The 2006 Dictionary of Jargon: A Professional Web Business Owner's Guide to Corporate and Marketer-Speak

actionable - doable, feasible. "I'll be sending a group email covering our most actionable goals for this quarter, one of which will be 'taking lunch at a designated hour each day.'"

aggressive quote - agreeing to provide service for someone at a rate that you may well be privately embarrassed of. "We countered with an aggressive quote once we determined that our chief competition had entered the bidding arena."

bandwidth - maximum capacity, i.e. brainpower, manpower, time or resources. "Due to her unrelenting hangover, Jill currently does not have the bandwidth to accommodate your request."

best in class - the pedigree breed of companies; a status that you hope you will eventually attain for your small business after making the claim in your web copy. "Our fuel-efficient vehicles are best in class in the automotive industry."

best practice - the preferred way of doing things, usually a method that came into being at least partially due to technological developments and has since caught fire in a particular industry. "Best Practice: A Guide to Doing Business in the New Millennium."

bootstrapping - lifting oneself up by the proverbial bootstraps to becoming a self-made success. "All this bootstrapping is making me thirsty. Let's go get a latte."

bragging rights - the license to boast a skill or achievement. You are granted these upon displaying full competence/expertise in a specific area. "It was clear from their Google rank that XYZ Marketing owned the bragging rights to infallible search engine optimization techniques."

bring to the table - your personal contribution to the group. "Everyone here has a unique skillset that he or she brings to the table. I myself brought a peanutbutter sandwich."

business model - a company's revenue-generating plan. "We are in the process of reevaluating our current business model."

commitment - tireless, fixed purpose on a goal or projected future outcome; dedication. "Our commitment to excellence is evidenced by the exceptional quality work we do for our customers."

company policy - Established employee protocol. "To the best of my knowledge, sleeping at one's desk has never been an acceptable company policy."

confidence in the future - something managers say when things are looking bleak. "Although sales are lower than our intial projections, we have full confidence in the future of our company."

core competencies - the skillset that you own the bragging rights to.

"Our core competencies include software development, systems analysis and a unique talent for adding 20 extra steps to what would have otherwise been a relatively uncomplicated process."

dialogue (as a verb) - a pretentious way of saying, "to discuss." "Shall we dialogue in person, or is a phone call better for you?"

drill down - delving deeply into a subjectmatter. "Stay tuned as we drill down into the finer points of list building and ezine publishing."

drill it home - "jackhammering" the point across. "We'll be drilling home the key points with a Power Point presentation that concludes the meeting."

drink the kool-aid - blind faith in a prescribed mode of thought; letting corporate culture go to one's head or "get the best of you". "Looks like you drank too much of the Ryze Kool-Aid again."

elevator speech - a mission statement speech that literally lasts as long as an elevator ride, whose purpose is to deliver your key business objectives and help people understand "what it is that you do." "We were a bit shocked and titillated by Joan's incorporation of interpretive dance into this morning's elevator speech."

empowerment - the attainment of freedom, abundance and social prominence that ultimately leads to higher revenue and a bigger sphere of influence in your niche. "I was thinking of taking a course on empowerment principles so that I can become more effective in business and in life."

end to end - technology platforms that begin at the server and end at the user. "We offer end-to-end technology solutions that are best in class for the retail industry."

FYI (noun) - for your information; a heads-up. "Just an FYI: the project release date is being pushed forward to next Monday the 4th."

going forward - from this point on. "Going forward, we'll be making the batteries included line one point smaller than the remaining text."

heads up - an FYI. "Heads up! The cafeteria is officially out of chicken noodle soup, and the Starbucks carafe is empty."

hired gun - a paid consultant to whom work is outsourced. "Seeing as none of us knew the first thing about consolidation, we opted for a hired gun to do the downsizing dirty work."

innovative - revolutionary; forward-thinking; the first of its kind. "Our commitment to innovative solutions keeps us head and shoulders above the competition."

leaner - a company that's been trimmed of a significant number of employees as well as shaved to the bare minimum of expenditures. "I wouldn't bother submitting my resume; I heard that BottomsUp.com is a leaner company anyway."

leapfrog - to surpass your competition. "I'm guessing that KFC will leapfrog Boston Market after the raging success of their 'Famous Bowls campaign."

leverage - to maximize productive use of a strategy. "We must leverage the power of business blogging as a viable targeted traffic generator."

level the playing field - the point where social and economic status have no effect on your prominence in the industry. "We can potentially make a pile of money, now that the internet playing field has been leveled."

keep in the loop - make sure someone stays informed. "Next time, keep the unpaid interns in the loop; after all, they are doing the bulk of the work."

major player - an authority, prominent personality, or one who owns most of the marketshare in a particular industry. "I'd like to say I'm a major player in the copywriting industry, but that would be a bit of an exaggeration."

market research - when the advertising department does their homework, be it conducting a survey, spying on the competition or reading up on empirical data as it applies to their target audience. "Part of our market research includes signing up for bogus free accounts as a way to get the inside scoop on what our competition is up to."

