Copy uses internal jargon, acronyms or corporate speak that customers don't use when they describe their own problem.
Customers search, scan and decide in their own words. Copy written in your internal vocabulary is harder to find and harder to believe.
Ogilvy: "Unless you have some special reason to be solemn and pretentious, write your copy in the colloquial language which your customers use." His 1982 memo, point two: "Write the way you talk. Naturally." Hopkins: "Fine writing is a distinct disadvantage."
• Product names and acronyms in headlines; "leverage," "synergy," "solutions."
Owned — Navigation labeled with internal team names.
Earned — Press releases nobody outside the company can parse.
Paid — Keyword lists built from internal terms with no search volume.
Analytics — Site search terms don't match page vocabulary.
AI — AI defaulting to a corporate register.
• Mine reviews, sales calls and search queries for the customer's own words, and write with them.
