Assume Your Audience Is Intelligent
February 15, 2013 
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Lisa Gerber recently published a blog post which she titled: “dumb your messages down for the masses,” a notion I completely disagree with and think is a terrible idea.
In fact, the first part of her post isn’t even about messaging, it’s about good customer service which I agree with. The second part of her post talks about web usability (adding links as context). Also fine.
But let’s go back to her title, because it’s something that really gets under my skin and is a backwards notion in the modern business world and our current society as a whole. I simply do not agree with dumbing your message down. In a world of infinite choice, this actually makes your brand seem cheap, spammy and untrustworthy. If you are a writer, it makes your message seem banal / unimportant. Unless you are a brand like P&G and built in the era of mass this approach is to be lost in obscurity. To seem cheap. To not win anyone’s hearts or minds.
You absolutely can have intelligent, creative or clever messages and still be perfectly clear to users at all levels of sophistication. ‘Dumbing down’ is the wrong mindset and is to take your brand or ideas two steps backwards. It’s not good marketing, it’s simply to move towards the middle, to blend in and be boring.
But boring is over. We are weird. As Seth Godin states in his recent book:
But what happens when mass disappears? When we can connect everyone, customize and optimize–then what happens to normal?
Normal is so ingrained in what we do every day that it’s difficult to notice that your tendency toward the normal is now obsolete.
You should assume your audience is weird and intelligent. Treat them like insiders not drooling idiots. Everyone knows it’s easily possible to find answers and conduct research so understand that people will get up to speed themselves. The data agrees: US customers now consult, on average, 10.4 sources prior to purchasing. This is not the behavior or unintelligent people.
To dumb down is to put off your best potential customers and be taken less seriously in your industry. Besides, do you really want customers like this?
PS: it is my pet peeve when anyone at a conference dumbs down their presentations, especially in the marketing category. None of this stuff is new, and I’ve almost never, if ever been in an audience at a conference where attendees felt what they were getting was too advanced. It’s always people presenting basic, previously shared or clichéd advice that gets a negative reaction.
image credit: Shutterstock
Lisa Gerber replied | Feb 15, 2013 (4 comments)
But Adam, wait. How do you really feel?
Seriously, though – a couple things:
I don’t disagree – perhaps “dumbing it down” was an unfortunate choice of words. What I meant was to simplify your message for your entry level audience.
I even said in the post: “…let’s assume your prospect is intelligent and a quick study, but knows very little about your business. How can you guide them through the process?”
Businesses have to appeal to each level in their audience to create the comfort level and trust.
I also wanted to make the point that messaging goes all the way to the customer service level. So if you’re customer svc isn’t simplifying the message, they’re losing business.
Completely agree with you about not treating your audience like drooling idiots. I appreciate you’re calling me out on this and in hindsight, the title is a bad choice of words.
Adam Singer replied | Feb 15, 2013 (596 comments)
Yes, your post didn’t really match your title in that regard. Although there *are* those who insist on dumbing things down — in business, in media and in life. I’m definitely against that, thus writing a post.
Thanks for commenting — and yes, you’re right I always share how I really feel :)
Mike replied | Feb 16, 2013 (1 comment)
Adam, I agree with some of your sentiment but also some of Lisa’s. Where I fall as a tech marketer is that its heavily dependent on context and the expectation of your audience. Know thy readers. Intelligent people who don’t know much about your topic need not be treated like idiots but should also have access to more resources to enable them to get up to speed, especially around jargon or acronyms.
A simple way to think about it, just as you wouldn’t enroll college freshman in a senior level course, you can’t assume your readers know what you are talking about without the opportunity to gain more context.
Mia Huey replied | Feb 17, 2013 (1 comment)
I completely agree with what you are saying as far as having the ability to write intelligent posts without distorting the message. However, I think that others would agree that there sometimes you will have to market to audience that may not exactly be the most intelligent. Of course, I agree that “dumbing down” was a poor choice of words because even though that may be what is happening, an audience should not feel like the message they are receiving has been “dumbed down” for them. Everyone, no matter who they are, like to believe they are intelligent.
Adam Sherk replied | Feb 19, 2013 (5 comments)
After reading both posts, I have to say I liked them both. So either you’ve both made some good points, or I’m incapable of taking a stand.
Agreed that “dumb your message down” probably wasn’t the most suited headline. Maybe “How can you hug a newbie today?” is more the central theme, thought again better fitted to customer service and education than all marketing efforts.
Bluemann replied | Feb 20, 2013 (1 comment)
I agree with some of your sentiment but also some of Lisa’s…
Nahida Meah replied | Feb 22, 2013 (1 comment)
There should be a balance – with Adverts you don’t want to create boring and simple messages but then again you don’t want to create a message with so many metaphors that the audience feels lost. I believe that you should make your customer feel smarter through giving them information that is easy to process. A great example to this would be to create infographic which are clever and creative! We recently made an infographic to break down something slightly complex. http://xcitedigital.com/blog/hubs-spokes-and-wheels/
Rachel Simmons replied | Feb 25, 2013 (1 comment)
I agree that the trick is to a) know your audience and b) maintain a balance. There’s an art to being able to tell your stories in a simple – read: elegant – yet intelligent manner. To the point that readers and consumers are intelligent just by way of the fact that they’re doing the research in the first place, I like Nahida’s – and Lisa’s – comment about making sure your customer feel smarter by giving them information that is easy to process.
On a somewhat related note, have you heard of Philip Davis’s new book, Your Brain on Shakespeare? His studies have shown that reading challenging text lights up our brains significantly more than simpler text. While there’s no need to over-complicate a message, surprising readers with a few more challenging words or thoughts can actually engage them more.
There was a great article about Davis’s book recently on Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2013/01/30/sell-like-shakespeare/.
I think that as humans we’re always ready to learn and always have the capacity to learn more. In this, we are intelligent and intelligence can be built upon by educators – including brands and marketers – who are able to make this process simple; to make complex or new material both challenging enough to stay engaging and digestible enough that we aren’t discouraged.