That one piece of feedback about "less jargon" actually made me rewrite our whole internal newsletter format

My VP told me last month our weekly updates sounded like a legal contract crossed with a press release. She said nobody reads past the first sentence because it's all "leverage" and "synergize" nonsense. So I stripped it down to plain English, added bullet points, and cut the word count by 60%. Open rates went up 22% in two weeks. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made you completely scrap your old approach?

2 comments

2 Comments

jakem9815h ago

And funny enough, my buddy did the opposite for his shop's repair manuals, made them more technical because customers kept trying to do their own maintenance and messing stuff up. I guess sometimes you gotta know your audience or just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

jason_kelly813h ago

Your buddy's move makes total sense for his situation though. When people keep breaking stuff because they think they know what they're doing, you gotta protect them from themselves. But I've seen shops go too far with that, making manuals so dense nobody even bothers reading them. Then you get the worst of both worlds - customers who don't understand the simple stuff AND the technical stuff going over their heads. The trick is finding that middle ground where it's clear enough for the average person but still discourages the DIY nightmares. Your buddy probably got tired of telling people "please don't try this at home" fifty times a day.