SUCCESS IN 8 WORDS OR LESS
HOW BILLBOARDS CAN IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE AND ONLINE MARKETING
An old advertising saw holds that a highway billboard should have 8 words or fewer. More than that and the average driver doesn’t have enough time to read or digest the message.
Today’s very busy driver has a lot in common with today’s very busy web browser, also known as ‘your customer’. Both are disinterested, distracted and surreptitiously checking their text messages.
On the blacktop, good billboards cut through the clutter by being simple, compelling and short. Your online messaging – your website, email marketing, landing pages and other collateral -- should be no different.
Online users don’t read, they surf
Tests have confirmed that people read newspapers and magazines, but scan web pages. After all, it’s called surfing the web, not swimming it.
Is the web increasingly the first place people go for information? Yes. Will they stay to read rich information that is highly relevant to them? Somewhat, yes. Will they read extraneous words, unnecessary jargon and mumbo-geeky-jumbo? No.
Just try to read this very real example:
Our analysis provides a vendor-neutral view of your environment and the unique characteristics that each virtualization technology offers, enabling organizations to determine which hypervisor is best for your organization and how much hardware (if any) and software you really require. Using *company*, organizations can evaluate any virtualization or hardware platform, including mainframes, according to financial objectives, workload personalities, risk tolerance, service level agreements and performance requirements. In addition, *company* provides the most sophisticated utilization analysis available to accurately model workloads and properly size environments according to risk tolerance, financial returns, performance and SLA requirements – so that you never over-provision.
How far did you get before you started to scan?
Why most messaging is ‘long and sour’ when it should be ‘short and sweet’
Bloated messaging usually happens for these reasons:
-
The people who write your web copy or e-marketing are forced to cram in the agenda of sales, R&D and other stakeholders.
-
The authors aren’t clear on how your product or company works or how it benefits your customer. They cover that up with high-volume, low-impact content.
-
Websites and online marketing are treated like print pieces. Printed brochures and fliers are stuffed with words because they are a one-trick pony. Web sites can have a stable of short, specialized ponies. Chuck Norris ponies.
-
The writer just doesn’t know any better. Jargon and/or stuffy corporate-speak are good signs of this.
How to do write simply but powerfully
Web surfers don’t read and at the same time companies say too much. The problem is so widespread that one technology organization is actually offering an award to the company that best simplifies its message.
So how do you write compact, compelling copy?
Here are some tips:
Use plain English and keep sentences short. Save jargon for white papers or sales sheet. Line any self-congratulatory copy up against the wall and pull the trigger. Finally, look to kill off words or ideas that repeat themselves.
Using this methodology, the example above becomes this:
Whether you have a virtual or hardware (even mainframe) platform, *company* has a hypervisor that can analyze your unique computing environment. By helping you anticipate the hardware and software you’ll need to meet your financial, workload, performance, risk tolerance, and service level agreements, *company* helps you keep provisioning costs under control.
Write little. Say much.
The logic of highway billboards is 50 years old, but it applies just as strongly to drivers on the information highway. Simply put, marketing is best when it is compelling and brief.
Next time you write, imagine a 1950s family out for a Sunday drive in the Studebaker. Then approach your copy like you’re trying to grab the attention of a Formula One driver whizzing past at 200 miles per hour.
Hurry, you don’t have much time.
Trevor Stafford, Toronto freelance writer
A recovered ad writer and profligate tech geek based out of Toronto, Trevor now publishes an online magazine for fast-growth software companies. He can be reached at copywryter@gmail.com or followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/copywryter
