Consistency.

Consistency along as many scales as possible.

Be it a word, a sentence, a tweet, a paragraph, an email, a chapter, a book. Regardless of length, the hierarchy of messages stays consistent.

And yet, this can be boring. A word is not a book, nor are the scales in between these two the same. And there’s the influence of the medium. A sentence is not the same in an sms, on paper, hidden within a paragraph in a book on a dusty shelf in a forgotten library, or told by a famous actress in a divorce trial in a court of law.

In my company I ask my colleagues to think about this when constructing content of any kind. What messages do you want to convey to your target audience? Think about messages as if they were in a race. One is golden, one silver, one bronze. Only one of them will be given the exclusive right of top of mind awareness. My premise is that the target audience will not bother to remember anything at all. Why should they? I mean, today your competitive advantage does not consist of your ability to collect information anymore. On the contrary, the more selective you are, the more valuable you can be.

Hence, it is your task to control the winning message within your content. Furthermore, it helps the economics of remembering if your messages are organised as a story. A song. Our mind is incredible at storing consistent, storylike information. We are harmonious creatures who devour fractal scale-invariant information.

The next time you write an article, a book, or even an ad, let your messages compete in a race. Which one would you like to win? What about your customer? Decide. What message is golden, what silver, what bronze? Judge.

And then weave a story, compose a song. Sing. Dance.

A surprise? No!

Consistency!