Ah, the good ol' Flux Capacitor, that opus creation of Dr. Emmett Brown, enabling an ordinary DeLorean to travel through time in a flash of fire and light. Only one problem -- it doesn't exist. They made it up.

When your writing is intended to sell or explain a product or service, that kind of creativity can backfire. Your audience knows who's in charge – and it isn't you. They'll change the channel or hit the "delete" or "back" button the instant they decide they have no interest in what you're trying to say. And this is where flux capacitors can get you into trouble.

When you're trying to connect with your audience (and ultimately, get them to buy from you), every word or phrase has to be carefully crafted and considered. You have to decide what you're trying to make them take away and then say it in no uncertain terms. It doesn't matter how clever a turn of phrase is if it makes your reader stop reading. By now, you have to be wondering what flux capacitors have to do with copywriting. Think of it in terms of someone who's never seen Back to the Future. "What's a flux capacitor? Sure, it sounds like a real word, but what does it have to do with me? Am I stupid? Behind the times? Or is this email newsletter just not intended for me?" *Delete*

What's That Buzzing Noise?

Sometimes, flux capacitors come in the form of buzzwords. The problem with buzzwords is that half the time they're so overused they lose all real meaning and the other half, they're not words your audience would have any reason to know (industry-specific terms, for instance).

For example, a lot of my business clients really like the phrase "outside the box." It's one I'm frequently asked to work into their project. But, it's hard to work that into the copy when nothing they're doing really is "outside the box." If you say it's "outside the box" and it's not, you've lost all credibility. And to be sure, others have used it so often when it's not true, some readers dismiss that phrase altogether, so it may even be a bad idea when your concept really is "outside the box."

This is pretty common when people try to integrate their favorite marketing- or business-related buzzwords into their advertising copy. In general, if any word you're using sounds too much like "marketing speak" or fits in any way shape or form into a well-crafted human resources goal matrix, you should reconsider (unless those are the audiences you're targeting). And if your 12-year-old has no idea what you mean by…

our solution will create synergy within your customer-centric paradigms, increasing core competency and accountability management  with incremental learning metrics and outside-the-box approaches to…" (you get the picture)

…neither will most of your target audience. They may not be 12, but they don't have all day to work out your flowchart of modifiers and adjuncts, either. (And is it just me, or does that not actually mean anything?)

Alien Nation

Sometimes you can lose readers by using language they just don't know. They may be perfectly legitimate words. They aren't hateful or biased words. They're just words that most people don't use in their daily vocabulary. Maybe it's a word you found when you looked up "teamwork" in the thesaurus and found "synergy" and thought that would make you sound really smart. Maybe it's a word you use frequently because of your familiarity with a particular industry (e.g., ROI, parse, ratline).

For example, I have one client who really likes the word "cadre." He uses it frequently in communications with long-time colleagues. There's nothing wrong with that word in general. It has a very specific meaning with connotations you can't often find with similar words or phrases like "crew" or "work force." A majority of his long-time contacts have a similar background, so they all know what he means.

However, it has a distinctly military connotation overall. Indeed, as a Vietnam veteran, that's likely where he added that phrase to his daily vocabulary. Unfortunately, it probably means very little to most people in his more general target audience. Had we used that word on his website, he probably would've lost a large portion of his audience as they either a) went to a more customer-friendly website for the information they needed or b) rushed off to Dictionary.com to look it up and realized they must be on the wrong website if a military term is being tossed around. Think of all the lost potential sales!

Don't Dumb it Down, Just Simplify

The best advice here is to keep it simple and use the same words you'd use if you were explaining your job or company to an outsider (because you are). Don't get fancy with your thesaurus and the vocabulary words from your advanced aviation class. Just talk to people in a language they understand. There's no need to dumb it down. People just don't have time to painstakingly read every single thing trying to find the relevant information (and there are other devices to help with that, but we'll discuss that in another blog). Simplifying won't make you relevant if you're not, but it will give you a shot at the people who really need you.