They say that a picture speaks a thousand words, but, in many cases, you didn’t need to use a thousand words in the first place.

There is an unfortunate tendency, particularly in scientific and technical marketing, to assume that the more words you use, the better it sounds. This is probably a direct result of the language used in peer-reviewed publications, which is often dry and verbose. That might be OK for a scientific paper trying to convey a complex subject to a highly specialised audience, but it doesn’t exactly make for easy reading.

The aim of marketing collateral is to explain the benefits of your product or service in the simplest terms, to the broadest possible audience. Dressing up your message in overly formal, unnecessarily complex language poses a serious risk of alienating potential customers – especially if that message isn’t in their first language.

The problem for many scientists or engineers is that their education and technical backgrounds have exposed them to this formal language for a decade or more – it’s been drummed into them. Simplifying your message and using more accessible language can go a long way to improving awareness of what you can offer, driving brand awareness and (hopefully) sales.

So next time you think about writing ‘Our solutions portfolio includes a range of flexible and scalable options designed to…’, just say ‘We can help you to…’ instead!