‘Leverage.‘ ‘Reach Out.’ ‘Circle Back.’ The Corporate Jargon We Hate The Most
So went the title of one WSJ article I recently read.
Which got me thinking…
What jargon do I HATE in the supplement industry?
So I made a list and well… here it is – maybe you can use it as your NOT-to-do checklist while crafting your next marketing email.
Or not.
This is – after all – just my opinion, and your customers may/may not actually hate it.
Although considering I have nearly a decade of skin in this game…
I believe I can claim I have a pretty good „pulse“ of what does/doesn’t appeal to the average fitness enthusiast.
Do with this info what you will ultimately:
(1) „Whether you’re (A), (B), or (C), this is for you.“
This formulaic platitude is a super common setup meant to sound inclusive, but it’s always suspiciously broad.
Not to mention this has become synonymous with ChatGipity’s syntax – so anyone even slightly more on the perceptive side…
…will recognize you used AI to write it.
Here it is, in a few marketing emails, from supplement brands:
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Whether you’re pushing PRs or turning up the heat after dark, we’ve got what you need to perform at peak.
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Whether you’re focused on lean muscle, daily recovery, or adding size, choosing the right protein helps support your training, nutrition, and results
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Whether you’re chasing gains, enduring intense workouts, or simply need better rest, Nightmare helps you recharge and wake up ready to conquer.
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(2) “Fuel your XYZ”
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Fuel your training…
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Fuel your gains…
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Fuel your routine…
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This is a good phrase to dimensionalize the benefit of… well… whatever preceded the ‘fuel your XYZ’ phrase.
However…
It’s started to get waaaay overused – heck, it started LONG ago.
There’s this big poster, at my gym, that’s been there since 2008.
(The small fine print of the copyright says 2008©)
And it also has this FuEl yOur bLa BlA phrase on it…
It’s simply lost its power.
(3) “Your [new] essential” or “Essentials for XYZ”
Aside from the fact it’s plain jargon…
It also never made sense – you don’t NEED supplements to get big, strong, lean, jacked whatever your goal is…
Just train hard, eat around or above – if you’re bulking – your maintenance calories, get good sleep, and make sure you get enough protein in.
Therefore, none of them are essential.
(I guess you could make a case for creatine and maybe protein powder – so that’s what… 2 out of 30,000 commercially available sports supplements?)
Here’s an example:
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Your New Gym Bag Essential – Hydration Packets!
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Hydration packets? Essential? 🤦♂️
(You know it’s bad when *I* use an emoji…)
(4) Words like „unlock“, „unleash“, „empower“, „embrace“, “dominate” etc.
Never have I ever pitched a pre-workout to someone by saying:
„UNLEASH YOUR POTENTIAL AND DOMINATE YOUR NEXT WORKOUT WITH THE JACK3D PRE-WORKOUT!“
Real-world people simply don’t ever talk like this.
(5) Anything ChatGipty spits out.
And pretty much all of the points previously fall under this category – because so-called generative AI can only spit out meaningless jargon, platitudes and weasel words…
I don’t blame the Borg for this though – it’s nothing more than a stochastic pattern recognition machine using a tokenised representation of human speech.
It doesn’t know any better, it can’t put out anything other than the “average”…
(And the average is always full of obnoxious industry jargon.)
I blame the person behind it.
But I won’t go into AI and how it can slowly kill your brand.
You can read more about that in the: “Why AI might be killing you diabetes-like slowly…” email I put on my Email Echoes page.
Anyway, enough dilly-dallying:
If you want some truly unique, differentiated emails which make you stand out in this land of mediocrity?
The Email Storyselling method might be what you’re looking for.
It will cost you a pretty penny…
…but innovation always had a steep price.
Fortunes land to those going headfirst into the castle breach.
[Part of this email’s content has been removed from this Email Echoes version of it.]
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