Negative Entropy

As anyone who has taken a basic college course in thermodynamics knows, entropy is the tendency in the universe to move toward randomness. In short, the universe hates order, which pretty much explains most technical data sheets.

If I stack blocks up, that's creating order, which is negative entropy. When the stack falls down, the blocks are scattered--that's positive entropy.

If we take a complex product and describe it in collateral in such a way that people can't make heads or tails out of it, that's positive information entropy. And that's not what we want, is it?

It's easy to explain simple stuff simply. "See Dick run. See Spot lick his butt." Everybody's familiar with that. And, frankly, it's pretty easy to explain complicated stuff in complicated terms, as long as you don't care if anyone gets it. Open any scientific/technical/engineering journal and start reading: examples abound.

It's also fairly straightforward to take simple stuff and obfuscate: "Employ optical nerve stimulation by reflected electromagnetic radiation in the visual spectrum as Richard ambulates rapidly." (We'll skip Spot for now.)

What's hard is negative information entropy: making complex ideas simple. Taking the jumbled toy chest of information blocks and stacking them up neatly is hard work. It takes trained people who ask questions like, "Why is this significant?" "What does this mean?" and so forth. That's called technical communication (when done well, one of the greatest information entropy killers known). To get marketing collateral, you need all that and more: the ability to stack all those information blocks up in such a way that people understand why they should care.

This whole discussion is (regrettably) a fairly entropic example itself. As Pascal said, I would have made it shorter but I lacked the time. Given time and energy, any idea can be expressed in simple terms, any product can be described simply, any service can be understood by even your mother-in-law. That doesn't mean that there isn't a place for the full Monty of technical details.

Think of your collateral as an onion: each successive layer as you peel it takes you deeper and deeper. There's a place for a simplistic, benefits-focused description of whatever it is you're trying to sell--a statement that can pique your prospect's curiosity and get them to ask, "How do you do that?" The answer to that question can be in more detailed data sheets, white papers, documentation--again, it's like peeling an onion.

When presented with a new product idea, people (your prospects) first need to satisfy themselves that it is worth the exploring. "Will this product or service provide me a critical benefit? Will it address a need I have that is urgent, compelling, and unsolved?" If it appears so, then the next step is to get some basic belief. "Ok, it appears this would be cool. How do I know it's real? How do I know it will work for me?" The amount of "proof" a prospect needs in the first 10 minutes is far far less than they will need by the time they sign the contract--don't try to do it all at once. As many have said before me, sales is like dating--you don't meet someone and propose in the first ten minutes. Well, maybe you do, but it isn't likely to get the result you want.

Negative entropy--order out of chaos--if you can do that with your marketing collateral, you will have accomplished something noteworthy.

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This blogging stuff is fun, but am I getting through to anyone? Does anyone actually read this stuff? So here's a test: the first five people who email me some meaningful response that they have to this blog will get a free audio CD "Secrets of Niche Targeting." If you've already got one of those, email me anyway and you'll get a credit for a player to be named later. Email me a john@workpump.com and put the word "entropy" in the subject line. This offer expires Dec. 31, 2005.