In business-to-business marketing, we use a lot of acronyms and coded keywords, like ROI, SEM, VARs . . . even B2B itself. Well, let me add another one that should matter to anybody with something to sell: RYA. It means “Remember Your Audience.”

During my long career as a wordmonger, I was also a writing teacher and coach, which inspired RYA. My students taught me that it’s easy to fall into a self-imposed writing trap: Even though you know what you want to say, it’s always possible your readers (or viewers or listeners) won’t understand. You have to speak the audience’s language or else you lose them.

There was once a TV commercial about a famous American comedian whose act totally flopped in England, because the crowd simply didn’t grasp his cultural references. The same thing applies to your communications. Will a typical visitor to your website understand your buzz phrases and terminology? Even if he does, will he care? Is your message timely and relevant? Are you explaining your products and solutions clearly enough?

When communicating, be careful with what you say and how you say it. RYA . . . or they could be gone ASAP.