By Ericka Saurit
How to simplify your message without dumbing it down. Plus what to cut out immediately.
Last month, we got your story straight. This month, we’re doing the hard part…cutting everything else that gets in the way.
Here’s the truth most brands ignore: when people have to work to understand you, they won’t.
Confusion doesn’t ask follow-up questions, it just says no. No to you, and yes to your competitor. Or no to doing anything at all right now. Not because your work isn’t beautiful, but because they can’t quickly see how it makes their life better.
So the tendency is to just add more. More pages, more posts, more process language. We reach for jargon to sound more like experts.
But more information isn’t better—it’s just more.
The work is to say the right thing, clearly, at the right moment.
As Albert Einstein said “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” He knew that simplicity isn’t a downgrade, it’s mastery.
Here’s how to make clarity your default this month:
Make it unmistakable.
Choose one promise and one action per page or post. Run a five-second test (double points if you ask a friend outside our industry to help you!): can someone tell what you do, specifically who you do it for, and what you’re asking them to do next? If not, rewrite until they can. One page, one purpose, one path so that the next step feels inevitable, not effortful.
Use your love language.
I love this old-school marketing mantra from Dale Carnegie: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
Essentially, you’re repeating the same message again and again to ensure you’re heard clearly. A great way to fine tune your message is weave the voice of your customer into your own narratives. Try this: Interview five clients (or run your discovery inquiry forms through chatGPT and ask it to identify common phrases and key words), then put those exact phrases into a list, or language bank.
This is your client’s love language—the exact words and scripts to use in your headlines, service pages, and captions paired with “so that” outcomes, like this:
- Streamlined project management so that your build stays on track.
- Family-first space planning so that mornings feel calmer.
- Materials that wear beautifully so that your home looks lived-in, not worn-out.
Edit without mercy (for your sentences), with empathy (for your reader).
Circle abstractions and overused jargon (ie. curated, elevated, luxury, intentional, bespoke, etc) and replace them with specifics your client can picture. You may find it’s necessary to cut 30% of the words on your homepage, and that’s ok! Swap process paragraphs for a simple message map or graphic: say it, show it, prove it. Say the promise, show the project, prove it with a concrete outcome or testimonial.
Clarity isn’t about shrinking your ideas; it’s about sharpening them. When you respect your reader’s attention, you earn their trust.
Next month, we’ll tackle a common trap: your brand is not your logo. We’ll define what a brand really is and the elements you must articulate before visuals even begin. See you soon!
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