Michael Walsh
KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID
Mike Walsh
Most people agree that a picture tells 1,000 words - they then ignore it. Much of my work involves working website content. Most descriptive wording is surplus. There seems to be an obsession with stating the glaringly obvious.
Fireplaces (with chimneys - really?). En-suite master bedroom, solarium. A gazebo 4 metres by 5 metres; A garden - a pool, a palm tree, a driveway, balcony, on road parking…
Some of these descriptions are obvious, especially if looking at photographs. What is the point of describing a property’s interior; number and size of rooms, décor and outside if there are ample images?
A typical real estate company has 1,000 property images. Many descriptions average 250 words, which is 205,000 words or THREE PAPERBACKS! Perhaps content writers think the more you write the more chance of a sale. Many hope their website content does their selling. It does not and is not intended to. That is the salesperson’s job.
What you are doing is giving the client too much information. Do that and you confuse him. Bemused clients do not make decisions. Very often I can reduce 150 words to thirty words and say more.
Marketing experts have worked it out. If a client cannot scan and absorb a sales message in less than 8 seconds he will not read it. My advice was never more than a total of 50 words on a flyer. Everyone who did so said their investment was good value for money. Well, nearly everyone.
One Welsh businessman insisted on every blind and awning design listed on his A5 flyer. With over 300 words it looked like a photocopy of a BT telephone directory. It failed! Let us end with another sales truism: K.I.S.S. Keep it Simple, Stupid.
By the way I welcome comment. Feel free to put your oar in. Michael Walsh
www.michaelwalsh.es email quite_write@yahoo.co.uk