You get maybe eight words into explaining what you do before you can see she’s stopped following.

Eight words in and she’s stopped following

So you back up and try again with an example, then another example, and by the end you’ve said it depends twice and given up with “anyway, it’s kind of hard to explain.” Then you go home and your website does the same thing, only slower.

Most of the time nothing tells you it’s costing you. This week there’s an example you can actually watch.

The golf ad everyone saw differently

There’s a golf ad going around right now where a man shoves a woman to the ground. She reaches for his new driver. He chases her down, knocks her over, then stands over her and tells her not to touch it.

It was made by a golf channel called Good Good, for a club they put out with Callaway. People were furious, and you’d expect that, because what you’re watching is a man using force on a woman and the ad playing it for laughs.

And it wasn’t only women saying so. Good Good lost the Callaway partnership and a PGA Tour deal inside a week. Callaway put a million dollars toward groups working to prevent violence against women, and their CEO said his own team approved the ad and never should have.

Then the guys who made it explained themselves.

It was meant to be a horror movie spoof. The driver possessed anyone who touched it, so he wasn’t really himself. One of them walked everybody through the concept. Later he called it a dumb idea, which it was.

The people who were angry weren’t confused. They saw exactly what was on the screen, and no amount of explaining was going to move them off it.

And this is the part I keep coming back to. They had the whole idea worked out, and it was clear to everybody in that room. But it was never clear in the thing they actually put out, and by the time they were explaining, the money was gone.

How to make your business easy to understand before it goes out

You don’t get to stand beside your marketing and explain it. Whatever people take from it is the message, whether you meant that or not.

Nothing you write is going to cost you a million dollars. Yours costs you quietly instead. Somebody lands on your page, can’t work out what you do, and leaves, and there’s no email and no question. At least Callaway found out what people thought. You mostly don’t.

So the work is getting it clear before it goes out. Give your homepage or your next post to someone who doesn’t know your business, with no setup, then ask what they think you do.

If they get it wrong, you’ve just had your first honest read of it.

Try it this week with one thing. Then hit reply and tell me what they said, because I’d like to know.

What you meant stays in your head

What you meant stays in your head.

How it landed is the only bit anybody else ever gets.