How to Understand the Language of Your Users

When a user comes to your website, blog, social media page or group, do they feel at home? Users should come to your online real-estate and feel as if you know them. The best way to accomplish this is to get to know the language of your users, then use that same language.
* Be Concise – On your website, it’s important that the language you use is to the point and concise so that your users know what to do when they come to the site. You can’t use ambiguous language and expect anyone to know what to do or how to engage with your site, much less purchase anything.
* Find Common Language – First, figure out what common language your users use that you also use. The way you can do that is observing how they talk in groups. Facebook has groups for almost any type of audience that you can join and observe. You can also ask questions. Look at how they phrase questions and the terms they use. The words that you both use will be simple.
* Find Different Language – In some cases, you’ll discover that you have very different words for the same thing. For example, passengers on airplanes often call the runway a “tarmac” but pilots, due to their training call it a “runway” or “landing strip”.
* Test Your Understanding – If you’re still not sure what your users call certain things within your niche, you can conduct a poll. Find all the different terms for things, show pictures, and let the users choose what term they’re most likely to use. Then implement that term.
* Remember: You’re Not Your User – Even if you think of yourself as one of your target audience members, you’re still not the user. You may use terms that no one else understands, especially your users. Take a step back so that you don’t confuse yourself with your customers.
* Know Their Problems – Also, you really need to understand your users’ problems and the solutions you can offer them within your niche. For example, if you have a website that recommends software to people, don’t assume they understand the terminology. Instead, focus on using terms that they know in relation to their problems and your solution. These aren’t just pieces of software; for example, use language like “HIPPA compliant digital file storage”.
* Understand Your Products – It helps if you understand your products but from the users’ perspective. The best way to do this is to follow up a few weeks after someone purchases your products or your recommendations. Ask them what they like about the product. Ask them to describe in their own words how they use your product.
* Look at It from Their Point of View – Everything you do on your website needs to be looked at from the users’ point of view and tested to ensure that you’ve got it right. The only way to know is to find current users and people you know could be potential users, and ask them. You can use survey software and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to help get answers. Link – https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome
The point is that everyone doesn’t use the same words to describe the same thing. Think about how much jargon accountants and lawyers use and how confusing it can be to clients when they’re trying to just get a will written. If you want your customers, users, and influencers to truly understand you, then you need to truly understand them.