The one thing I like about writing is that I get to address the topic as completely as I feel I need to. Over the years I’ve found that the one detail I leave out in a email or brochure or webpage is the one piece of information that folks call back looking for. When blogging, I write until I feel I’ve addressed the topic until it is resolved in my mind. Writing saves interuptions and makes revising easy. The end result is a complete document.
Reading an article in this month’s Wired called What Kind of Genuis Are You (a facinating article about two types of creatives, nicely summarized here at Reveries), I find myself identifying with ‘experimentalist’ creatives like Cezanne who only signed 10% of his paintings because he was never sure if they were complete or not.
Regardless, the point is that one goal of B2B marketing is communicating information effectively, which means completeness. But perhaps we are overachievers. Engineers need certain data from our materials, but they aren’t dumb. They can connect the dots. We don’t need to spoon-feed them.
Yet we continue to produce ‘features and benefits’ lists that treat them as dumb. That’s because we are told that benefits sell, not features. And it becomes complete that way. How many of you have written something like this…
Perhaps we are lacking feedback on our writing, because on the other side, this is what is happening:
How much smarter is it to leave your marketing incomplete and let the reader do the heavy lifting? The conclusion may be obvious, but the conclusion is now theirs. They own the idea now. Even complex concepts may fair better, because explaining them takes more effort then just pointing the reader in the right direction. (This happens in art and B2C advertising, but they also have the benefit of multiple mediums to make this more effective.)
Or to quote a Chinese proverb I saw somewhere else this week:
- “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”
I think I’ve reached the asymptote of completeness with this post, so I’ll leave you to figure out what it means to you. (Of course I’m wondering if your reading this going ‘duh’, how obvious.)
UPDATE: Kathy Sierra latest post complements (adds to) this one: Hooverin’ and the space between notes
Duh! I got a question …If I can’t talk about the benefits, what am I supposed to fill all the dead air with? Bonding?Seriously, it is difficult to be complete without over doing the WIIFM question.
Duh! I got a question …If I can’t talk about the benefits, what am I supposed to fill all the dead air with? Bonding?Seriously, it is difficult to be complete without over doing the WIIFM question.
I’m not saying “don’t do it”, just don’t be an over-achiever. Choose your battles, if you will, and then go for completeness. In a conversation, the amount you talk about a particular subject is automatically controlled…but not so when writing.
I’m not saying “don’t do it”, just don’t be an over-achiever. Choose your battles, if you will, and then go for completeness. In a conversation, the amount you talk about a particular subject is automatically controlled…but not so when writing.