Imagine this. You’re meeting with your
lawyer to review an important business contract and she hands you one page. You
ask, “Where is the rest of the contract?” and she replies, “We have a rule in
our office that contracts can only be one page. I couldn’t get all of the
clauses in, but I got the most important ones.”
Absurd, right? Who could possibly imagine
that the length of a contract determines its effectiveness? When it comes to
contracts, we clearly choose completeness over brevity.
Why is it then that when it comes to
letters, we are convinced of the opposite? I can’t tell you how many times
clients have asked me to draft a letter with the overriding instruction being
it has to be one page.
I’m well aware of the many famous
quotations that say it’s harder to write a short letter than a longer one.
And as a writer, I know that my first draft will almost always be too long. But
that just says that three pages might be better than four and yes, that one
might be better than two. It doesn’t mean that a one-page letter is a
necessarily superior form of communication.
To be clear, I’m not talking about
perfunctory letters that are simply designed to convey a small amount of
information. The letter letting me know that my electricity is about to be
disconnected for non-payment doesn’t need to be more than one page.
But if your letter is intended to have
impact, to shape opinion or to influence decision-making, imposing a one-page
limit is counter-productive. In discussing clarity v. impact, Seth
Godin says, “…often, being crystal clear about categorization, topic
sentences and the deliverable get in the way of actually making an impact.”
It seems to me that if you are bothering to
write in the first place, you might as well do the best possible job of
communicating. You demonstrate your respect for your customers by not
sacrificing form over function. You are saying to the reader that you are so
important to our organization that we are prepared to take the time to fully
explain what it is we have to say.
On top of that, multi-page letters deliver
greater results. For example, in the fundraising world, they have been proven
to result
in more donations.
Let’s turn this around. The real question
isn’t whether a one-page letter is superior. Rather, it’s why your customers or
constituents won’t read a multi-page letter from your organization. The answers
to that question may reveal deeper, more important issues. Here are some
possibilities.
Your
letters aren’t well written. The insistence on
brevity is often an admission of ineptitude. People read columns, articles and
books every day. They all exceed one page. If a letter is well written – with
an effective hook to interest the reader – and with content and style that is
compelling, people will make it through that extra page or two.
It’s
not important to them. If people aren’t reading
your letters, it may indicate that you have lost touch with them. What you are
writing about isn’t important to them. Or, apropos to the point above, you have
in the first paragraph or two failed to establish why the reader should
continue on. In either case, you need to spend a little more time re-connecting
with your reader.
They
are not engaged. If your customers don’t perceive
there to be any value in their association with your company, they are not
going to be interested in your letters – whether they are one page or four. Any
communication with a constituent is only as good as the experience that has
preceded it. You may have a much larger problem on your hands that has more to
do with branding than letter-writing.
The reality is that when someone says,
“People will never read more than one page” it’s not an assessment of the
inclination or ability of the reader. It’s an admission that there’s something
lacking in the relationship with the customer to whom the letter is being
written.
So, the one-page letter becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Providing less information and context diminishes the
possibility of engagement and makes it even less likely that the constituent
will read a longer letter in the future. Unless you break the cycle, you will
be doomed to a future of brief but ineffective communication.
What
do you think?
Do you insist on one-page letters? Are
people just too rushed to be bothered to read multi-page letters? Do you have
any experience or data to shed light on the question?
