Hoping that something sticks

A common approach to communication is to throw a bunch of things at the audience and hope that something sticks:

We have this and that. And this. And also this. And that one, too.

Also, don’t forget these top 17 features of our offering …

Here are 23 awards and 13 testimonials of happy clients to prove that this is, in fact, great …

Please don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and our YouTube channel. Also listen to our podcast and become a fan on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Because you never know who exactly is in the audience. So, it seems sensible to include something for everyone. If this message doesn’t stick, then maybe that other one will. Or the third one. Or the 24th. So, we throw all of it at our audience and hope that one will stick.

Of course that never works. Because when you’ve got 24 message – or even just five – it’s going to overwhelm any audience. Each of these messages will be weaker than if you focused on one strong message. And put everything that you say under service of this one message.

It’s a difference to say 24 things that – step by step – lead to a strong message or to say 24 things each of which is their own message that compete for our audience’s attention.

I’d always prefer one message and to make it resonate so strongly that it leads to change.