Because with this generation you recruit, getting to the point gets it remembered.
In one of our latest research focus group surveys with incoming college freshmen, 68% told us that the recruiting messages they received from coaches were too large, confusing to read, had lots of information that they weren’t interested in reading, and didn’t seem personal.
Shorter, more direct messages are quick and to the point, not confusing, usually contain only relevant information, and seem more personal.
Plus, this generation has learned to communicate and interact with people they know with text messages, right? Have you ever received a long, complicated, information-packed text message from someone? Do you remember how you reacted, or felt about having to dig in and read all of it? Exactly.
Shorter wins.
Here are five quick pieces of advice that will help make your messaging shorter, and more effective:
- Limit yourself to ten minutes of writing per message. Time yourself. If you’re sitting down to create a new email or letter that’s going out to your recruits, don’t give yourself a lot of time to make it fancy, more well worded, and with extra information that’s only going to muddy their understanding of what you’re trying to get across to them. Say it, and end it.
- In your next message, pick up where you left off in the first message.
- Make it conversational in tone. If it sounds like a real person writing to them, they’ll respond. The longer your message out to recruits, the less likely it is that they’ll reply.
- Stick with one main point or topic when you write your prospects. You don’t need to tell them everything at once (and they probably aren’t interested in all of that other stuff yet anyway).
- Visually, include lots of white space with short paragraphs. We read things that are easy on our eyes. Structure and the look of your message matter to this generation.
And don’t include a lot of the fluff at the end of your message. Just end it, and tell them you want them to reply and continue the conversation.
(Make sense? Email me at dan@dantudor.com and let me know)