By Mark Stoddard
How many words should your flyer or advertisement contain inviting people to your concert or performance… assuming you want a full house? How many words should your advertisement contain?
Simply put, the length of a flier, a concert recital announcement, or an ad is strictly based upon its purpose. You should only use enough words to accomplish that purpose. Not a word more or less.
The point is to make a sale.
The lawn sign read, “I’ll pay cash for your home” and gave a phone number. Was the sale made? Nope. But the first person who tried that, supposedly in St. Louis, got swamped with phone calls. The ad worked – it achieved its objective. It was appropriately short because it wasn’t meant to tell the who story, just to get the person to take the next step and call them.
Remember, the purpose of the headline is to drive the reader to the next sentence or action. The headline length can be a few words or many words… enough to get the desired action and not one word more.
One headline I wrote was “When is a diet pill worth $135 a bottle? … When it works.” That headline has been used over and over since I wrote it in the early 2000s. Some criticized it as being too long, yet they admit it works wonderfully.
I’ve used headlines twice that long. But, one of my most successful headlines was “We Don’t Sell Fish.” It had enough of a curiosity factor to make people want to read the next sentence. They did and we followed that with benefit after benefit for people to attend a one week course that cost them $3,000. Hundreds came.
That next sentence after the headline might be uttered over the phone, in an email, a twitter, a website or into the store where the rest of the advertisement takes place.
Again, the length of the ad is strictly based upon its purpose. And you should only use enough words to accomplish that purpose. Not a word more or less.
Sometimes it takes many words. Remember, advertising is simply salesmanship in print (or on a another medium).
Determine your purpose and write as many words as it takes to close the sale. Don’t limit yourself when writing to the physical constraints of the ad space or cost. You’ll edit later. Get the message out there in a free flowing logical progression first. Don’t be constrained by what others will think either. Someone will always be there to utter the foolish words, “that’s too long.” No. It’s either effective or ineffective.
Mark Stoddard, author of Marketings Singers, is a business leader, professor, marketer and consultant who has been helping singers get jobs for more than 20 years. On the singing front he staged more than 100 professional shows aboard cruise ships that employed classical singers, pianists and strings. He’s also coached singers on how to sell their CDs and other products, use the social media and how to negotiate contracts. Email Mark at mark@mjstoddard.com.