milestone - critical turning points in a project; where one phase of production ends and the next one begins. "To celebrate the completion of our latest milestone, we left early on Friday and met up at Don Pablo's for Happy Hour."

mission-critical - a very important task. "Landing the Smithsonian account is officially a mission-critical project."

monetize - to create value where there previously was none. "Let's meet at four to discuss monetizing potential of these half-completed projects."

multi-billion dollar firm - a company who can claim sales of at least two billion dollars.

negative comments - remarks issued by a disgruntled or disillusioned employee that run the risk of "bringing down" the entire group and moving them further away from our goals. "Please refrain from making negative comments at the next department meeting."

next steps - future actions intended to further along a project. The corporate way of saying "What's the plan, man?" "Please schedule a conference call to discuss next steps for the Swansonite project."

offline - private, off the record. "Let's take this conversation offline, shall we?"

opportunity - a problem that needs solving; an unpaid position. "Charles, I've got an opportunity for you..."

outsource - to delegate paid work to an outside expert (consultant) who is not an employee of the company. "We outsourced the last leg of the web design project to a company in Romania."

paradigm shift - the final phase of conversion to a new idea or way of doing things. "The paradigm shift I experienced over online sales letters was largely influenced by an impressive monetary sum paid me by a client for whom I had to write one."

partner with - to team up. "I'll be partnering with Clyde for this portion of the brainstorm session."

performance management - micromanagement; nitpicking; inability to see the forest for the trees, as applied to running a company. "Nobody was impressed with Joelle's newfound perfomance management skills."

piggyback - to put your own spin on someone else's thought. "Piggybacking on Fred's idea, why don't we make it a group lunch with the software team?"

ping - to notify. "I'll ping you via email as soon as I know the status."

position a product - to add market value where previously there was none. "We're working on positioning the product as a solution for work at home consultants who don't always have access to the internet."

proactive - aggressive, not passive; innovation coupled with action. "It's nice to see someone on the team taking a proactive problem-solving approach."

pushback - resistance to logical and practical solutions. "Velma was not at all surprised at the outright rejection of her suggestion to just call the client and ask him directly; after all, there is always some amount of corporate pushback to deal with."

ramping up - "kicking it up a notch," web marketer style. "One of our goals for 2007 is to ramp up our public relations effort."

real-time - live, as it's happening. "If you ask me, it's pretty cool that we can track spacecraft in real-time."

regroup - to return to a meeting of the minds that had previously disassembled.

"I'm starving; let's break for lunch and then regroup for a power productivity session at 1:30."

repurpose - to reuse or recycle. "What are you doing throwing away those old reports! We can easily repurpose them for use on the web site."

retool - similar to repurpose; restructure. "I have a funny feeling that the article our ghostwriter handed in was the same as the last one we paid her for, only slightly retooled."

restructure - a polite way of saying "downsize." "After reviewing our numbers for the last six months, it's clear that a restructuring is in order."

robust - technically sound; refers to a solid software platform. "Much like hardy mums, a robust system is fully equipped to weather the winds of a rapidly changing global market."

seamless - without holes. "We are dedicated to implementing seamless back office systems for clients of all budgetary allowances."

shoestring marketer - A self-employed individual who combs the internet in search of free and low-cost ways to run and promote a business on the web. "We offer lower rates to self-employed marketers on a shoestring budget."

special sauce - proprietary technology. "Sorry, but we can't reveal what's in the special sauce until we get a signature on that NDA I emailed."

takeaway - the knowledge, skill, wisdom, strength or other value that an audience participant is hoped to have extrapolated from a seminar, training course, lesson, meeting or other work-related experience. "So Paul, what was the primary takeaway of the summit meeting, exactly?"

task force - the marketing team assigned to do research on a particular topic. "Tina has been appointed head of the survey distribution task force."

team player - someone who gets along with his fellow co-workers, contributes to the greater good of the group and doesn't make waves. "That Amarynth; she may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but she sure is a team player!"

touch base - to follow up in correspondence. "I'll touch base with you by Friday."

turnkey solution - acting as a "one-stop shop" or the sole vendor for one company to deal with. "We provide turnkey marketing solutions to Fortune 500 companies."

value prop (or value proposition) - the Unique Selling Propositon or the sole reason to buy a product or service. "Your sales letter didn't make a dent because you failed to include the value prop in your copy!"

well-positioned - a claim that you can make about your product while attempting to write copy that builds confidence in your end deliverability. "GoDaddy.com is well-positioned in the market of domain name purchasing."

wet signature - a signature that is hand-written by a human as opposed to electronic.

"I can't do anything with this contract until I get a wet signature."

wetware - human based solutions. "Yes, we just spent thousands updating our technological processes, but it seems that the only solution is to bring in more wetware."

win-win - a good thing for you; a good thing for us. "The merger is a win-win all around."

world class - see "best in class." "We deliver world class copywriting to clients large and small."

your take - your opinion or perspective. "What's your take on the downsizing situation?"

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing Services. All rights reserved.