White space is marketing 101 – yet it is so under utilized. With the exception of the ever popular Advertorial – white space is king or queen. I am a semi-liberal after all. Why is this void so very important? Here is what I tell my clients – over and over again – albeit sometimes on deaf ears. (sigh)
1. We are inundated with a gazillion tidbits of information every day. Our minds can only absorb so much. You have less than a second to catch someones attention – if your message is a 3 column by 8 inch block of verbiage within a page of news stories – forget about it! You lose. Nary a brain will remember a darn thing you paid so much for.
2. We live in an age of instant gratification, multi-tasking, and no time. This means that white space is even more important now that 50 years ago. People want to know what your message is now – they don’t want to read about it, try to find the message or hell look at it more than once.
3. People don’t need to know every single detail about your product or service. Just the big facts ma’am – just the big facts. After all – don’t you want them to call you or visit your website? I’ll answer that – yes you do. Besides- refer to 1 and 2, they won’t take the time to read all the small print at the bottom of the ad
4. A picture tells a thousand words – and it catches eyes, makes an impact etc etc etc.
Recap – White Space is Queen or King. Use a great photo – a strong headline – logo in the lower right corner with contact information including website at bottom. That’s all you need.
Can I say “Got Milk?” Enough said.
