Crystal Clear Communications Blog

Americans are bombarded with too much information. We average over 7 hours of screen time daily, consuming more than 100,000 words daily. Worse, we remember only 20% of what we read and just 10% of what we hear.

It’s easy to see why we marketers have a tough job getting through to buyers. And given how much information buyers already receive, we need to cut through that clutter by being clear, concise, and consistent. In other words, as my life partner, Robert often tells me: Don’t sell past the close.

Yet recently I reviewed a slide deck for a colleague with 61 slides! And each slide was full of too much text.

Guilty of giving your buyers too much information? Here are 3 things you can do to ensure your message is clear, concise, and consistent:

• Make – and use – a message map.
• Relentlessly edit your content.
• Test your marketing messages.

Make a Message Map

When you create a Message Map, it’s your guideline for all your marketing content. If your audience doesn’t care about something, then it doesn’t belong on the Message Map.

Message Maps are designed to ensure your content is clear, concise, and consistent. So you give your audience only what they want and need.

Once you create your Message Map, look at it through your audience’s eyes and review it. Ask yourself these questions:

• Does it tell buyers what’s in it for them?
• Does it reflect buyers’ pain points?
• Does it use words your buyers use and avoid talking over their heads?

If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, revise your Message Map.

Relentlessly edit your content

Create content with your Message Map in front of you. It will keep you from adding too much information. Once your content is created, edit, edit, and edit again. Look for unneeded information, words that could be shorter, and overall style and readability.

If you can, have at least one colleague review and edit. We all need an editor, especially after we’ve reviewed content several times.

The faster your audience gets what they need, the more likely they are to follow your call to action (CTA).

Test your content

The best way to ensure you’re not giving buyers too much information is to test your marketing content. If you have a customer advisory board or similar group, that’s a good place to start. Maybe you don’t have a group in place, you can mine NPS surveys, customer chat boards, and other sources to find customers who might be willing to provide feedback.

If you don’t have a trusted group of customers to test your content with, then conduct A/B testing before you distribute your content.

Giving buyers too much information is almost as egregiously bad as not giving them enough. Making a Message Map, relentlessly editing, and testing your content can help you avoid this costly mistake.

For assistance with marketing or communications needs, email me at ariana@crystalclearcomms.com.