Short Is The New Long

While mining some of the nuggets in Seth Godin’s excellent new book, Small Is the New Big, he made me also think “Short Is The New Long.”

You have an idea or concept for a business, a product, an invention or some other innovation. How do you communicate it? Sometimes people in business try to make sense of it all by writing business plans, marketing plans, creative briefs, missions, visions, value propositions, elevator speeches or lengthy brochures to articulate their thoughts. Whoa. It shouldn’t be that hard. In fact, the chance for success with your idea is probably inversely proportional to the time it takes to express it. Most people are running their business and personal lives with a serious time crunch. They don’t have time for your long version.

So instead of thinking long, think short. Advertising people, by the very nature of their business, are forced to do that every day. Instead of allowing yourself the luxury and drudgery of obscurring your idea with a hundred or thousand words of copy, start short on the other end of the spectrum. It’ll save you a lot of time, remove the camoflauge from your concept, and help you decide if it is a great idea. If you do need to write a longer version, this will give you an excellent way to focus first. Here are some ways to start short.

1) Name one word that differentiates your business, product, concept or idea. In the book, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Ries & Trout’s law #5 states the most powerful concept is owning a word in the prospect’s mind. Even if you can’t “own” the word, it will help you zero in.
2) OK, one word is tough, so now give yourself the luxury of explaining your idea or business in two or three words. You can even use contractions to cheat on this one.
3) Next, try a six word story (see David Seah’s blog). Now we’re getting to the real heart of the matter.
4) Get more creative. Try writing a billboard headline for your concept, business or idea. Imagine cars are zipping by and you have to get their attention. The old rule of thumb is that billboard headlines need to be eight words or less. Writing concepts for billboards automatically makes you think short.
5) Now try writing Haiku. Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that usually consists of three lines and seventeen syllables (first line, five syllables; second line, seven; third line, five). Try to write it from the perspective of someone interacting with your brand, company, product or idea for the first time.

So cool this iPod
Music, photos, video
Here small in my hand

6) Give yourself the indulgence of using one sentence to explain things. You get to use one comma and one conjunction. It can’t sound like a run-on sentence.
7) Write a script for a 15-second video of your idea to put on YouTube. What would you show? What would you say? Remember, you’re vying for attention from a busy audience with a whole lot of other distractions.
8) Finally, if you need more time to explain, write a 30-second radio commercial for your idea. That’s about 75 words. And remember the first few seconds of your radio commercial will probably determine if people will listen to the rest of it or “opt out” by pushing another button.

That’s eight short ways to crystallize your idea. Each a little longer than the previous method, but all still represent condensed, compact thinking. You might have saved yourself the toil of writing the longer version, and done you and your audience a favor in the process. Time is in short supply these days. Short is The New Long, and nowadays that applies to more than advertising.