In today’s short episode, I’m asking the question: Where did we go wrong with marketing language? 

When did we become fixated on using such impersonal terms to talk about attracting clients & taking them through our buyer journey?

Listen in to hear why I believe the language we use to describe common marketing tactics is void of human-oriented, connection-based language, and why this matters.

Got thoughts on this episode? I’d love you to screenshot and share this episode on Instagram stories and tag me @hayleymaxwellwrites or send me a DM. 

TRANSCRIPT



Well, hello, hello, and welcome to episode three of the fierce impact podcast. And in today’s short episode, I’m asking the question, where did we go wrong with marketing language.

So probably for about the last 18 months, I’ve been really thinking about the language we use to describe the marketing tactics that we use in our business. And one of the big questions that has been playing on my mind is, you know, when did we become fixated on using such impersonal terms to talk about attracting clients and taking them through our buyer journey. So when we think about the full marketing cycle, we see words like leads, and lead magnet, trip wires, squeeze pages, subscribers, funnels, and more. And I don’t know about you, but this kind of language, to me, conveys images of sort of being captured and stuffed and squeezed and molded into position. So yes, this is an exaggeration, but you get my point.

So when you look at the marketing terms that we use the things like tripwires and squeeze pages, they are void of human oriented connection based language, it’s been stripped away.

When we’re thinking about what we’re trying to do, which is attracting clients to, to join us to come to us and work with us, then why are we using such impersonal language to talk about those methods that we’re using in order to attract people. So, you know, in my opinion, this kind of language just promotes a really sterile way of looking at the client journey. So it’s focused on leads, so people existing to be won or lost. So it really puts that emphasis on, you know, winning or losing. And absolutely, we all need new clients to earn money. Otherwise, we don’t have a business, we don’t have a livelihood, and we can’t make a difference in our own lives or in other people’s lives, the lives of people that we really, really want to help through our services.

But, you know, I really believe that the sterile language that we’re using can make us forget that behind each of those words, so behind that lead magnet that tripwire you know, there is actually a real human. So, you know, behind that funnel that we’re creating, there is a person with a beating heart and feelings. And each person has their own hopes and desires and worries and struggles, just like you and I do. I’ve always strongly believed that words matter that words have power, because words frame the way that we feel about and perceive things.

So how the very language that we’re using ourselves, shape our own thoughts. And so you can see, when you use very sterile language to describe marketing and sales tactics, it can begin to erode our sense of feeling about what we’re doing. So it kind of puts that takes the emotion out of it takes the human connection out of it when we’re using these sterile marketing terms. And so, you know, it strips it back to feeling like a purely transactional process.

So for me, it started with me feeling really uneasy about using the words email list and email subscribers and those seem like fairly innocuous words, okay, you know, you might sit and think, Well, you know, what’s wrong with those and, you know, absolutely we can all have different opinions. And on these things, but when I delve right into it and tried to figure out what it was about the words email list of email subscribers, for me, it felt like these particular words felt really cold and lifeless. And they felt very, very numbers focused, not people-focused. And that isn’t in alignment with my values of people first and respect. So I started to use some different language, different terminology.

I changed email list and email subscribers to email community and email members, because just those small tweaks in language to me felt much more inclusive and people focused. And that had a big impact on how I felt about talking about email marketing. Because to me, it feels much more soulful, it feels kinder, and it feels like it places the relationship and human behind the screen first, don’t you think? So I wonder, you know, what if we change the terminology that we use to describe some of these other marketing tactics, and when it comes to language, language is always evolving.

So sadly, I don’t have all the answers on this. And of course, you may not agree with me. And I’m still working on alternatives for some of the other marketing terminology, like using email community incentive instead of lead magnet. And I’ll be completely honest, you know, I have not nailed it all yet. But I go with what feels right to me in terms of the language that I’m using, and what feels right in relation to my values and for my business. And even if that means doing things a little bit differently, even if it means having to spend a few extra words, explaining what I actually mean by email member or email community, because people don’t always know what that means, because everyone is so used to hearing things like email list and email subscriber. So what I want to say is that, you know, if any of the marketing language that’s thrown around out there feels a little bit off to you, then it’s okay to question it. It’s okay to use different terms that feel right to you. But I wanted to talk about this because I believe it’s a really important topic, and it’s an important discussion to open up.

So that’s it for this episode is just a short bite sized thought this time, but I’d really really love to know what you think. How do you feel about some of the marketing language that’s used has this short episode? And some of the thoughts that I’ve discussed in it resonated with you or do you completely disagree with me? I would really love to know so send me a DM on Instagram. You can find me @hayleymaxwellwrites, And as always, if you’ve enjoyed this episode, I invite you to hit follow or subscribe to your favorite podcast player so that you never miss an episode. And until next time, go get them Tiger



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