Saying It Best by Saying Less

How to filter through junky content and dig up the gold.

The great, powerful, and vocally angelic Alison Krauss once said: “You say it best when you say nothing at all.” How can we evoke a similar sentiment with the content we create for our readers, but say just a little bit instead of nothing at all? In the copywriting arena, we have to say what we need to say, but I think it’s more important to remember that the best content says less.

In today’s world, we’re smothered with emails, bombarded with ads, and practically drowning in content:

“Feeling tired? New NATURAL miracle drug gives you energy and starts working immediately! Find out more NOW!”

“Increase your site traffic by thousands in SECONDS! Download your FREE one-week trial NOW!”

“Five ways to get the sales leads YOU need!”

Please, stop yelling at us. It hurts and now we’re all just confused. Many of us have seen the spammy emails, Twitterbots, pop-ups, and gimmicky advertisements that are intentionally distracting (not to mention poorly designed). They’re loaded with text and promises, yet devoid of value. Each piece of content we’re fed is competing with the next. In this sea of distraction, how can we tell the difference between a thoughtless piece of content and a sincere one?

Here are five red flags to look for:

1. Ad or email sounds like it was written by a robot (if so, it was probably generated using an automated marketing tool)
2. Email starts with “Hey (Your Name), did you get my message?”
3. Ad or email appears to be shouting at you (bright, distracting colors, flashing effects, and/or all caps)
4. There is just too much information squeezed into the allocated space (diagrams, cheesy stock photography, copy telling you to CLICK HERE)
5. The message is long-winded and thoughtless

As a copywriter, I find the last one uniquely important. If pieces of content appear to be long-winded, the writer was either inexperienced or not able to condense their thoughts into a more concise message. Since we’re bombarded with content on a daily basis, and studies suggest that we now have an average attention span less than that of a goldfish (ours being an estimated eight seconds), the content we create for our readers must be succinct.

It’s easy to write a paragraph about a product or service. It’s difficult to describe that product or service just as thoroughly in five words or less. That’s why the good (golden), well-designed content — the stuff that we should be listening to — isn’t the flashy ad that grabs our attention because of the painful colors or the one that appears to include everything we’ll ever need to know about a product or service. It’s the stuff that tells us everything we need to know in a matter of seconds (less than eight… hopefully).

If you agree, please feel free to click the little green heart at the bottom of this post. =)