The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
– Hans Hofmann
I wrote my first sales letter about 12 years back.
It had 12867 words in it.
And it made about $9,991 in sales.
I had read a ton of blogs and sales pages before I wrote that sales letter. And there was this one piece of advice that was common in all of those.
They said, “statistics show that the longer the essay, the more the engagement and attention”.
I was never able to relate to it.
Because whenever I saw a really long sales letter, I just scrolled through to the bottom of the page to see where the “buy now” button and the pricing was.
Maybe my attention span was short.
But then I realized that I was wrong. It was not just me. There were a bunch of others too who had shorter attention spans. And then I came across a few more.
No wonder the master of marketing Seth Godin was writing a blog post with just about 2 paragraphs and still getting a lot of attention and engagement.
Even social media channels adopted this and favored short content formats of 60 seconds to 90 seconds.
And then I came across more and more such examples. Until a point where I was convinced that short is better.
I have signed up for about 14 different newsletters (Don’t smirk at me. I have a reason for doing that).
And do you which is the one that I enjoy the most?
It is from Josh Spector.
His newsletter is usually about 3-4 sentences long but has so much value packed in it that I wouldn’t want to read that 5-page long newsletter that other marketers send.
Which is why I prefer limiting my essay to around 500 words.
Why waste energy on unnecessary words when I can do it in 500 words?
Whatever content marketing channel you are using or, prefer, remember that if something can be explained in a paragraph, then keep it to a paragraph. You don’t need to make it a novel.
On that piece, I really like this advice from Josh about writing.
Once you have written your piece, read through it and delete 10% of the words. If you can do 20%, then nothing like it.
Follow the advice and you will see how much better your content becomes.
I just tried it on this essay.
So hit reply and tell me if this one made sense to you and if you found value in it.
On Twitter
Here’s a thread on 7 recommended books that can help you with podcasting and content marketing in all forms.
If you are like me and spend a lot of time planning, then this thread is for you!
News that will interest You:
- Acast has signed up with Amazon Prime to offer ad free podcast episodes to its subscribers. Now this is an amazing opportunity for podcasters who offer premium content.
- Apple podcasts was seen to be quitely tagging episodes by Topic. How this is going to pan out and will it help podcasts or, adversely affect listenership is something we need to see.
From the Podcast:
The Podcasting University has grown considerably in the last few weeks and I am seeing a consistent uptick in listenership. Part of it can be attributed to the distribution to Samsung Podcasts, which I hadn’t expected.
Anyways, the last 2 episodes were more on the practical aspects of Podcasting.
Episode – 81: A confusion that most beginner podcasters face is in what is a good microphone to pick uo – USB or, XLR microphone.
Episode – 82: YouTube is slowly growing in Podcasting and with their increased focus on Podcasts, it could play a major role in listener acquisition in the near future. So should you put your podcast on YouTube?
Articles of Interest:
- This was an interesting article I found on the “School of Podcasting” about some powerful words that you should and should not use in Podcasting.
- This article by Daniel J Lewis on the Audacity to Podcast is an interesting read about how to communicate better to podcast better.
“Content marketing is really like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.”
– David Beebe
Recommended Reading
- Buyology: The Truth and Lies about why we buy – I read this book the last week and I found it quite interesting. Understanding why consumers buy something and how they perceive brands and products is an important aspect of pitching yourself. This book by Martin Lindstrom does a nice job of helping you understand that.
- Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – I have never been a fan of Gary Vaynerchuk’s marketing methods but I admire him because the guy is one hell of a marketer. This book is a nice presentation of how to put yourself in front of an audience especially when you are marketing in a noisy world.
That’s it for this week,
See ya again in the next edition,
Dilip K
P.S. If you would like to connect with me or, read more of my writings in the form of blog posts, then you can visit my blog about Podcasting Tips.
P.P.S. If you loved this newsletter, then why not recommend it to somebody you think it will be helpful for.
