What Using All Those Big Words Is Really Saying About You [Marketing Mojo Video]

Jun 2017

If your content is loaded down with big words and convoluted sentences, you may be sending a hidden message to your audience … and it’s not a pretty one:

This week, I challenge you to take a good honest look at your writing. Are you communicating brilliant ideas clearly and simply … or are you just trying to look brilliant?

As content marketers, our mission is to serve our audience, not our own egos. If you’re making people work to understand your ideas, you’re failing in your mission.

Allow me to leave you with this parting thought, courtesy of English author Graham Swift:

“The real art is not to come up with extraordinary clever words but to make ordinary simple words do extraordinary things. To use the language that we all use and to make amazing things occur.”

Today’s Video Transcript

Monday Morning Marketing Mojo

Hey folks! Rachel here with your Monday Morning Marketing Mojo. Good morning to you. Hope you had a wonderful weekend! And I got to tell you Summer has arrived here in the city of Houston, you see the humidity here is popping out all over, and it is like walking into a great big old warm wet sponge, when we go outside, but hey, we are all smiles here at ‘Resonance‘, you see I got my Smiley mug for this Monday morning and we are ready for a fantastic week.

So today I want to talk about writing, and specifically about style of writing. You know sometimes I will; I’m constantly taking in content and I will go out searching for something and I will see an article or a blog post on a topic that I really want to look at, that looks really good to me, and I will click over to that post and the author is so in love with his big words and, his big convoluted sentences that the thing is almost incomprehensible.

Now I’m a reasonably smart person with a pretty good vocabulary and it wasn’t that I couldn’t understand it, but it’s just that I was having to work to understand it, and needless to say I don’t stick around at those posts very long, and it reminds me of an experience I had a couple of years ago. I was driving around Houston with a friend of mine, we were just tootling around, and we pulled up at a red light and next to us pulled up this huge, massive pickup truck. This was a big huge truck with the jacked up tires and the dual mufflers so it went bham bham bham bham bham, I mean this huge massive truck, and my friend looked over at this truck and said “hmm wonder what he’s compensating for?” now that comment I will leave it as is, but it reminds me of how it comes across when we approach our content with these big words and these convoluted sentences, and from the authors perspective it might be like “hey that’s just the way I write. That’s just the way I communicate” but the way it comes across to the reader is that what you’re saying is – my ideas aren’t good enough, they aren’t insightful enough to make an impact if they are presented in clear down to earth language. So I need to couch that in all this convoluted terminology and all these complex sentence structures, because that’s going to make me sound smart, because you’re going to look at this and say- wow this is a smart person. These must be really good ideas, even though I don’t have the time to understand this article.

Moral of the story is, when you approach your content, think about clear down to earth language, because that is really going to let your ideas shine. You’re not hiding them behind all this jargon and terminology and sentences that go on for 24 – 30 words and make up a whole paragraph. Communicate simply and that’s going to let your readers really quickly comprehend what you’re really talking about. They’re going to take in your ideas and they are going to appreciate your attention to their experience of taking in your content.

That is it for today’s Mojo. If you want to learn more about the magic of simple down to earth communication I recommend you pick up a copy of “The Content Marketing Coach- Everything You Need to Get in the Game and …Win! ” to learn more about the book and to download a free chapter go to http://contentmarketingcoachbook.com/, wish you a wonderful week and I will see you again next Monday. Take care.

To learn more about the magic of down-to-earth writing, grab a copy of The Content Marketing Coach: Everything You Need to Get in the Game … and WIN. To learn more about the book and to download a free chapter, visit contentmarketingcoachbook.com!

Remember to snag your copy of The Content Marketing Coach: Everything You Need to Get in the Game … and WIN! — now available on Amazon!

Find out how to connect and convert with content marketing.
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About the Author

A self-described geek who can recite entire episodes of South Park by heart, Rachel Parker has had a passion for content ever since she was old enough to hold a crayon (purple, please).

As Founder and CEO of Resonance, Rachel helps businesses publish content that connects with their audience … and converts those followers into customers. She’s also the host of the Content Marketing Podcast and author of the book The Content Marketing Coach: Everything You Need to Get in the Game … and WIN!

Our Clients Are Saying

Increased website traffic, New Lead Generation

We were experiencing a lack of internal resources to consistently maintain the Ustream blog. So we turned to Resonance Content Marketing to write blog posts on current industry topics while maintaining a consistent tone with the brand. The result is increased website traffic, new lead generation from gated assets on blog, and better educated/qualified leads. And I now have more time to spend on marketing strategy with the confidence that the content we push out is extremely well written and engaging.

