Words that annoy the you-know-what out of me.

I realize that I’m in marketing and that I’m supposed to speak/write a certain way; however, the over-use of certain words drives me absolutely insane. Don’t get me wrong; I’m just as guilty as the next person, but there are just some clichés and buzzwords that need to just die already. You know this is a legit issue, if there’s a Wikipedia entry to back up my buzzword claim.

Here’s my short list of most despised words. And, because I’m a professional list maker, I’ve even alphabetized them for your reading pleasure.

Action item
Award-winning
Best of breed (are we competing at Westminster?)
Best practice
Brain-child
Circle-back
Customer-focused
Cutting edge
Easy-to-use (duh…why would you market something as super difficult to use?)
Facetime (as in meeting with someone face-to-face, not the super cool facetime on my phone)
Ground breaking
Innovative (if you have to tell people you’re innovative, are you actually innovative?)
Penetration
Pick your brain (that’s just gross)
Real-time (versus fake time?)
ROI
Run it up the flagpole (it’s just lame.)
Synergy
Think-tank
Thought-leading
Top-of-mind
Value proposition
Win-win

I hope all of you found this cutting-edge list to not only be innovative and thought-provoking, but provide some true ROI for your time. Make sure to keep this post top-of-mind during your next campaign, and it’s sure to be a win-win situation for all involved, creating true synergy and increasing message penetration.

xoxo