My mother works for United Airlines. Another giant corporation with their own way of speaking. Every company does; every industry does. It’s just the manner of things. You’re a part of a group when you can speak their language.

I’ll tie this into marketing and usability in just a second. Promise.

So I just got a text from her saying that she has boarded a flight from Pittsburgh to Dulles International Airport. Being the airline veteran that she is, she uses military time, 1100 for 11:00AM, 1500 for 3:00PM. She used an airline term that mean that the plane is getting ready to leave the gate to head to the runway: Pushing back.

Mom's text: note the use of military or "Zulu" time and the airport call letters. She's in the zone.

Pushing back means something completely different at Capital One. There, it describes a situation where you are challenging someone’s assessment of facts or recommendation for a course of action. You are “pushing back” against that idea or recommendation.

Why is this important?

Because when you are communicating to your audience, usually a segment of your audience, they have a certain language that they speak and your brand, to establish credibility (CapOne term), you need to be able to speak their language as fluently as they do.

Do your homework. Speak to your audience like they would speak to each other. Than ensures that whatever you’re trying to say won’t be met with skepticism and confusion.

If your audience can’t understand you, there’s no way that they’ll believe that you understand them.

You’re now free to move about the cabin.

On location-based social sites, also known as “lo-so”s, like Facebook, Yelp! and Loopt, a user can “check in” to establishments near him/her and the savvy business creates incentives/rewards for doing so.

Tijuana Taco Shop is offering 50% off your meal for liking them, thereby creating a fan base that will advocate their brand, and 10% off your meal every time you check in, creating incentives and a pathway for deeper brand engagement.

Brand advocacy is then handled by the user who will transmit Tijuana Taco Shop’s message through their social network of friends, just like I did to my social network.

The beauty of this is that there is a non-existent barrier to entry and the initial cost of acquisition will more than pay for itself over time. The initial offer is presented on site to maintain control of traffic and therefore costs. Muy inteligente!

I’ve attached a photo.

When was the last time that you checked out your marketing? How long has it been since you produced a new brochure? Edited the content on your website? Changed up the messaging in your emails?

We’re human and we get bored easily. It might be a reason we become obsessed with collecting  a lot of stuff. Well, your customers are human, too. If your website hasn’t changed in the last 6 months, it’s time to change it up. If you’re saying the same thing over and over in your email marketing, your audience won’t even open your emails anymore because they already know what you’re going to say.

Keep it fresh to keep their attention. Challenge yourself. Find a new way to interpret your brand or a new way to get their attention. A great way to do all of those things at once is to revisit your website. Is it still working for you? If not, then change it. When you do, you can send an email to your customer base telling them so and voila! You have something new to talk about.

In short, figure out what is working and polish it, what is not working and discard it and you’ll breathe new life into your customer relationships. Good luck and drop us a line if we can be of any help with cutting the wheat from the chaff.