When you’re communicating with people, it’s tempting to cram in as many messages as possible, because they’re all pretty important. It’s really hard to fit in everything that you want to say about your brand, your logo, your advert and so on.

One thing I’ve learnt over the years is just that, namely one thing. Your audience has nowhere near as much interest in your stuff as you do, and perhaps none at all. So you really only have one chance to get a simple message across.

Try to distil everything you’re trying to do into the single most important thing you want your audience to take away. If you’ve rank ordered the benefits of your product or service, and you still feel you want to talk about the second and third benefits, you need to work harder on the first benefit, until it’s the standout benefit, the thing that makes you genuinely different.

‘What’t the one thing we want them to be aware of, to think, to do?’ You want bank for your buck, not a whimper from your 3 bucks.