Greetings, discerning readers!
There’s little that bothers me more than a certain style of writing practiced too often in our industry. Rather than creativity and effort—and in place of good, clear writing—it relies on jargon and hackneyed phrases to describe products or companies.
In short, it’s a lazy style of writing. (I use “style” for lack of a better word—it is that in much the same way speech liberally sprinkled with cusswords is a “style” of speech.)
Which is why I like Peter Cohan’s article in this week’s issue, “The Content-Free Buzzword-Compliant Vocabulary List.” In it, Peter lists 14 words and phrases that should be permanently banned from presentations, demos, Web sites, collateral… and pretty much anything that represents your company.
Think of it as a marketing version of George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words You Can Never Say on Television.” In this case, use them at the risk of offending your customers.
Also, be sure to check out this issue’s meaty Premium piece by Jeff Mauzy. In part 2 of this four-part series on profitable customer-centric strategies, Jeff takes over from Michael Lowenstein. He describes how your organization can use innovation and creativity to capture, manage and apply customer insight to achieve strategic goals.
If your creative juices have turned to frozen concentrate, Jeff provides the necessary thaw to get them flowing again.
Thanks for stopping by. And let me know what you think. As always, your feedback is both welcome and appreciated.
Until next time,
Ann Handley
ann@marketingprofs.com
MarketingProfs.com
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