​PR & Marketing Jargon: Decoded

For the times when actual words just won’t suffice, here are our favourite crimes against the English language from the world of PR and marketing!

“User-friendly” – so simple even your aged dog could find its way to the checkout.

“Outreach” / “reach out” – futilely sending a mass of generic emails in the hope that someone will respond/do what you want them to.

"Deliverables" - a piece of content. Please just say that.

"Align with" - jump on a bandwagon/existing trend and run with it!

"Influencer" - someone who's going to spread the word about you...preferably for free...please!

“Groundbreaking” – an earth-shattering, world-changing product. Or just a new feature…

“Learnings” – because “lessons learned” is too much of a mouthful.

“Leverage” – use and abuse your connections.

“Low-hanging fruit” ­– quick and embarrassingly easy wins.

“Easy wins” – a small achievement that pretty much counts for nothing.

“Capitalise on” – squeezing every last drop out of something, however menial.

“Conversation calendar” – a catch-up between two calendars…is not what this means. It’s just a schedule of social media posts. Call it that.

“End user” – the customer.

“Going forward” – because going backwards in marketing campaigns doesn’t seem to work.

“Boost” – to throw money at something and pray that it works, for the sake of your relationship with the finance department!

“Prosumer” – Oh this is no ordinary consumer, oh no! This is a professional consumer…Yes, really.

"Pitch" - convincing people that you and your ideas are a-mazing

"Crisis Comms" - your plan of action for when it hits the fan

“Buzzword” – ahh buzzword, the word that encapsulates all of the above. The word that, with each new wave of buzzwords, never seems to go away. Buzzword.