“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”. We may not know who said it first, but this quote stands witness to the importance of brevity in writing. And even more so for copywriting.
A webpage can contain an unlimited number of words, but your visitors don’t have unlimited time to trawl through it.
Good copywriters understand the value of being succinct. They understand how to get your message and USP across to online visitors, using as few words as possible. This is the KISS principle for copywriters: Keep It Succinct, Sweetie!
Why You Should Adopt The KISS Principle For Copywriters
As much as we love it, social media is eroding our attention spans. We are collectively consuming 5x more information than we did in the 80s – equivalent to 174 newspapers a day, whew! And that’s only set to increase as video-first platforms like TikTok take over.
But who has time to read 174 newspapers in a single day? No one, obviously. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’d willingly read all 1000 words on a single webpage.
So when you’re battling a whole generation’s dying attention spans, how do you win?
By packing as much punch in as few words possible.
What Is The One Thing You Want Your Readers To Take Away?
A great copywriter can take your core offering, along with your prospects’ pain points and apprehensions, and turn it into a sentence that sells. This is your unique selling proposition – your USP. It’s the one thing you want your potential customers to take away from your website, product description, or social media advertisement.
Here are some of our favourite examples that adopt the KISS copywriting principle.
Deliverr: “Deliverr lets you easily fulfill your marketplace and shopping cart orders”
Hello Fresh: “Meal planning that saves you serious time, money, and stress.”
Simba Sleep: “Sleep longer, deeper and cooler. On up to 10 layers of patented sleep tech. Packed into the ultimate hybrid mattress.”
The impact of these snippets is undeniable. They know the value of their products and services, and so do their prospects, right from the moment they land on their homepage.
What About SEO?
We’ve all heard that a higher word count is better for SEO, and there is some truth to that. But one of the most important aspects of SEO is your bounce rate i.e. the percentage of people who enter your site and then leave without visiting other pages. If your web page is crammed with unnecessary and long-winded text, do you really think they’ll want to trudge through more of the same?
A better tactic is to reserve that information for your blogs or FAQ sections, and let your core webpages remain enticing and super impactful. If your visitor wants to know more about your offering, let them explore your site and search for it. Or better yet, let them reach out to you!
You can save minutes worth of brain power with a simple call-to-action that will give them exactly what they want. Whether that’s to speak to an advisor, book a consultation, or find out more about your product.
Keeping Your Copy Short Won’t Hinder Your Message. It Strengthens It.
Stop trying to say as much as you can about your product or service. Great copy finds a single problem, fixes it with a single solution, and then puts it in a single sentence. It forces your prospects to focus on that one thing that you can do to make their lives better or easier.
Making your copy more succinct will help you get more impulse sales, win trust, and build a brand that really resonates with people.
In sum, keep it succinct, sweetie!
If you’re struggling to translate your USP into impactful website content, we’d love to help! Our website copywriters have a wealth of experience writing succinct copy for clients of all industries.
