You know when you make a gin and tonic and pour in too much Fever Tree and it just doesn’t pack the same punch? The same happens with your copywriting when you pour in too many words.

Quality beats quantity always but loads of business owners still believe their copywriting needs to meet a certain quota of words in order to rank. While it’s true that thin content rarely prevails (unless you’re Apple or Audi), I can’t stress enough how important it is to avoid words for the sake of words.

Not only will your page look like an amateur wrote it, but there’s psychology in it too.

What is the dilution effect?

The “dilution effect” is a concept that comes from social psychology regarding judgement bias. It comes into play when important or useful information is overlooked, because of the presence of irrelevant details.

The dilution effect in real-life psychology studies

There are actual studies on this thing. Here are two that I think stand out and perfectly demonstrate the dilution effect in action. If you haven’t already clicked onto how the concept fits in with copywriting, you will after finding out more about these studies.

1. The power of brevity

Niro Sivanathan, LBS Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, is a big name in dilution effect research. He says: “The truth is far too often we see people speak up, but fail to influence. The message was sound, but the delivery proved faulty."

The Tim & Tom study illustrates this:

Imagine there are two students, Tim and Tom. Tim spends 31 hours per week studying outside of the classroom. Tom also spends 31 hours per week studying outside of the classroom, has a brother and two sisters, has been on a blind date, and plays pool once a month. Who performs better academically?

Well, when asked, most respondents believe Tim would achieve significantly higher grades than Tom. We already know both students put in the same amount of studying, so why the irrational response?

It comes down to diagnostic vs. non-diagnostic information. Diagnostic information is directly relevant to the final evaluation, and non-diagnostic information has no direct consequence to the evaluation. When both categories are combined, the dilution effect happens.

In this case, the extra information about Tom dilutes the diagnostic information (the fact that he studies for 31 hours per week), and reduces the weight of this information. The brain effectively averages out everything it takes in, so the weak or irrelevant information dilutes the entire argument.

2. The side effects of dilution

The pharmaceutical industry is no stranger to the dilution effect, and many companies use the cognitive bias to their advantage. Think back to an ad you’ve seen about a medical product. Government regulations stipulate that companies must list side effects. They don’t tell you how many side effects need to be listed, nor what order they should be in.

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So, in general, companies first list the most significant side effects. The scary ones. May cause internal bleeding, blackouts, birth defects, memory loss, etc.

Then they end with the smaller side effects, because people tend to remember the most recent information they heard. May cause headaches, chance of itchiness, dry mouth etc.

Sivanathan, once again, looked into this. He showed two different study groups varying pharmaceutical ads to examine consumer impact. One group saw the complete list of side effects of a product, and one group was shown only the major side effects. Unsurprisingly, the group that was shown both the major and minor side effects rated the product’s risk as lower than group two.

The scary side effects were diluted by the not-so-scary ones. As a result, respondents also said they were more likely to purchase that product and would pay more for it.

What can copywriters take from this?

As the studies show us, when the brain is presented with lots of information, it doesn’t add the information, but it finds the average. Because of that, the argument effectively gets weaker.

See where I’m going with this?

The more information you throw at your reader, the less impactful your point becomes. That minor information that you included to build up the word count takes away from the stronger points you made about your brand.

I know it’s tempting to list all the amazing features about your product or service, but try to make sure every single point you make deserves a spot on the page. 

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That’s the reason companies that understand consumers, such as HubSpot, only list each product’s key features. If readers want to know more, they can click through. Choose your strongest arguments and highlight them. Companies want users to make up their mind about making a purchase by just glancing at what’s on offer. Influence them by focusing on your strongest points and scrapping your weakest ones, and remember also that copy is more memorable when it’s succinct.

Goal dilution: Get focused

The theory of goal dilution says that if we’re presented with a singular or focused concept/product, we believe it to be better than if it were diluted amongst others.

For example:

Restaurant A sells crepes.

Restaurant B sells crepes, waffles and bagels.

Most people believe that Restaurant A’s crepes must be better, even though there’s nothing to tell us that. You can apply this principle to your marketing.

Instead of telling consumers that you can do everything (goal dilution), focus on the one thing that makes you stand out. What should consumers associate with your business? Stick to that.

How else do you think Google knocked all their search engine competitors out of the park? Look at Google’s simple, streamlined homepage in comparison to the hectic MSN homepage, both captured in 2002 when MSN was the reigning leader.

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Google’s goal of providing search services to its users isn’t diluted by links, news or offers. One singular goal dominates their homepage and it’s clear to see this tactic hasn’t failed them yet. Just take a look at Google’s homepage today, two decades later. It’s barely changed.

Now put it into practice

Now that you have a golden nugget of knowledge about the psychology behind marketing, you can apply the dilution effect to your own copywriting. Cut the babble - not just because it sounds messy, but because it’s taking away from your overall selling points. For a website audit, send us a message.