Where, When and Why to Keep Your Marketing Message Short and Sweet
Where, When and Why to Keep Your Marketing Message Short and Sweet
Keeping your marketing messages short and sweet is more important now than ever before. We’ve seen social media pared down to 140 characters (Twitter), videos truncated to 6 seconds (Vine) and research that shows the average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013.
The point is simple – your customers, fans, website visitors, and people in general simply don’t have the time OR the patience for long messages. While there IS a time and a place for longer messages, here are 6 examples of when it is crucial to deliver a short and sweet marketing message.
Your Domain Name
The number one rule of creating a good domain name is to keep it short and memorable. Below 10 characters is ideal – the top 100,000 websites have an average of 9 characters in their domain name. If you can’t reach this ideal, try to keep the domain name to one or two words and under 20 characters.
Your Startup Name
If you’re just bringing your idea to life, aim for a catchy, short, 1-2 syllable name that people remember. For some tips on finding a short but creative name for your startup, check out this article.
Your Social Media Messages
While Twitter forces you to condense your message into 140 characters, many other social media platforms (such as Facebook) allow you to ramble on and on if you’d like. Don’t.
Statistics show that longer messages don’t work for Facebook either, and for more interaction you should aim for 100 to 119 characters (and some say less is even better).
[Tweet “6 examples of when it is important to deliver a short and sweet #marketing message!”]Your Article/Blog Headlines
Just like people often skim the article itself, research suggests that people also just skim the title of your article, taking in the first few words and the last few words but ignoring the stuff in the middle. This suggests that a length of 6 words is ideal. If you can’t make it, just make sure to eliminate unnecessary words and make every word you do use count.
Your Email Newsletter
The subject line of your email should follow rules similar to writing an article/blog headline – but what about the body of the newsletter?
Sadly, most people will only spend an average of 51 seconds “reading” your newsletter, with most attention devoted to the top then trailing off by the end. Get right to the point. The stuff at the bottom likely won’t be read or clicked.
Your Lead Contact Form
If your goal is to generate more leads for your business, a short contact form is a must. Visitors are more likely to fill out a shorter form, so keep your form to the basic information that will allow you to contact your lead later (name and email is usually sufficient).
With shorter attention spans and busier lives, you don’t have much time to grab the attention of your next potential customer. Use these tips for short and sweet business marketing to make a bigger impact with your online marketing. Once you pull people in, the door is open to let longer messages and content go to work.
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