Write More with Less
Concise writing is challenging. Everyone writes in some capacity, yet few take the time to do it well.
Marketing and advertising content present the greatest challenge of saying more with less. In primary school, educators encourage verbose writing and as the academic years go by, bigger words, more complex sentences and long paragraphs become commonplace.
So it’s no surprise that finding the right word that encompasses a host of thoughts requires pondering and perhaps a search through a thesaurus.
But attention spans are shrinking. And with ample content to read, consumers have more choices. Here’s why mastering the art of concise writing is essential for your brand.
Consumer Attention Span Statistics
Consumers have varying attention spans for different types of marketing and advertising. But you’ll never get more than eight seconds to capture their attention. And the sad news is, you used to get 12 seconds. Consumer attention spans continue to shrink as their attention is pulled in multiple directions.
· Website hero section: 7 seconds
While those statistics are disheartening for marketers, the great news is, if you can capture the reader’s attention, they are likely to stay. If a reader stays on a blog article longer than the average 15 seconds, they will likely stay for seven minutes.
Getting past the initial judgment call for a consumer to stay or go is crucial. And it requires impeccable content. So much so that the average website visitor will only read 6 words of a headline in those quick seconds you have to get their attention.
What’s Happening to Consumer Attention Spans?
As technology has increased, attention spans have decreased. Information is available 24/7 and constant smartphone and smartwatch notifications keep us in the know.
Life moves fast, and so do consumers’ brains. Sitting down to concentrate on something for long periods has gone by the wayside. Distractions are king.
Consider that the average consumer has 10–20 tabs open in their browser at any time. Your website is one of up to 20 that the consumer is attempting to focus on. The result is that consumers can’t focus on anything unless it’s impactful.
Knowing this, marketers will continuously need to be more ruthless with removing unnecessary words and make messages concise and attractive for the reader.
5 Ways to Write More with Less
With a foundation for the importance of writing more with less, here’s a look at how to improve your writing.
1. Allow Time for Editing
“I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.” — Mark Twain.
Concise writing takes time, mostly in the form of editing. Allow yourself to write freely to get your thoughts on the page. But then be ruthless in editing.
To do that, you must allow time for editing. Build it into your project timelines and give editing the attention it deserves.
If you aren’t a skilled writer, hire a copywriter. Use up one person’s time — a great copywriter — instead of thousands of people’s time with bad content.
2. Content Must Dictate Design
Common marketing practices involve designing a website or brochure before drafting the content. The copywriter then has to fill the space using words they might not use if they were given more creative freedom.
Draft the best content first. Then package the content with a design to match. You can make even short messages come to life with the right design that helps tell the story visually.
3. Heed Readability and Grade Levels
With only a few seconds to capture your reader’s attention, they can’t be stumbling on unknown words or complicated sentences. Modern marketing content must be simple — at a 6–8 grade level.
Put your content through Flesch-Kincaid readability tests and edit until you’ve reached a reasonable grade level and ease of reading score that allow consumers to understand your content at a glance.
4. Use Active Voice
Active voice helps trim content and improve readability. But it also helps your reader connect with your content. Active voice has an actor. Take this example.
“The ball was thrown by Sally.”
The reader will struggle to connect with Sally and envision her throwing the ball because this sentence is passive.
“Sally threw the ball.”
Now we have a clear vision of what’s happening because instead of the ball being the subject of the sentence, Sally is. Now readers can put themselves in Sally’s shoes and create a vision.
5. Cut the Fluff
Lazy writing adds unnecessary adjectives and uses two words where one will suffice. For example:
“She had a very nice time.”
“She had a marvelous time.”
Verbose adjectives add nothing to the sentence. If eliminated, the reader will still understand the message. So instead of saying “very big,” say “enormous.” And instead of saying “very small,” say “minute.”
Adjectives have their place, but if you aren’t careful, they can easily become fluff.
At Design Positive, we help companies package concise messaging with meaningful design to tell brand stories while doing it in an access-to-all approach.
