Too often, I find myself working with clients who try to cram every bit of detail into a piece of marketing collateral.  They want to impress their customers with huge words, technical specifications, and other details that the average customer doesn’t really care about.  It’s painful, but I have to remind them of this fact constantly.

We’re all guilty of over-complicating things.  I know I do it myself quite often.  It’s hard to pull yourself back and just simplify your message, but it’s one of the most important controls you can have on your content.  Take my favorite line from I, Robot, for example:

Detective Spooner: So, Dr. Calvin, what exactly do you do around here?

Dr. Calvin: My general fields are advanced robotics and psychiatry. Although, I specialize in hardware-to-wetware interfaces… in an effort to advance U.S.R.’s robotic anthropomorphization program.

Detective Spooner: So, what exactly do you do around here?

Dr. Calvin: I make the robots seem more human.

Detective Spooner: Now wasn’t that easier to say?

Dr. Calvin: Not really, no.

Is it easy to summarize what you want to say?  Not necessarily, but it’s easier for the customer to understand when you cut out the detailed techno-babble and make things more approachable.  When all else fails, remind yourself to keep it simple!