Top 100 Most Overused Marketing Buzzwords

At SHSMD in September, I got into a very interesting discussion about healthcare marketing’s overuse of the phrase “world class.”

Well now, I know that “world class” turns out to be the 26th most overused buzzword in all of marketing. Below is the list of 100 most overused marketing buzzwords via SEO strategist Adam Sherk ranked by usage in press releases.

When I first read the list I laughed so hard from embarrassment that a little pee came out. Embarrassment because I have unnecessarily used all 100 of these buzzwords.

I make a vow - you are my witnesses – to stop using hackneyed phrases, and instead to clearly and succinctly explain what I mean. A vow I know I can’t keep, but I can reeeeeeeallly try.  Read em and weep:

	Buzzword / Marketing Speak / Overused Term	Mentions in Press Releases
1	leader	161,000
2	leading	44,900
3	best	43,000
4	top	32,500
5	unique	30,400
6	great	28,600
7	solution	22,600
8	largest	21,900
9	innovative	21,800
10	innovator	21,400
11	award winning	11,800
12	exclusive	11,000
13	premier	10,700
14	extensive	10,500
15	leading provider	10,100
16	innovation	9,570
17	real-time	8,030
18	fastest	7,420
19	easy to use	6,850
20	dynamic	6,460
21	state of the art	6,400
22	smart	6,020
23	flexible	5,660
24	cutting edge	5,520
25	biggest	5,460
26	world class	5,340
27	amazing	5,320
28	next generation	4,860
29	revolutionary	4,830
30	sustainable	4,720
31	best practices	4,680
32	leverage	4,600
33	thrilled	4,530
34	robust	4,380
35	delighted	3,560
36	cloud	3,260
37	user friendly	3,190
38	extraordinary	3,090
39	breakthrough	3,010
40	savvy	2,900
41	ROI	2,860
42	legendary	2,780
43	transform	2,700
44	seamless	2,540
45	groundbreaking	2,440
46	empower	2,390
47	scalable	2,170
48	one of a kind	2,160
49	proactive	1,810
50	best in class	1,650
51	return on investment	1,570
52	market leading	1,560
53	turnkey	1,450
54	mission critical	1,370
55	strategic partnership	1,360
56	ground breaking	1,320
57	dashboard	1,310
58	iconic	1,220
59	stakeholder(s)	1,200
60	industry standard	1,190
61	never before	1,150
62	re-purpose	1,050
63	ecosytem	1,020
64	win-win	963
65	best of breed	941
66	enterprise class	926
67	empowerment	909
68	magical	853
69	synergy	838
70	out of the box	790
71	feature-rich	757
72	stack	673
73	cross-platform	524
74	value proposition	519
75	well positioned	489
76	disruptive	470
77	hit the ground running	451
78	disruption	417
79	mindshare	415
80	space-age	386
81	bleeding edge	373
82	exit strategy	373
83	customer-centric	369
84	sea change	331
85	sticky	326
86	silo	272
87	synergistic	246
88	client-centric	244
89	outside the box	226
90	paradigm shift	206
91	peak performance	205
92	perfect storm	162
93	organic growth	155
94	top-down	155
95	next-gen	121
96	never been done	110
97	bottom-up	108
98	solution-driven	102
99	secret sauce	91
100	low hanging fruit	69