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The plain and simple answer to good communication

April, 2024

Choose your language to suit your audience and don't over-complicate, advises Erica Jones, Account Director at Kent-based PR, marketing and public affairs agency Maxim.

Communication is something we all do every day. We communicate with our family and friends, with our pets, with our colleagues, with our customers. We communicate in person, on the phone, online, possibly even by post. The simple fact of how much we all communicate means it would be easy to assume we’re all very good at it. The reality is something else.

Have you noticed how different your communication can be depending who you’re engaging with? You might send kisses at the end of family emails but would never dream of doing the same to your boss, or perhaps you’ll throw in a private joke in conversation with a good friend, something no one else will understand. We don’t necessarily notice, but we modify our language to suit our audience all the time. At least, we think we do.

That’s not always the case when it comes to marketing. Often, an organisation will be so caught up in the facts of their product or services they forget about communicating that information in a way the user will understand.

Over-complicated

For example, are you looking for an environmentally-friendly receptacle that’s made from 100% recycled product, is 100% recyclable at end of life, and will retain heat for eight hours?

I admit, I’ve made this up to save any blushes, but it’s not far off a marketing email I’ve received, and it’s not uncommon for us to hear similar from people who get in touch asking us to promote their work. Fortunately for us, the latter at least understand the benefit of following the advice they pay for and let us modify their language for them.

So what was the product in my example? A travel mug.

Clear and simple

Yes, all of the detail in the description is important, but by shoving it all into the product title, rather than providing it as follow-up information, the message of what the item actually is gets lost. Instead we’d write a title: eco-friendly travel mug. Followed by a description: keep your drinks hot on the go for up to eight hours in this 100% recycled and recyclable travel mug.

Yes, a picture would clear all this up in an instant, but people search the internet using words, and even emails download text before images: words matter.

In the case of this travel mug, and most marketing and publicity, less is more: a few carefully chosen words will have infinitely more impact than overblown descriptions. Consider political slogans and the trend for three-word phrases, or successful advertising campaigns, it’s the short, snappy slogans that win the day.

Careful balance

When it comes to longer pieces of text – marketing brochures, or perhaps advice articles in magazines – the language again needs to be modified. Yes, it can be longer than a short, snappy headline, but there still has to be a careful balance between technical jargon and flowing description. No one would thank me if this article stretched to thousands of words, however if I was writing an in-depth profile about an organisation, and its varied products, an extended feature may be exactly what’s needed.

Even then, the language needs to be carefully considered. It’s surprisingly common for people to think long, descriptive sentences are a sign of being clever, but overblown language and unnecessarily complicated language can do more harm than good. No one wants to feel stupid because they don’t understand the words in front of them, least of all customers with money to spend. Which is worth remembering next time you’re promoting a new product or service.

This article originally appeared in Kent Director.

Erica Jones - Account Director

Erica Jones

Maxim / Account Director

posted in: advice, marketing, public relations,

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