There are many who suggest you should never use jargon in a marketing email as it can put off the less knowledgeable. To a certain extent this is good advice.
Jargon has its uses and in many ways is indispensable when needing to reduce copy wordage. The General Data Protection Regulations takes five words and 39 characters. I won’t patronise you by calculating what The GDPR takes up, and therein lies the problem.
There are simple methods to ensure that you can use jargon. Do you know what B2B means? Anyone who has been in our business for a few weeks must have heard the phrase. But when communicating with those who’ve just subscribed to your email marketing list, how do you know?
Use B2B once in an early email and follow it by an explanation, eg B2B (Business to Business). It is all explained. By putting B2B first you are not patronising as it suggests you think they know what it means. The explanation is for others, less fortunate. Those who didn’t know are just relieved.
If jargon is common in those who sell your product, then consider segmenting your email marketing lists with relevance to experience. If you are offering basic items, particularly useful for those just starting out, then avoiding jargon might be seen as the best option. If it is the full monty, then you can make certain assumptions.
If you are selling camera lenses then you might expect your subscribers to know what focal length is so an explanation of how the figure is reached is not necessary. It is also risky. On, for instance, micro four-thirds cameras, the figure is different. There are many instances where explanations are unnecessary.
Explanations can be irritating as well. It is often better to ditch jargon if you feel the need to explain terms more than a couple of times. Some suggest more than once. Too much or too little run the risks of irritating or causing resentment.
Avoiding jargon, especially when just starting out and you have few metrics, is the safest route. However, when you can trust your data, use it with care.
