Classic scenario. You’re launching a new product feature. You write the press release, send it back and forth between your product, marketing and content teams and they all tweak the wording until it’s just right. Then it goes to your boss to add their quote, to legal for review, and then over to your agency. Next the agency sends it to the journalist and the journalist says:

“What the f*ck is this??” and deletes it.

True story.

The problem? Nobody thought to share that release with someone working outside of marketing tech. The end result is a release so full of buzzwords that it may as well be written in Latin.

Lose the jargon

This is a problem across the whole martech industry. Website builders become digital experience hubs, email platforms become omnichannel content solutions, and happy customers become loyalty value centres. From company messaging to website copy, incomprehensible corporate jargon is replacing clear, concise copy at every turn.

Often, martech vendors over rely on buzzwords because they assume they’re selling to themselves. After all, the martech space is made up of marketers selling to other marketers.

The problem, however, is that not everyone in marketing is the same. They don’t think the same, they don’t talk the same and they certainly don’t use the same buzzwords.

Be honest with yourself

If you’re going to build a successful martech brand, you need to take a step back and be honest with yourself.

That could mean admitting that the language you use isn’t very clear. Or, it could mean admitting that some of your product features aren’t as good as your competitors’. It could even mean confessing that you don’t know your audience that well, or that you’ve never really run a focus group with them.

Nothing will improve until you identify and admit the problems currently holding you back.

So let’s be honest. If you work in this field, you probably sell software that makes marketers’ lives that little bit easier. Maybe it helps them win a creative award, maybe it helps them justify work to their bosses, and maybe it just helps them go home on time. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of that.

As long as you’re honest with yourself and take ownership of what your product really achieves, then you can start building smarter, bolder marketing that actually adds value.

This blog post is an extract from Wildfire’s “Why martech brands suck at marketing” ebook. Want to learn more about how your martech brand can get noticed? Download the full guide for free!