Less is More: Is Your Message Getting Through?

Have you ever found yourself lost on a website, confused by an advertisement, or wondering what a person is really offering when you look at their business card? It is our professional opinion that, at the present moment, we are on an information overload. Throughout the day you are exposed to advertisements everywhere you go, from your radio, television, drive to work, magazines in the checkout line, and the list goes on and on. In a world where advertisers and businesses are constantly competing for your attention, how do you stay in the mind of your customers? How do you make them look twice? How do you pique their curiosity and entice them to learn more?

Our philosophy when it comes to design, advertising, and target marketing is: Less is More.

Here are the TOP 5 MISTAKES that small businesses make and how you can learn from them to stay in the game.

1. Overcrowded Business Cards: Do you really need to list all your products, services, mission statement, etc on your business cards? Good grief, by the time you get it all on there, the font is at 6pt and we need a magnifying glass just to read it! Business cards have about 2-5 seconds max of being in front of someone before they make the split decision to hold on to it or place it in the recycling bin. Keep the information on your cards simple, be creative, and give just enough for someone to say “Really?” and ask you for more information.
2. Overcrowded Websites: So we go to your website, and a video starts playing or sound starts playing (if you’re a multi-tasker that has several browser windows open, finding out where the noise is coming from is not a fun game). In addition to the video, there are things flashing, there’s text everywhere, and there’s multiple drop down menus. Good grief! How is anyone supposed to find what they need on your website? Consider the concept of less is more. Keep the most valuable information on your site, in a way where it is easy to find and navigate through. Consider a blog or a newsletter for your frequent updates so they don’t clutter your site. Give your viewers a reason to actually contact you for more information.
3. Multiple eNewsletters/Emails: This is absolutely ridiculous around the holiday season in particular, and can cause patrons to unsubscribe from your newsletter. Pick a schedule for your newsletters and stick to it to establish some consistency. Daily posts/updates are better for Facebook and Twitter, instead of for your newsletter.
4. Really Long eNewsletters/Emails: Some newsletters run on FOREVER and are not necessary. In many cases if a viewer sees as lot of text, it’s discouraging. That means they can’t read it immediately, and they put it aside for later (we’re sure many of you are aware that in some cases, “later” never comes). If you have a long article, provide a preview in your newsletter, link the rest to a blog post. Give your readers the power to choose, and allow all of the items in your newsletter to be seen.
5. Serial Social Media Posting: So your customer logs onto their Facebook page, and they see a post from your business page. Fabulous! They want to check out the link. But wait! They are immediately distracted because you’ve sent out 5 additional posts within a span of seconds/minutes! What do they click on? You do know that Facebook gives users the options to hide the postings from those who they are connected to, at their own discretion right? Space out those posts and give your fans a chance to actually digest what you’re putting out. Consider creating a running Word document with your posts if you are doing them all at once. Then you can copy and paste them into Facebook on a timed basis. Suddenly, you’re getting comments and feedback. Good for you!

As you go through your own marketing materials or make plans for future campaigns, remember that simplicity is key and less is more.