One of our printing partners recently sent me a link to a graphic design shop's website. My friend had never seen the word creative used as a noun before. But that's not what struck me about the site.

Check out the opening lines: "We believe effective creative comes from critical thinking and that thinking cannot, and should not, be constrained within arbitrary parameters." That line is ironically followed later by this: "Simply stated, we are a jargon-free agency."

Huh?

It's not the big words that confuse me. (Give me a little credit, please.) I just wonder how people write stuff without ever thinking about how it reads. Especially to someone who doesn't know them at all, who is gathering their first impressions about this firm and the people who work there.

But as overwrought as that web copy is, it has been topped. I've seen much, much worse in several industries.

When you write and speak -- in marketing, in sales, in customer service -- speak your customer's language. Impress them with your command of their needs and your own solutions, not the far reaches of your extensive personal lexicon.

Labels: bad habits, customer centered, marketing, messaging