What did you just say?

When creating content, we have an obligation to be clear and helpful

Using words to confuse people used to be the exclusive territory of lawyers and snake oil salesmen. Some of them still live there, of course, but others have joined them, sadly including us marketers.

Marketing is charged with doing many things: attracting people to a brand, helping sales close the deal and others. One of the most important things we do is making things easy to understand for the people we’re trying to attract. Using words and images to clarify and be helpful — you know, Content Marketing!

Content Marketing gives us a perfect opportunity.

In this new world where people decide what brands they will invite into their lives, we need to be useful, helpful and interesting. Unfortunately, many of us are still trying to do that with industry jargon and what I’ll call thick language.

When we do this, we outsmart ourselves.

I work in the insurance space and, as an industry, we’re big offenders. The language we use, especially in documents like policies and contracts, makes things so hard to understand that people often just give up.

For instance, many of us talk about things like ‘subrogation’ and ‘liability’ without explaining what these terms mean — heck, we’ve even done research that tells us people don’t fully understand more basic terms like ‘premium’ and ‘insured’.

And it’s not because people aren’t smart. It’s because they don’t have time to learn all of this stuff. People are busy and we, as marketers, have an opportunity to help.

How about an example?

Let’s take a look at how two insurance companies define the term ‘subrogation’:

One way:

In insurance, the substitution of one party (insurer) for another party (insured) to pursue any rights the insured may have against a third party liable for a loss paid by the insurer.

What?

Here’s a different way:

With subrogation, we can pay you for your claim faster because it allows us to give you your money now, rather than waiting to see if the person who caused the damage (like the person driving the car that hit yours) can or will pay for the damage they caused. If that person (or their insurance company, if they have one) does pay, that money will come to us since we’ve already paid you. We’re simply taking your place in the process because we know you just want to get back to living your life.

As you can see, it may take a few more words to help people understand a confusing term. But, in the long run, we believe people will appreciate the effort (and you). Also, keep in mind that you may get some pushback on longer copy internally, so be ready to remind your boss or business partner that people do still read long-form content — especially if it helps them.

And it's not just insurance. What are the terms in your industry that people may not completely understand? Ask them! And, when you do find those confusing words or phrases, take a minute in your copy to help them understand.

Okay, enough preaching from me. I’m going to get back to finding ways to help people understand the words we use and what they mean. But, please, consider doing this in your own content, as well.

Your audience will thank you with their loyalty.