Equal chances? Not in communication.

Everything you want to tell your customers is, of course, important. But what comes first? What can wait? And what do you actually want them to remember?

What I see a lot, is entrepreneurs who want everything to stand out at once. The product needs to pop more, the headline should shout louder, and of course — the logo bigger. Always the logo bigger… Until everything screams at the same volume and nothing gets through. It’s like three people talking to you at the same time.

And it’s really simple. Throw five tennis balls at someone at once and they’ll catch none. Throw them one by one and suddenly it’s easy. That’s how communication works too.

Your message needs hierarchy — the order in which you divide attention. What comes first, what follows, and what can wait. It applies to an ad, a website, a brochure — anything you make.

Often that order is straightforward:

1. Grab attention.
2. Give the core message.
3. Say what you want the reader to do.
4. And finish with a not-too-big logo 😆
   

I know how hard it is to do this for yourself. Had the same problem building my own website — I nearly put a whole book online. And for the MBC I once made an 80-slide presentation for a ten-minute talk. Hehehe. Making choices. Leaving out things that feel essential is tough. But there’s a simple fix: look at it from your customer’s point of view, not your own.

I once worked on a campaign for Waldkorn, the bread brand. They had a clear message they wanted to get across. Concept done, photos made — serious money. Then came the execution. The marketing guy wanted to fill half the ad with the logo. Looked fine, even matched the brand style, I’ll admit. But it completely missed the point. We argued a bit about it. What do you want people to remember: the message or the logo? I’ve always believed you can fight for something three times — after that, let it go. Who pays, decides. But whoever has something to say, must choose.

Good communication has rhythm, just like a good conversation. You decide the order in which someone understands, feels and remembers.

It doesn’t have to be ABC — maybe BCA works better. As long as there is an order. What you can’t do, is make everything equally important. Say everything, and you say nothing.

When’s the last time you looked at your website that way? Does it have a logical order — or is everyone still talking at once?