Skip to content

THE SEISMIC SPRING 2022 RELEASE IS HERE. Learn More

CHOOSE YOUR LANGUAGE

  • English
    • Enablement Cloud

      Meet the unified solution that’s igniting revenue growth for customer-facing teams.

      Learn More
    • PRODUCTS

      • Sales Content Management
      • Learning & Coaching
      • Buyer Engagement
      • Content Automation
      • Strategy & Planning
      • Enablement Intelligence
    • PLATFORM

      • Platform Overview
      • Integrations
    • What is Sales Enablement?

      New to sales enablement? No problem. Learn what it is and why it matters here.

      Learn More
    • USE CASES

      • Sales Enablement Teams
      • Sales Teams
      • Marketing Teams
    • INDUSTRIES

      • All Industries
      • Asset Management
      • Banking
      • Healthcare & Life Sciences
      • Technology
    • Read Their Stories

      Read how global customers from all different industries thrive with Seismic.

      Read Their Stories
    • CUSTOMER STORIES

      • Genesys
      • Deluxe
    • FOR OUR CUSTOMERS

      • Seismic University
      • Seismic Community
    • About Us

      Discover who we are, what we value, and how we work at Seismic.

      Learn More
    • ABOUT SEISMIC

      • Careers
      • Leadership
      • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Partners
      • Aftershock Store
      • Contact Us
    • NEWS

      • Newsroom
      • Analyst & 3rd Party Reports
      • Shift 2022
    • Sales Acceleration

      Explore best practices for onboarding, ramping, and upskilling your sellers.

      Learn More
    • WHAT'S NEW

      • Blog
      • Events & Webinars
    • COLLECTION HUBS

      • Resources Center
      • Enablement Explainers
      • AI-Guided Selling
      • Social Selling
      • Financial Services
      • Buyer Engagement
  • Get a Demo
Return to the Blog

5 Marketing Buzzwords To Scrap From Your Vocabulary

Remember when your middle school English teacher would write

Seismic
Seismic
September 9, 2014

10995842_sRemember when your middle school English teacher would write “show, don’t tell” in the margins on your descriptive writing? Well, marketers, you could benefit from relearning this lesson. In a world that is becoming more disruptive by the minute, it can be difficult to keep your messaging exciting and authentic. See, I used THREE of the stalest buzzwords just in that last sentence. Below are five buzzwords to rid from your vocabulary, and suggestions for freshening up your messaging.

  • Authentic: If you have to explain that your product or service is “authentic,” it’s probably not authentic enough. Let its features speak for themselves by demonstrating what makes you different.
  • Disruptive: This goes with “authentic.” There is clearly a need for your product, otherwise your company would have never been born. Use your messaging to show how you’re changing the landscape. It’s important to remember that every other company is trying to “disrupt” as well, so find a way to display how you’re ahead of the curve.
  • Exciting: People don’t appreciate being told how to feel; if you’re told a joke is funny or a movie is sad or a new product is exciting, they will try to find a way to disagree with you. Give them a tangible reason to be excited. Instead of describing your product as exciting, explain why with something like “This product will speed up your sales cycle by 51%.”
  • Game changer: Nowadays, everything seems to be a game changer. The word is used so often that we forget what “changing the game” really means. Shawn Parot from Fortune Cookie Advertising cites the automobile, smartphone and personal computer as the few real game changers. Is your product as revolutionary as the iPhone? Even if the answer is yes (and good for you, by the way!), explaining exactly how you’re solving a problem or problems will carry more weight than this oversaturated buzzword.
  • Impactful: This one was added to the dictionary in the past few years, mainly because of its recent (ab)use in the business and marketing world. While powerful, useful, and influential are some fresher alternatives, how about describing a measured way that your product (or person or feature you’re trying to describe) actually makes an impact?

Full disclosure: it was very difficult to write this without wanting to use the above buzzwords. When you see these words in everything you read all day every day, it’s easy to use them by default. You’ll differentiate yourself and your company just by consciously avoiding these buzzwords, let alone by changing your wording to show, not tell.  Make your past English teachers proud by being more descriptive and quantitative in your messaging.

  • content management
  • content marketing
  • marketing

Related articles

Illustration of woman holding a tablet

The 10 essential elements of a content marketing strategy

Everything you need to create (or reboot) your content marketing strategy.
Read More: The 10 essential elements of a content marketing strategy

What is marketing enablement?

Learn how marketing enablement drives alignment across GTM teams.
Read More: What is marketing enablement?
Illustration of a buyer interface on a mobile device.

Building trust through storytelling

The buyer is always the hero.
Read More: Building trust through storytelling

If you made it this far, we must be striking a chord.

Get a Demo
Seismic
  • Product
  • Seismic Enablement Cloud™
  • Sales Content Management
  • Learning & Coaching
  • Buyer Engagement
  • Content Automation
  • Strategy & Planning
  • Enablement Intelligence
  • Solutions
  • Sales Enablement Teams
  • Sales Teams
  • Marketing Teams
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Resources Center
  • Trending Topics
  • What is Sales Enablement?
  • What is AI-Guided Selling?
  • What is Social Selling?
  • Integrations
  • All Integrations
  • Google
  • Microsoft
  • Salesforce
  • COMPANY
  • Contact Us
  • Careers
ISO 27001 Certified by Schellman
  • © 2022 Seismic
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Follow us on Linkedin
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • Follow us on Facebook