Why You Should Be Brief and How to Do It

Posted 06.04.2014

book-brief

There’s a famous quote that’s often attributed to Mark Twain but actually originated with the French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal – “I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.”

That Pascal was one smart guy. A full five hundred years before the information flood that all of us face today, he understood that brevity is important and that it takes work to be brief.

If you want to learn more about why you should be brief and how to do it, check out a new book, Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less by marketing expert Joe McCormack.

In a recent conversation I had with Joe, he pointed out that your audience is drowning in the information flood that you don’t want to be the one to push them under for the count. Preparing your message is the best way to avoid doing that. Joe shared with me a communications planning framework he’s developed around the word BRIEF. First you get clear on the topic and then you provide the:

Background on the topic, and then the

Relevance to the audience, followed by the key bullet points of

Information about the topic. That sets you up for the

Ending and outlining the

Follow-up that needs to happen next.

In the accompanying recording of our brief conversation (how appropriate), Joe gives some guidance on how to apply the BRIEF model, how to write e-mails that actually get read and acted upon and his three best tips for being effectively brief in your communications.

Give it a listen. It’s an action-packed nine minutes.

[powerpress url=”http://eblingroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/joe-mccormack-may29-edited.mp3″]

Would you like to win your own copy  of Brief? Joe has graciously offered to send a signed copy to one of our listeners. Want to be that person? Here’s all you need to do:

1. Make sure you are signed up to receive updates via our blog. If you’re not click here. If you’re already signed up then you’re almost done. (yes we’ll check). Or…

2. Leave a comment here letting us know you signed up and why you would like to win the book.

Bonus entry if you follow @scotteblin on Twitter and then comment here to let us know. The drawing is Tuesday, June 10th at noon PT. Enter now and check back on Tuesday to see if you won!

That’s it. Very simple. You’ll get a chance to win the book and you won’t miss out on updates. Updates come in two flavors, instantly when a blog is posted or in a digest form weekly (replacing monthly newsletter). Your choice. We will choose a winner using a random number generator.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The book contest is now closed, and we have a winner: Mary K. Parker.  Congratulations and thanks for playing!