Want to Get Your Messaging Right? Start by Avoiding Jargon

When positioning your brand through copywriting, writing a thought leadership or writing an email there are some simple things businesses can do to avoid jargon. 

Nona Digital CEO, Mike Scott, and host of the How to be Moderately Successful podcast speaks with Azadeh Williams, founder and managing partner of AZK Media to discuss how businesses can avoid jargon and cliches. 

Azadeh Williams: Often jargon masks an inability to articulate what you do. It's this annoying and frustrating amateur speak in startup land we often see where, as soon as you ask: "What do you do?" there's this sort of gibberish with generic cliches thrown in. Technology is very complex, especially when it's innovative, new and fresh. That's one thing to focus on because it annoys customers, annoys journalists, and it annoys investors.

In healthcare, as an example, we exist to connect patients and health professionals in meaningful ways and optimise health outcomes by leveraging the power of machine learning. Instead, say we have a patient booking app that helps you save time and reduce patient no shows. 

Mike Scott: An earlier podcast guest was told by his mentor: “you only have two jobs as a CEO of a tech startup, one is to bring people along with you, sell the vision, sell the dream. And the other is to make sure you're never the smartest person in the room." 

To the first point, this brings people along with you. It's very difficult to do that unless you can explain what you do to a seven-year-old. If you can't explain it easily, you're not going to get people to buy-in, and you sure as hell are not going to get people to buy it. If you don't understand it well enough to make it simple, your clients are never going to understand it well enough either.

A tool that I use a lot for this is the Lean Canvas because the Lean Canvas asks you all the difficult questions about your business. What is different about you? What are the existing alternatives? What is unique about you? Why are you uniquely placed to deliver the service and others aren't? What are your channels? Who is your customer? What problem are you solving?

If you can't answer these questions, there is no way you're going to be able to get your marketing language right. I'm not a marketing person, what I do know though is if you don't have your business fundamentals right, you can hire the best marketing company in the world and it's not going to work, because you don't know what you're selling, you don't know what you're building.

Azadeh Williams: Another thing is when the founders are too shy. They've got an amazing product, an amazing solution, and they need to get out there and talk about it and be confident in it. But don't want to get out of their comfort zone, they don't want to go out and talk about their products. When they're not passionate about what they do, how are they going to get other people passionate about what they do? 

Mike Scott: That ability to evangelise your product and your culture and what you're doing in the world is important. The world has changed, you don't need to be the super flamboyant great public speaker, you can still be the tech founder that's a little bit nerdy, a little bit introverted, and still deliver a compelling message. It's not about being a super slick dresser and performance artist, it's about getting out there right and getting your message synced and delivered, all the time, consistently.

To learn more about how to articulate your marketing message for maximum impact, contact AZK Media.