Be brave – say less

Posted by Jaan on November 19th, 2007 | 4 comments

There is a tendency among companies in our industry to cram huge amounts of text on to their web and print pages.

Please stop.

Use fewer words.

More text doesn’t make your audience more interested. It just makes you seem less confident about your product.

There, I said it. How’s that for an example? I simply put my opinion out there. I used fewer words; you took it on board and instantly understood one of my views on this topic. Straight to the point gets the point across.

And that’s the key. Write less. And then write better copy. (More on writing for the web in future posts.)

Once every three or four months someone mentions the Signal vs. Noise post “A challenge for 2006: Cut your site in half“.

It is a good post, especially the last bit: with good comments. Especially the first one from John Peele:

“Be the one who chooses their words carefully, not the one who never shuts up”.

Whether you see this approach as the extension of the famed elevator pitch, or if you simply are good at editing your own words, don’t be convinced to change your ways. Be economical with words. Every one of them takes time away from your reader’s day; they’d better be good. And they’d better leave some room for them to react to what you are saying. Don’t drown your audience.

Keep it simple:
• Introduce your offering
• Point out what it can do
• Tell the reader why she would benefit from using or buying it

Done.

That way you don’t need to “cut your site in half”. Just write less from the start.

Examples of good, short, refreshingly simple writing from across the web:

The Garden Tweezer
Clearleft
Freshview
Daytona (In Swedish)
Checkout