Marketing Buzzwords – They Must Die
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Here at Miles Design we’re looking to collaboratively administrate empowered markets via extensible researched growth strategies. We’re looking to credibly generate turnkey marketing solutions that will empower and motivate segmented audiences. Bottom line: we’re looking to dramatically engage top-line web services vis-à-vis cutting edge deliverables.
Did you catch all that?
Good, because you shouldn’t have. It literally meant nothing. Stay with me on this, there’s a point I’m trying to make…
I am morally opposed, and almost professionally incapable of utilizing vocabulary in this fashion. Marketing buzzwords, they’re just not helpful. The main problem with on-page online marketing these days are that we’re not making things simple enough. The Internet is already filled with a ton of crap we don’t understand and don’t have the time to digest. The name of the game in content driven online marketing is simple and instructive education for our audiences. Make sure your brand communicates your message clearly and definitively. It’s time we stop over complicating our own vernacular lingo and keep things simple.
Recently the team here at Miles Design has been commenting about the latest viral videos popping up that are centered around poking fun at marketing-esque buzzwords. Check this video out from Adobe, for example:
Lets face it; we’re all guilty of this practice from time to time. These words weren’t just derived from thin air. At some point they actually meant something to someone and in most cases they still do. However, these buzzwords aren’t clear and definitive. They’re confusing and time consuming to understand. These facts, unfortunately, aren’t keeping brands from plastering buzzwords all over their websites. When I see this happening it makes me cringe.
It’s important to remember that the vast majority of information that our audiences are finding on the Internet cannot be trusted. As marketing professionals we need to reel ourselves back in and get back to providing and delivering useful and educational information that they can trust. And lets not forget, it’s the same useful and informative content that breeds a wealth of organic search traffic.
Pro Tip: Search engines are just as bad as humans when it comes to understanding and interpreting buzzword lingo.
The same goes for consultative marketing, whether you’re in-house or in an agency setting. Your employers and your clients don’t want you to tell them that you’re going to create ROI focused synergies in an effort to seamlessly coordinate organic lead growth strategies. They want you to tell them the following:
I want to do (x). If I do (x), I expect (y). I will gauge the success of (y) via monitoring (a) & (b). If we don’t see (y) after our pre-determined amount of time, we will analyze (a) & (b) and determine where we went wrong. Then we will fix it and try it again.
Example: I want to do a case study. If I do a case study I will increase leads. I will gauge the success of my case study via monitoring conversion rates of the landing page, form and call to action (CTA), as well as click through rates (CTR) from organic, paid, referral (social, email, external blogs) and direct traffic sources. If we don’t see an increase in leads after 1 month, we will analyze the aforementioned data and assess where the data tells us we failed. We will then create a plan to fix those failures and try this tactic again.
From this style of clear communication we gain several things:
- 1. A clearly defined action
- 2. A clearly defined goal
- 3. A timeline
- 4. A clearly defined set of data from which to gauge success/failure
That’s a marketing tactic, sans buzzwords. That’s how you spell it out for your employer and/or your clients. The most valuable quality from the approach to tactical marketing/consulting is that you will learn as you go. If something doesn’t work, you will understand why and you will fix it and try it again. It’s the scientific method for marketing. If science swears by it, why shouldn’t we do the same as marketers?
It’s important to remember that people and business have not changed much over the years. For the most part people only care about 2 things: TIME & MONEY. Stop wasting both of these valuable assets with buzzwords that no one understands. Lets get back to basics. Lets keep this simple.
Rob Williams
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Nice post Rob. One of the challenges in marketing is deciphering the real meaning, the nuts and bolts, from how we all use the terminology. For example, we are beginning to see a bit of backlash where the use of the term content marketing is concerned. Why? Quite simply, because content, like SEO, like social, like many other tactical points, doesn’t exist in a vacuum. all of them are linked, regardless of whether the marketer wants to understand it, or take advantage of it. I get concerned when someone only talks about social marketing, or content marketing, because it tends to move the focus away from an integrated approach, to one that looks more like a sideshow.
Marty, I couldn’t agree with you more. Now, more than ever, there exists a need for a strategical integration of content strategies. It’s a complex relationship, and it’s typically quite difficult for companies to comprehend how their various content outlets can be integrated and utilized. From my experience, the majority of companies taking a “check-list” approach to their marketing: SEO (check), Social (check), Case Studies, etc (check). While this approach can and has been effective, it’s time for companies to step it up and take an integrated approach. Thanks for the comment!
Great post, Rob. Isn’t ironic that, for some people, it’s easier to speak in buzzwords than speak in words that are easily understood?