I received an email from a church leader asking advice on word count for a pastor’s weekly eNews article. He said his pastor “just tried to send an eNews article with a 1,750 word count.”
My response included this line: "The longer it is, the less likely anyone will read any of it."
My experience is that as people approach a piece of communication, the first thing they do is glance at it and size up the task. (How long is this thing, how long is it going to take to read it, and do I have that much time or attention.) People who are pressed for time or attention (which tends to be the majority) glance at a 1,750-word article and they say either:
1) I don't have enough time/attention (and they hit delete), or
2) I don't have enough time/attention now, I'll read it later. (Some read it later. Many never do.)
So, I'm a fan of 300-500 words. Want to see good examples? Visit our client and great friends at Kingsway Christian Church and look at their main article in issues of The Loop. You'll find issues archived on the left side, and the lead article is easy and obvious to spot in each issue.
Happy writing!
P.S. I’m ending this blogpost with a word count of 210. It was at 245. Then I removed three sentences to make it easier to read. (Okay, now I'm at 241.)