For years I have been telling my clients to narrow their message to one. “If you tell people five things, they will remember none. If you tell them only one thing, you will have a better chance at being remembered.” I advise.
At first, I often encounter resistance to this advice. Clients say, “We don’t do just one thing.” “That’s great news,” I say. “Now we have a marketing campaign! We can tell them about all of your services, one at a time. Each month we will highlight one part of your offering.” Another reason for the “one at a time” strategy has to do with frequency. You know you have to hear about a business many times before it is remembered. Sending one message a month over six months gives you a reason to “stay in touch” with your audience. If you sent the same message six times people would say “I saw this already” and throw it away. Now, a whole book has been written to support my advice.
In her new book, The Art of Choosing, author Sheena Iyengar describes a taste testing experiment. On one table there are 28 choices of jam. On another, there are six. Guess which table had the most sales? The table with 28 choices, right? There has to be something on that table for everyone so everyone should buy, right? Wrong. More sales came from the table with fewer offerings. Why? The answer in Sheena’s book is that people don’t like too many choices. The 28 options of jam overwhelm them so they walk away without buying. I agree. That is why I advise my clients that less is more. Less is easier to remember.
For years Carvel ice cream was really simple. You could have vanilla or chocolate or a combination of vanilla and chocolate. Then Baskin Robbins came along offering 32 flavors of ice cream. Suddenly there was the idea if you don’t offer lots of flavors people won’t buy your ice cream. I disagree. If I walk into an ice cream store, I want ice cream and I’m going to buy ice cream. I’ll find a flavor I like whether there are 2, 6 or 32 offered. Ever go into Coldstone? The first time I did, I was paralyzed. I had no idea ice cream could be so complicated – or so expensive. I had no idea what to do. Fortunately, Coldstone predicted that and created some pre-packaged offerings. Thank goodness. If they hadn’t, I may have walked out without buying any thing because I was so confused.
Want to sell more? Keep it Short. Keep it Simple. Coke or Pepsi? Easy. Sale. 28 flavors of jam. Hard. No sale. Life’s hard enough and then you want me to choose among 28 flavors of jam? No thanks.
