The Power of Specificity: When to be specific (and when not to be)

Which of the following headlines catches your interest more?

1. How to get 2,736 new customers in a single day.
2. How to get more than 2,000 new customers in a single day.
3. How to get tons more customers in a single day.

Clearly, the first option steals the show. Why is that? Specificity sells. Specific claims trump general ones time and again. When we read about specific results, we trust those results. We believe them. And, we want to find out how we can get them for ourselves.

Anytime you can use specifics, you should. You'll create curiosity and establish an aura of authenticity. In many cases, using generalities will harm your credibility. Just take that third headline from above. Do you believe it? Would you be willing to click through to an article with that title?

That said, sometimes specificity can hurt you more than it helps. You wouldn't want to be specific if you don't have any verifiable specifics to use. Creating exact numbers out of the thin air of your imagination is morally ambiguous at best. You also shouldn't make precise claims if they'll land you in a heap of legal trouble. We don't want people to sue you because you promised an unobtainable outcome.

A less obvious crime, though, is what I call the "detailed to distraction offense." Unnecessary technical details bog readers down, causing them to wade through a confusing swamp of irrelevancy. If you're at all passionate about what you're writing, you may not be aware that your readers don't share your enthusiasm. In cases like these, be specific, but subtle.

Happy writing!