lights or let them run S2L doing their own thing....and even then I'm not convinced a lot of customers notice.

I often have similar conversations. When I was starting off I used a couple of Skytec speakers and some Acme Firebird lights and people enjoyed themselves, I have invested in kit over time but don't think people enjoy themselves any more.

What made me realise this is I offer a 'free disco' after my Race Nights. Basically I turn the music up and have one of the aforementioned Acme Firebird lights sitting on the floor underneath the projector. Quite often sound comes from 2 8" W-audio speakers. People dance, people enjoy themselves and I have actually had wedding disco bookings purely based on this.

High end corporate events are different, but for parties, weddings etc I think the only people that notice anything other than how tidy the setup is are other DJs. In fact over Xmas I am going back to using the Firebirds

[funkymook]

OK - I know that's the way we should all work anyway, but the number of customers I speak to where they've contacted me through my sites which don't mention this sort of thing and ask about can they choose some songs etc. is staggering. Nothing wrong with making things obvious

And that’s the other side of the coin - by avoiding the same familiar phrases or mentioning the obvious in an attempt to stand out from the masses are you actually putting yourself at a disadvantage? You have to have content and it has to be easy to read and understand so it’s near enough impossible to avoid using the same words as everybody else. So maybe the key isn’t so much what you say but how it looks, a beautiful, easy to navigate website will win over a boring clunky one even if the content is exactly the same.

What really misses the mark in my opinion is lists of equipment and in-depth technical details - does a prospective client really need to know the make and model of your speakers and how many watts and maximum spl they are or an itemised list of every bit of kit you own? (I’ve seen whole pages of this on some DJ sites).

[Corabar Steve]

Me too and I thought i was being original. Clearly not.

Attachment 18142

But it works as a tag line for your brand.

(& at least it's not You're )

[Nakatomi]

Here's an interesting list then.

Uplighting.

Gobo projection.

Dry ice

Look how many people expect punters to know what they mean by uplighting. More accurate & descriptive to call it mood lighting isn't it? As for 'custom gobos' - I've seen one local lad advertising this. Bet he's wondering why takeup of it isn't great.

Technical terms folks. They really are a turnoff

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

IMO I don't think the vast majority of the crowd notices unless a very professionally produced lightshow is utilised, and how often is this the case, considering the time/skill required to produce/program such a bespoke show for an average priced gig ? Very rarely I would guess, for the majority of gigs, the money required is just not there.

I dunno about that - I call it the "Andy effect" I have a pal who likes his music and plays piano but has never played in a band and doesn't do live gigs (I think he saw the quo with his dad when he was about 10...)

We were in a pub one night watching a band and he turned to me and asked me why the band weren't very good.

The guitar was fractionally out of tune and the drummer was dragging the tempos a tiny amount. To someone who doesn't really know about bands or live music - Andy couldn't tell what was wrong, he just knew the band weren't as good as they should be.

I on the other hand could tell exactly why they weren't sounding great.

Taking that to the light example - a punter might not even have a clue that DMX exists or what the lights are doing but they'll certainly "notice" whether they walk into a room and there's a nice DMX'd light show going on that fits with the vibe and music as the night progresses as opposed to one where the lights are set S2L and just left to go mental.

They may not sit and go "Ah, the DJ is clearly DMXing those fixtures" but they will notice on some level that it looks good because it's not just a bunch of lights going mental.

Case in point a local DJ posted a first dance pic where the girl was lit up like a Christmas tree (seriously, lots of green and red going on that dress) and it looked appalling - you don't need to have a degree in lighting technology as a punter to realise it looks rotten.

As for the OP.

I use a reasonable amount of those phrases or something similar and I'm still upping my prices and as busy as I want to be so from my point of view, it's certainly not harmful.

I don't look at other folks websites any way so I'm not sure how often these pop up but bear in mind a punter is going to book a party or wedding DJ once in a blue moon and only look at a handful of options (if even that) I don't think they're going to notice or burn out on the phrases as much as a DJ.

I do think listing equipment is ridiculous but if it's a brand they'll know (i.e. Bose or Apple) then I don't see a problem mentioning it in passing - why have the quality gear if you can't use it as a wee marketing extension? But a rig rundown talking about HK speakers and Serato

[Daryll]

I often have similar conversations. When I was starting off I used a couple of Skytec speakers and some Acme Firebird lights and people enjoyed themselves, I have invested in kit over time but don't think people enjoy themselves any more.

What made me realise this is I offer a 'free disco' after my Race Nights. Basically I turn the music up and have one of the aforementioned Acme Firebird lights sitting on the floor underneath the projector. Quite often sound comes from 2 8" W-audio speakers. People dance, people enjoy themselves and I have actually had wedding disco bookings purely based on this.

High end corporate events are different, but for parties, weddings etc I think the only people that notice anything other than how tidy the setup is are other DJs. In fact over Xmas I am going back to using the Firebirds

Absolutely correct

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I use the 'Request Friendly' line everywhere I possibly can and I have yet to see it elsewhere.

Other than that, I agree with everything else so far.
I particularly liked Toby's "Gig Pig" comment but I won't go into why as I'll probably get blasted for it from an observer (cryptic? yes).

Award winning, state of the art.... seen it all before.