Less Message, More Impact

Guess what? When your audience doesn't respond, adding more messaging usually makes it worse. This usually means when you notice campaign performance dropping, you assume the problem is insufficient explanation, and that assumption right there is costing you conversions.

For me, it's like a reflex built over years of trying to be thorough, of wanting to address every objection, of believing more features equal more persuasion. But controlled studies in consumer behavior reveal a different reality. For example, when researchers gave audiences additional product details they expected would drive purchase intent, consideration actually declined, and not marginally. but consistently. Oddly, the issue wasn't audience sophistication or interest level but cognitive load. Why? Because attention is finite, and when it's overwhelmed, your audience shifts from evaluating to skimming and then from considering to ignoring.

But you need not abandon hope, all you who engage in the art and science of marketing.

When unnecessary messages are stripped away, response rates improve,
audiences convert faster, and they can grasp your core value instantly.
This is why feature-heavy campaigns underperform focused ones, personas stuffed with demographic noise obscure real behavioral insights, and why strong positioning gets diluted the moment we hedge with "and also" benefits. Stop doing all of that.

Knowing what to cut is how clarity is built, not by adding more touchpoints or explaining harder.

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu advised, “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.”