It’s no secret that I hate jargon. It is one of the worst things to happen to marketing. And yet, it is everywhere, especially in B2B tech.
There is this misconception that jargon makes us sound smart. Distinguished. Trustworthy.
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but it’s actually the opposite. And when you throw jargon into your website copy, all you’re doing is turning people away.
The science of jargon (and why it’s bullshit)
Behavioural sociolinguistics, in simplified terms, is the study of how we communicate with each other to determine different forms of social currency, power, and relationship dynamics.
It was my favourite part of the linguistics half of my undergraduate degree. Just when you thought I couldn’t be any more of a nerd, you find out I literally went to uni to study word science.
Well over a decade ago, in my first year at uni, we studied the phenomenon of sociolinguistic divergence. And its counterpart, convergence.
Linguistic/lexical divergence and convergence definitions
Divergence: Using technical, esoteric, or group-specific language to distance yourself from another person
Convergence: Matching the language of another person or group in order to include yourself and establish a relationship of familiarity
Jargon is an example of upward divergence
It’s a classic power move. Typically, jargon is used with the expectation that it will make you harder to understand and therefore more intelligent than the person you’re speaking to.
And while it may give you and warm and fuzzy feeling of superiority, do you know what it does to the person/audience you’re speaking to? Alienates them.
That’s right. In your quest to be the smartest person in the room, the most trusted source of information, the cleverest consultant in all the land, you have in fact pissed off the person you were trying to sell to.
Modern marketing is about forging connection
We all know by now that making connections (and no, I don’t just mean on LinkedIn) is key to growing a business. So why would you waste that opportunity for the sake of showing everyone how clever you are?
The greatest skill a copywriter can possess is to translate complicated concepts into simple language. Our job is to ask questions, dig into the what, how, and why of the services and products our clients offer.
More than that. Our job is to forge connections between your business and a total stranger behind a screen. It’s no small feat and how we use language is such a key part of all of it.
Jargon doesn’t just come from performance
Sometimes, yes, jargon comes from an intentional upwards divergence. A business seeking to be seen as the authority on a subject so they reduce the readability of a whitepaper (true story from a previous client. Needless to say, we haven’t worked together since).
Or perhaps a new head of department desperate to make their mark and gain trust. (Trust me, it doesn’t work).
But sometimes, jargon comes from knowing too much. Being so close to a subject that you don’t know how to dumb it down or explain it in clear language. And this is an all too common issue I see with in-house subject matter experts.
A challenge, in fact, I was faced with repeatedly in a previous job when I worked in-house at an L&D tech company.
The curse of knowledge and the trappings of jargon
I’m currently reading Not Knowing by Steven D’Souza and Diane Renner. And It’s provided a perfectly succinct summary of the challenges we face when we rely solely on in-house subject matter experts to communicate our knowledge as a business:
Specialisation has its benefits, but also comes with a risk: the more competent we are, the more we are prone to falling prey to “the curse of knowledge”. The curse of knowledge means that the more you know, the harder it is to think and talk about your area of expertise in a simple way. We tend to communicate from too high a level, misjudging other people’s ability to understand us, causing confusion and hindering the learning of others.
But it is the next paragraph that hits home even more. Discussing jargon and complex language, D’Souza and Renner go on to say:
Jargon-laid language can also mask genuine knowledge — where an amateur has learned the relevant buzzwords or jargon and uses them to create the impression of knowledge. The audience is left worse off, whether they are confused by a true specialist or misled by someone who does not possess expertise by artfully uses jargon as a cover for their own ignorance.
- Steven D’Souza and Diane Renner, Not Knowing: The art of turning uncertainty into opportunity, 2014. Pages 40 – 41
The worst (and most common) shitty bits of jargon
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that marketing isn’t just as bad. If anything, we may be one of the worst industries for it.
You know what marketers fucking love? An initialism. We have SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), PPC (Pay Per Click), CPC (Cost Per Click), CTA (Call To Action), just to name a few.
I asked my friends on LinkedIn for their most hated jargon and buzzwords and they absolutely delivered. Here are some of my favourites:
Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sums – which apparently means ‘take pension savings in lump sums’
Imagineer – one of many bullshit words corps create to make their employees feel important or sound cool. I don’t think they succeed in either.
Low hanging fruit – this one takes me back to my days working in house at an L&D and HR Tech company. The CRO (my boss) LOVED all of this kind of thing. Another of his favourites was ‘let’s chew the fat’. Still makes me shudder
And of course, we had the classic bullshit we see all too often:
- Solution
- Disruptive
- Synergy/synergistic
- Sustainable (specifically when people are green washing)
If you want to see more of the answers, you can find them in the comments of the original LinkedIn post here.
Your content should bring people in, not push them out
Whether we are educating, selling, or entertaining, our content needs to invite people in. I have worked with businesses in the past who have clung too tightly to a need to look clever and it’s only hurt them in the end.
Translating complex concepts into simple language is a real skill. And a real demonstration of your understanding.
Keeping your language simple is a win-win. It’s more accessible, it’s more inviting, and people are more willing to invest in things they actually understand. There will always be a place for jargon. But take the time to explain what it means.
