Why Clarity is More Important than Creativity

When it comes to artistic fields like music, writing, and marketing, creativity is often praised and placed on a high pedestal, whereas clarity is rarely mentioned. How often have you heard someone go on and on about how clear a piece of art is? Probably never! However, clarity is a key element of effective writing and marketing. Clarity is important in business too. Here's why clarity is more important than creativity in today's world:

For one, it doesn't matter how creative your marketing is when it doesn't tell people what you do and how they'll benefit from your product. It's as good as falling on deaf ears. You may get praised for a creative advertisement, but you won't have any tangible results if clarity is missing from the ad. What good is that for your business?

Anyone who studies copywriting learns that clarity always trumps creativity. Clarity is one of the key elements in copywriting. The top copywriters in the world advise younger copywriters to aim for clarity before creativity. In Copyblogger's 58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love, for example, they warned against trying to be clever: "Don't try to be clever. Clever headlines are difficult to write, and even the good ones often fail." http://www.copyblogger.com/persuasive-content-marketing/

When you have clarity as the business owner, you know exactly what results you want and by what date you want to achieve them. Why does this matter? You're the leader of the company and in charge of keeping people on track. If you don't know the specifics of what results you're after for the business, you and the business will wander aimlessly while taking longer to reach certain levels of success. You won't feel as much satisfaction and pride when you DO reach those levels if you weren't clear on what you desired or your business will go in a direction that you don't like.

Entrepreneurs and marketers need to realize that clarity is now more important than creativity. Start prioritizing clarity in everything you do rather than struggle to develop a creative idea. Let creativity be the extra icing on the cake.

Between clarity and creativity, which do you think is more important?