Nothwithstanding my recent rant regarding buzz words, I’m fascinated by the ever-changing nature of language. That’s why I like the American Heritage Dictionary—it has the etymologies, so you can see how linguistic forms and meanings have altered over the years.
While serving as the family navigator on long-distance car trips, I discovered we needed a new word that English lacks, at least as far as I know. What do you call a single highway with two or more highway designations? I call it “consequious.” For example, Interstates 81 and 64 are consequious between Staunton and Lexington, Virginia.
Here’s the etymology of my new word: com (from Old Latin), meaning “with” or “together”; -sequence (from Medieval Latin, sequentia), meaning “a continuous or related series.”
So what do you call the parents of your child’s spouse? Co-inlaws? Co-parents? We need an English word that describes that relationship. Send me your ideas. Let’s create a great new word!
–posted by Barbara Finnegan
Buzz words. We all use them. But sometimes they really bug me. Like when the boss says “I’d like you to continue to process this idea,” but what he really means is, “I’m going to bring up this idea over and over again until everyone agrees.” So “process” really means “acquiesce” in this case.
Or what about “disconnect”? “Disconnect” is not a noun. It’s supposed to be a verb. So when your sales manager experiences a “disconnect” with an important client, what we really have here is a failure to communicate.
I know language is never static, but I have a real disconnect with some buzz words I hear in the business community. I hope the editors for Webster’s stand firm when it’s time to process new entries for the next edition of the dictionary.
Posted by Barbara Finnegan
Does your company home page get your main message across instantly? Back in the day of slower computers, you had more time to grab a reader’s attention. Now it’s down to about five seconds or less, thanks to fast page loads. Perhaps fast load times have bred impatience; at any rate, most of us are unwilling to give a wordy or slow-loading home page a second look.
As soon as your website loads—and it better load fast— readers will decide almost immediately whether or not they want to drill down into the site. That means the look and content on your home page is critical if you want potential customers to go further into your site.
One of my clients realized his company needed a fresh message. In the past, 90% of his business had come from his company’s free seminars, advertised in newspapers and through selected mailings. The company had used the same message for years.
Here’s Key #2 for successful advertising in the Shenandoah Valley: COMMUNICATE A COMPELLING MESSAGE.
Think about the actual message you send to your customers – in my business we call the written message “content”. Content is marketing-speak for all written words you use in advertising and marketing. Content can be good, bad or indifferent.
Last month, I told you I’d go over my four keys to successful advertising, so here goes, with Key #1.
Key # 1 is to KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER. The more information you have about your customers, the better you’ll know how to approach them with your message. Age, occupation, family status, income, education are just a few demographic details that can help you craft a compelling message and call to action. What types of media appeal to your customers?
Welcome to my new blog! This is the place to come for useful and fun information for small business owners. I may even throw in an occasional post about gardening, one of my favorite hobbies. But for this first post, let’s focus on advertising.
I’ve identified four keys to successful advertising.
