Less Is More. It's True.

Less is more.

It's true.

There is a client manager at a securities firm who is, I have to say, very conscientious. She regularly sends WeChat messages, either to individuals or to her own customer groups.

But there is so much information every day, so much text and so many images, that I never read every message very carefully.

Until one day, she sent a message introducing a product. It was packed with text and included a promotional image. I opened the image and took a look.

She sent it shortly after 2 p.m., and the purchase deadline for that round was 2:30 p.m. After looking at the image, I asked just a few small questions and bought it within half an hour.

It was already the ninth round of the product she'd sent me, and she only sent it about half an hour before the deadline. I was wondering why she hadn't told me earlier about such a good product, so I went back through her previous messages.

Then I realized that she really had sent me recommendations for all eight previous rounds. Perhaps I just hadn't looked carefully.

So why did I notice this round? I was curious.

I went back through every previous message and promotional poster, one by one, and spotted a problem. In all the earlier posters, the thumbnails were hard to read—which seemed normal enough—but even after opening them, I still couldn't understand them.

Each image contained so many instructions and so much information that it looked complicated at first glance. Our brains automatically screen out things that are complicated, unclear, and time-consuming to process. Especially when we aren't sure whether something matters, we may simply skip it.

Only this time was the poster's main point clear and explicit. The large ‘3.0%’ stood out, and I could understand it at a glance. All the complicated instructions from the earlier posters had been removed. So when I received the image, I asked just a few simple questions about the product and placed an order.

For the tenth round, I wouldn't even need her to tell me. I would find the purchase entry point and place my order myself. In the future, when I need it, I may do the same. How efficient is that!

Such a tiny difference greatly improved the efficiency of conversion.

I reflected on the experience and my state of mind. It seemed like an interesting case worth recording.

First, managing a direct customer community doesn't just mean adding people on WeChat, sending messages every day, and maintaining ‘mindless’ contact. More energy should go into effective customer engagement. Ideally, it leads directly to conversions; at the very least, it should generate word-of-mouth referrals.

Direct customer engagement should be meticulous work, not just busywork.

People who enter your own customer channels have at least some potential to become customers. After spending so much effort and money attracting them, isn't it rather poor value to give them only routine, perfunctory attention?

Of course, I think we're still missing some tools here. Automated tools that make this work trackable and measurable would make it easier to evaluate.

Second, communication should be as concise as possible: highlight the main point, and keep it clear and brief.

Everyone has limited attention. Your customers may hear from dozens of businesses recommending products every day. If you write a whole pile of things and they can't see or understand what value you're offering, they'll ignore it within seconds.

So explain the value your product offers in one sentence, or just a few words, whenever possible. Get straight to the point. Once customers get it, those who are interested will naturally ask more. Then you can explain.

In fact, once someone reaches the point of a private inquiry, their likelihood of becoming a customer is generally at its highest.

That beats bundling together a load of ineffective information and stuffing it in front of the customer. Really, put yourself in their shoes: who has the time or inclination to read something that has nothing to do with them?

This also bears out a classic principle of product design: ‘Leave the simplicity to the user, and keep the complexity for yourself.’

Those two takeaways are the reflections this experience gave me from the other side of the interaction.

I suddenly thought to record this because I've recently received more personal-brand or product posters with unclear value propositions: lots of information, but hard to understand.

Honestly, after reading them, my brain is a muddle. I can't bring myself to buy.

So... Less is more.

It's true.