Principle: People DON’T hear 3 things; they hear 1 thing, or nothing
Make a list of things for your spouse to get at the store, and tell them verbally.
My wife has a habit of buying Costco-sized duplicates of stuff we already have, so in a hurry, I quickly told her 2 things NOT to buy, and 1 thing we needed.
You already know what happened. We’ll be giving away dried mangos and eggs as Christmas 2026 gifts, I’m going without bananas in my smoothie.
Simplicity is king in marketing. I don’t care how cool your product is.
What is the ONE thing it does? Just tell me that.
Tactics
“Strip the idea down to its most critical essence.” - Dan and Chip Heath
Take the important ideas, and delete them to make more room for the most important one.
If your ads, your social media content, your blog post, your product subtitle, can’t immediately be summarized by someone looking at it for the first time in one sentence, you have not simplified enough.
For a landing page to be successful, the first words to appear (sometimes including the name of the product/service) should be the main benefit.
Then, throughout the rest of the page, you should aim to prove that the main benefit is actually achievable with your product.
That’s it.
Don’t tell me your founder story if it’s not a continuation of the main benefit explanation.
Don’t put 10 options on the landing page unless they all provide the same main benefit.
Don’t start the page telling me your powder gives me energy, then talk to me about how it also makes my hair grow. I came here for energy. Give it to me, and that alone.
Habits/Experiments
Go rip apart your best- and worst-performing landing pages as well as your home page.
Can you reliably find the main benefit over and over without any other distraction-benefits?
If not, time to hit the delete button, and hyper focus on the main thing.
Mike
Today’s inspiration: Make to Stick by Dan and Chip Heath