You’ve Got 5 Seconds

“If your single most persuasive idea takes more than one sentence to explain, it probably isn’t single. Or persuasive.”

—Lee Clow’s Beard from Twitter, January 14th 2010

Yes, 5 seconds

We make a habit of telling clients that they’ve got 5 seconds to convey their keynote brand message. We work very hard to achieve this and to make sure it communicates an essential truth that answers “Why do you matter and why should I care?” If you cannot answer this with precision and persuasiveness, you have already lost your prospect.

If the headline does not grab you, the battle is essentially lost. According to research cited by The Tides Foundation, “most of the time 8o% of people read, hear, or remember only the headline, not the story.” Furthermore, “four of five people will never go further.” On your website, in your marketing, you have to articulate your essential brand messaging in less than 5 seconds, or you lose the opportunity to tell your story.

If you fail, they are gone, most likely never to return. If, however, you are able to capture their attention, strike a chord, and fulfill an expectation in this initial brand assertion, you are given additional time to make your case and they will read on. Here again, you must deliver in accordance with the expectations set up by the initial brand assertion. The truth helps a lot. Real substance helps a lot.

This task of honing and sharpening your message so that it is compelling and true is at the heart of effective brand messaging. It’s true for nonprofits as much as for business. It’s a challenging and essential task for everyone.

We are finding creative ways to help our clients make the world better.

We are no exception. We think we finally have it: “We are finding creative ways to help our clients make the world better.”

If you previously read this post you will notice that this has changed from what it was back in the beginning of 2010. We have evolved and gotten better at talking about ourselves. This kind of distillation and simplification may be in order for your brand as well.

Everyone must keep learning.

Note from 2025:

This original post used “30 seconds” instead of 5. In the 15 years since it was originally written, average human attention spans have progressively shrunk and seem on a trajectory to continue to do so. One now wonders if at 500 words this article is now way too long…

Do you need to improve your brand strategy today?

Because we know that not everyone needs or can afford our full process, we created a guided tutorial package for our foundational brand strategy tool: the Brand Pyramid. Watch the video for a preview.

For more information on the brand strategy tutorial, visit here where you will find a fuller explanation and link to a free download of the first video.