Marketing "Sin" #2: If some info is good, more is better!
A nearby law firm invited me to a free seminar on estate planning.
The invite came as a glossy postcard—crammed front and back with 8-point font like this, previewing every question, topic, and issue the attorneys planned to address in their two-hour seminar.
I didn't read the whole thing—I could have finished a John Grisham novel quicker.
Call this “Dump-the-Truck” Marketing.
It's the second of the 7 Deadly Marketing Sins, and it's rooted in the belief that if giving customers some information is good, giving them more is better.
This common practice seems logical. However, it overlooks a crucial fact:
Our brains function like bouncers. That is, they stop every message directed our way and ask it two blunt questions:
“Are you going to help me survive or thrive?”
“Is understanding you going to be easy?”
If the answer to those questions is “no,” our brains toss that message aside and start sizing up the next one.
In the case of the law firm mailer—even though I could use some estate planning—my weary brain sighed, "I don't have the time, energy—or strong enough reading glasses—to decipher all those microscopic words!"
Successful businesses don’t “dump the truck.” They understand that busy people don’t read websites (or mailings) so much as they skim and scan them.
Thus smart marketers offer only the essentials, clearly spelled out. They know...
It’s better to have customers click a Call to Action button because they’re intrigued…than click away because they’re overwhelmed.
Check yourself: Are you guilty of “Dump the Truck” marketing?
Do your web pages feature imposing "walls of text"?
How much scrolling was required to reach the bottom of the last email you sent your list? (Communication tip: Scrolling is rarely your friend.)
Take one piece of your current marketing collateral and see if you can communicate the same idea in half as many words.
Here's to simplicity in all our marketing!