Rachel is an amazing writer and has really managed to create engaging and relevant blog material on topics that aren’t always super interesting. On many occasions, she has been able to quickly turn around one-off requests and the results are always top-notch. She has also helped guide our content strategy based on her expertise in content marketing, which has been a huge asset to our team.
Social Media Ranking Better Than Ever!

We are so happy to have hired Resonance for our social media needs. We spend most of our time serving our clients and studying our field so we can provide the highest quality possible. We no longer worry about our social media, as we have total confidence in the wonderful work Rachel and her team have accomplished.

Our social media is active, promoted, and is ranking better than ever! People often comment about what they see on our Facebook page. Resonance has added a creative, and artistic twist to our social media that is appealing and captivating to our audience. This has allowed me more time to work with my team and clients, so I can focus on service towards the people that help our business grow.

I know there will be wonderful content on Facebook, and that Rachel will answer to posts, comments and questions as soon as a comment arrives. I am often impressed at how quickly she responds! Thank you Resonance! I highly endorse Resonance and encourage companies who need social media strategies to work with Resonance! You won’t regret it!
Increased our likes and interaction rates

Working with Rachel was a delight. Not only does she communicate very well, but she provided valuable insight about our social media platforms and followers. We have much better engagement with our fans and followers, which increased our likes and interaction rates.
Event Sold Out Two Years In A Row!

Rachel worked with me on creating a content marketing calendar and content for the Big Social Media Summit (Big SMS) three years in a row. She is very organized and knows just the right amount of posts on social, email newsletters and content to send. Her content marketing efforts helping us sell out our event three years in a row! I am expecting the same for October 2014.

Rachel was hired to write content for our email newsletter and content for our social platforms. In addition, she had a budget to do advertising on social media. She participated in the event live and after the fact to assure buzz was created before, during and after the event. As a result, our event sold out.

When I work with Rachel, I have total peace of mind. I know that she is on target, on time, reliable and delivers over and above the results I expect.

I trust Rachel totally with her ideas on strategy, marketing and the content used to not only promote our events, but also post on my behalf on social networks. I have been doing social media for 8 years, and I hire Resonance to post on some of my social sites as it saves me time, and keeps my social sites relevant and current. They always post great, engaging content that gets my social properties likes, comments and shares.
Added 5 figures to my business in less than 4 weeks

Rachel took the overwhelm and stress out of writing content for my marketing campaign! When I approached Rachel, I was really concerned that I wouldn’t have the time to focus on writing copy for a lengthy marketing campaign that included sales pages, solo emails, newsletters and social media updates. Well, let’s just say I’m glad I hired Rachel because I couldn’t have done it without her support and expertise. I loved how she used my voice and words to craft content that helped me reach and attract my ideal client. As a result of working with Rachel, I added 5 figures to my business in less than 4 weeks, hundreds of new social media followers and exceeded my sales and list building goals! You know your marketing copy is working when you hear someone say, “I see you everywhere”. Thank you Rachel for helping me not only get seen by my ideal clients but get paid!
One of the best “vendor” relationships I’ve ever had.

My company had little or no time to spend on social media. Our needs were to ensure a steady stream of posts across three platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) by harvesting and re-purposing content from our own site and news streams. So I contacted Rachel Parker of Resonance Content Marketing.

The result was two-fold. Not only did our ranks of followers grew steadily, the steady drip, drip, drip of content helped us train our personnel and direct their own individual social media efforts.

Rachel and her team are extremely organized and open to discussion and new ideas. They deliver a rapid response to new opportunities — and an overall feeling of being on the same team. One of the best “vendor” relationships I’ve ever had.
Produced ROI Result

Form.io needed someone who could grasp the complexities of our product, capture the subtlety of our differentiating value propositions, and convey them in the right voice for an exacting customer audience…. Resonance delivered, by crafting a multi-faceted online content marketing strategy that drove traffic and conversion, producing the ROI result we were looking for….
Professionalism and Sincere Desire to Help

I just didn’t seem to be able to find the time or the right words to explain what I offer and how my company helps people accomplish their goals. Rachel was able to ask me some questions, do some research and capture my voice while writing my website copy exactly as I needed it to be written. Now, the copy on my website is much more professional than what I would have created and having this task handled by Rachel and Resonance freed up my time to complete other tasks I am better suited to do.

It was a joy to work with Rachel. Her professionalism and sincere desire to help was apparent from the first communication until the final delivery. I will definitely use Resonance again and highly recommend their services.