Creators need to master the skill of brevity.

Get to your main idea or point quickly, whether you’re writing an article, creating ad copy for a billboard, or posting a video to YouTube. People’s attention spans are shorter than ever, and while you want to stay human with the creative work you do, you don’t want to bore your potential audience or make them search for the answers they need.

I see it constantly: videos online with titles like “Our first week with our new cocker spaniel puppy,” but the creator spends the first 7 minutes of the video talking about all the supplies they got for the puppy and how excited they are. People tune out! If you promise me a puppy video, show me that puppy! I want to see it in the first few seconds.

The same is true in billboard marketing. As the famous saying by Donald Miller goes, if you confuse, you lose. I shouldn’t have to process your message if I’m speeding past it going 60 miles an hour. Don’t try to be tongue-in-cheek with your marketing messaging.

Recently, in Reno, Nevada, there was a billboard that ended up getting a lot of hate online. It said something like “Lake Tahoe is like the Czech Republic without the 14-hour flight.”

I believe the goal was to get Reno locals to book a room at the Caesars Republic in Lake Tahoe. The problem is that for Nevadans (and probably the majority of people in the U.S.), we haven’t been to the Czech Republic. It made us question why the Czech Republic would be better or equally as good as the crowning jewel of our state, Lake Tahoe, which means we’re no longer thinking about how nice Lake Tahoe is; we’re questioning its value.

Locals are already in love with Tahoe, we don’t need to compare it to another destination. Something like “Enjoy World Class Luxury in Your Backyard” would have been less confusing and resonated better.

As a university news editor, I read a lot of articles. Even with news articles, folks have a tendency to bury the lede. I shouldn’t have to skip over the first paragraph (or three) of an article to get to the main idea.

You probably have seen this in recipe videos or blogs – the creator tells a drawn-out story about how the meatloaf pie was a staple in their household growing up and how when they make it now, the smells remind them of their grandmother.

What do we do as the audience? We either scroll scroll scroll down trying to get to the actual recipe, or we back out quickly and find someone else who posted the recipe without the emotional baggage.

Brevity is difficult. It’s uncomfortable for the writer because you have to choose your words carefully. But it helps your audience. It gives us the information we want without working for it.

And if you as a creator haven’t made it easy for your audience, someone else has, and your audience will follow.

So the next time you’re creating a TikTok, writing an article or copy for an ad for your business or even a video to entertain, keep reworking it until the main point it clear from the moment your audience sees it.