Stop taking so long to say what you need to say…

That headline is eleven words to say what could have been said in four. The first component to efficiently getting attention is getting to the point in your copy. Say as little as you need to say in order to get the point across.

Alternative headlines: “Don’t bury the lead.” “Get to the point.”

This Ricola ad is a great second example of getting to the point👇🏽

The importance of stopping power…

The second component to getting attention fast is creating visuals with stopping power. Meaning, your visuals have to be interesting enough to make people stop and say, “wait, what?” or “woah, holy sh*t.”

Arguably, visuals trump copy in order of impact, especially today. Consumers demonstrate time and again to be visual creatures. Show them the good stuff…

A few examples of visuals that have stopping power:

What else should I keep in mind?

Brevity demonstrates expertise

• People perceive you as an expert. When you insert excess fluff into your creative (copy, visuals, etc.) it gives the impression that you or your brand is unclear about your message. The most influential brands on the planet quickly and succinctly synopsize even the most complex ideas into simple terms and images.

Information overload

• Put the shoe on the other foot. Human beings can only absorb so much information at once. If you overload your audience with details, you can bet that they inevitably give up and go elsewhere to make their purchase. Consider the grocery store. Imagine if groceries were in plain-colored boxes with a lot of copy on the outside describing the food inside. Some people would rather grow and hunt their own groceries, if that were the case. No, at the grocery store, they just plainly show you the item in a way that is easily visible and understood.

Busyness and impatience

• People tend to be busy. In short, nobody has the time or the patience to try to understand your elongated message. Sum up your short story in a sentence, put the results at the beginning, give the reason to keep watching instantly, give the audience an interesting or gripping visual to keep their attention…