Blech. It’s already late-mid-January and you still haven’t made a New Year’s resolution. I think I know why: if you’re older than, say, 25, it’s probably impossible to think of a single personal flaw you haven’t already overcome by way of a previous New Year’s resolution.
But if you work in marcom, you can always afford to improve your collateral. To that end, here are four easy resolutions you should feel free to borrow.
1. Shorten your copy. In this age of tweets and text messages, nobody reads long copy anymore, right? Try to cut all headlines down to three words or fewer. Omit your intro paragraph entirely and begin each piece with your second paragraph. Limit yourself to three bullet points and don’t let them exceed two words apiece. And do that one-word sentence thing as much as possible.
2. Stop putting a phone number in your call-to-action. Instead, send people to your Twitter page for more really terse information (which they’ll probably only have time to skim).
Here’s an example of our first two resolutions in action:
Your Optimized Solution
That’s why you need the XYZ Platform. Integrated. Efficient. Driven.
You’ll get:
- Better visibility.
- Faster results.
- Bottom line.
@XYZPlatform
See? Your prospect only invested six seconds, but she learned that your product is good. She can now pass this along to her decision-maker and run to her next meeting.
3. Eliminate “world-class.” Thanks to decades of adjective inflation, world-class is the new mediocre. Start calling your products “universe-class.” Your competitors will mock you at first. But then they’ll grudgingly copy you to avoid giving anyone the impression that a better product may, in fact, exist just south of Ursa Major.
4. Work out every day at 6 a.m. You didn’t think I was going to let you off the hook with a bunch of wimpy mental resolutions, did you? For crying out loud, get out of bed and exercise. Don’t you know it’s good for you?
Keep in mind that 45 percent of New Year’s resolutions are broken by the end of January. Think these over and then implement one of them in a week or so. You’ll certainly make it to February—and look like a champ.
Pure. Genius. Right?
