Simple Steps to Effective MarketingThese strategies can demystify your product and help your customers see the light.

A favorite adage of my大学journalism professor was this: "Assume the reader knows nothing, but don't assume the reader is stupid." In other words, deconstruct the complex to make it easily understood, but don't dumb it down. In my years since school, I've realized the wisdom of that approach applies not just to journalism, but tobusiness and marketing, too.

Products and services (especially digital ones) can be complex. Your job as a marketer is, in part, to make the seemingly impenetrable easily understood, to lose the corporate Frankenspeak and convey your business's value in human, accessible terms.