Oh jeez, not another flexible, scalable, mission-critical, industry-standard, cutting-edge product from a market-leading, well positioned company! Ugh. I think I'm gonna puke!
Just like with a teenager's use of catch phrases, I notice the same words cropping up again and again - so much so that the gobbledygook grates against my nerves and many other people's, too. Well, duh. Like, companies just totally don’t communicate very well, you know?
Most of the thousands of Web sites I've analyzed over the years and the hundred or so news releases I receive each week are laden with these meaningless gobbledygook phrases.
To create effective marketing, Web content that people want to share, you must eliminate gobbledygook.
Whenever you set out to create something to reach people, you should be developing content specifically for one or more of the buyers that you want to reach. You should avoid jargon-laden phrases that are over-used in your industry. In the technology business, words like "mission-critical," "industry-standard," and "cutting-edge" are what I call gobbledygook. And the worst gobbledygook offenders seem to be business-to-business technology companies.
For some reason, marketing people at technology companies have a particularly tough time explaining how products solve customer problems. Because these marketers don’t understand how their products solve customer problems, or are too lazy to write for buyers, they cover by explaining myriad nuances of how the product works and pepper this blather with industry jargon that sounds vaguely impressive.
If you want to be successful online, eliminate the gobbledygook and speak like a real person. Use the words and phrases that your buyer personas use.
If you want to learn more, consider reading my (free) Gobbledygook Manifesto published by ChangeThis.
