On the eighth day of Content, a random writer gave to me …

Eight “weasel-y” marketing words we all need to stop using.

Business writing seems to be caught up in some sort of vocabulary brinkmanship. (Quick confession: I actually thought this was “brinksmanship,” so I should have included this word in our recent “Six Words You May Not be Spelling Correctly” blog.)

Anyway, vocabulary brinkmanship is my way of saying that marketers have escalated the use of some terrible, “weasel-y” marketing words and phrases. But just like superpowers negotiating a nuclear arms agreement, no one will back down until others do, too.

First though, what is a weasel-y marketing word? They’re a subset of the larger class of typical marketing buzzwords (“leverage,” “granular,” “bandwidth” “ideation,” and more), but they’re worse because they lay a claim that our products and services are much better than they actually are. I think you’ll see what I mean.

So this is my appeal that we all stand down. Collectively speaking, we need to either stop using these meaningless words and phrases, or at least only use them when appropriate – with the right context and proof.

Eight Weasel-y Marketing Words We All Need to Stop Using

1. World-class/best-in-class. It’s so easy to throw this phrase into copy to describe just about anything, but does that make it true? Of course not. So many writers do it now that it’s lost all meaning. Michael Phelps, Miss America, and France’s World Cup winning soccer team can all say they’re world class. Your start-up’s brand new product? Not so much.
2. Industry-leading. This follows the same logic as above. Without real proof – market-share dominance, third-party awards, or other recognition – chances are that these claims aren’t true.
3. Near real-time. Admittedly, not as common as the first two, but I had to include it. This is the technology equivalent of saying “almost pregnant.” In either example, you can get as close as you want, but proximity to the desired status doesn’t do you any good.
4. Seamlessly integrated. If every integrating technology was as seamless as marketing teams claim, why is there such a huge market for professional services and third-party integration providers?
5. Disruptive. We all know market disruptors when we see them, such as Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Uber, and other examples. Is your company or product really in the same category? Didn’t think so.
6. Completely transparent. It’s a nice sentiment – that any company would be honest, open, and forthcoming with any information its customers need – but unfortunately, it’s just not how things work.
7. Optimized. Is anything really ever optimized – as good as they can possibly get? Even if this is true, is it a result of a technology product?
8. Innovative. This last one is a little challenging because many companies do have innovative products and services. But I had to include it because of its overuse. Use “innovative” sparingly and only describe things that truly are.

As a caveat, I totally understand what happens behind the curtain. Sometimes marketing defaults to “It’s just a claim. We don’t need to prove it until the prospect asks us to.”

But at the same time, I know I’m right to be a bit cynical about the overuse of these words. Not because it’s my opinion, but because I asked a pool of talented content marketers, writers, and product marketers (thanks, all!) and, let’s just say it was scary how much overlap there was in their responses.

So my gift here is the recommendation that we only use words with real meaning, or that have specific evidence to support their claim. You might be surprised in how saying less can make your content stronger.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog, which will feature nine slightly advanced edits I make every single day. So if you’d like to be a little better writer and editor, it might have a little something for you.

Writing standards have gone down, yet prospects continue to be put off by content they don’t need or want. Running Start Communications is a content marketing studio focused on helping companies differentiate themselves through better strategies and execution. Visit our website to learn more.