One of my marketing pet peeves is when someone over-uses marketing jargon.
I see it as a sign of insecurity at best, or an attempt to bewilder or confuse people at worst.
If you’re a marketing advisor, your job is to speak in a language your clients understand. An educated client is a happy client, after all.
Advisory work is a form of advocacy. To look out for your clients and help them see the big picture. You can’t do that if their eyes glaze over when you speak.
Sure, there are cases where technical language needs to be used. I’m not saying to throw precise language out the door.
But if you want to advocate for your clients and help them really understand things, avoid jargon whenever possible.
Explain things like you would to a kid.
On a related note:
A client sent me this today which is hilariously on-topic: http://jargon.columnfivemedia.com/
It generates text full of marketing jargon and exemplifies what I mean really well.
Here’s an example:
ROI flat design integrated seamless reaching out hashtag SEO. Integrated flat design scalability platform quiet period. CPM branding The Cloud. Synergies disruptive tech alignment omnichannel meme. Blogosphere fanbassador user-friendly quiet period curated click-through rate robust. Shoptimization buzzword content curation click bait target audience alignment pivot. Quiet period hackathon chatvertizing. Brand awareness context conversation marketing pass the clap. Lean content cross-device CRM iterative integrated. B2B platform synergies. Tweens B2C branding dynamic content platform cross-device context.
Did your eyes glaze over after a sentence or two? That’s exactly my point. 🙂
Enjoy!