The days of drawing out painfully long and unfortunately overwritten sentences are over. Our audience wants their information now and convenient. Gone are the days of writing poetic advertisements to draw in a crowd. We are now in a time of slang, acronyms, straight to the point branding. That is why these terms were over-used when they were popular and now they are simply just jargon. They are fillers when you don’t need them!
Let’s just dig right in.
Impactful. This is a terrible word that many people in business and education like to throw around to describe things that make an impact. It does not bring a vision to the mind and it will not actually impact your audience (see what I did there)
Leverage. This word is quite honestly the poster child of words that begin as nouns and now are being forced as verbs. This is not the word you want to use. Try influence, exploit, rely on or even stick to the good ol’ use.
Learnings. Yet another one of those sorry words that started as something else and transformed into something unfortunate. This word simply does not make sense and will get lost on your audience.
Synergy. This word is too snazzy. Yep, I said snazzy. It means help or combined effort. Why use a $1.00 word when a $.10 word will do. Your audience will thank you
Revolutionary. This is often used by older companies that are not actually revolutionary. Unless you invented something actually revolutionary, like a one day work week, don’t use it.
E-mail blast. Companies actually still use this term to describe an offer they emailed to their subscriber list. You are not a spammer. Do not “blast” your subscriber list.
Proactive. I know what you are thinking. You want your brand to be proactive instead of reactive. However, this word sounds pompous and arrogant.
Drill Down. This is just not a great term. I saw it in an email recently and it did not sit right. Use in-depth look or detailed look instead.
Incenting. Sales and managers love this word. It sounds like you are inviting someone into a dark alley and doing some low level deals. Try saying something like encourage or incentive
-IZE. Yes, any word that ends in -IZE. Productize, monetize, utilize, socialize… It brings the illusion that you are attempting to change or transform the audience as a whole. Not a great way to bring them into the fan base!
Solution. This is often used as brands are trying to solve the problems that their audience has. Instead, explain your product fully and give them the opportunity to use the word solve on their own in a great review!
Users. This is extremely dehumanizing. You are trying to build a trusting relationship with your audience and by thinking of them and portraying that they are users is demeaning to them.
Silly Phrases. This like Peel back the onion, Run it up the flagpole, Spinning your wheels and even the term Touch-base. These are silly and most know what they mean but some don’t. Some are region related, some are culture related and some just simply don’t make sense. Stay away from that sort of silliness. It will make you look too casual.
Offensive Phrases. This is extremely obvious. I mean to most. But the terms like Nazi (ex. Make-up Nazi) or Drinking the Kool-Aid is applied to accepting ideas or concepts. These two are rooted deep in unfortunate and regrettable events in history. You do not want to add those to your brand. It will be offensive and you will regret it.
These are just a few that I have seen lately. When writing copy or creating a brand voice you are going to want to create commentary that your audience will accept and value.
If you have any questions or need help with creating your brand or your social media please reach out! I would love to chat with you! Rvamppbranding@gmail.com
Jana
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