Help! Boss/client is too verbose!

[Seacrest]

Boss/client never met an awkward phrase he didn't like.
His web pages are full of hard sell and "bullets."

Every point is repeated ad nauseum, unnecessarily.
Every point is repeated ad nauseum, unnecessarily.

It makes designing his stuff and maintaining the site a living hell.

How can I convince him to pare down the copy?

He is very old, and fairly "successful," so he will always pull the "experience" and "it's worked for over 40 years" cards.

(Yes, we need to hire an editor, and probably a strong-willed art director, but those things aren't on the horizon.)

[mrbigstuff]

[mikebw]

Tell him you are charging by the line / page.

[cbelt3]

Recommend an experiment. Put together a prospect page for one product with his verbiage. Put together another prospect page for another product with a pared down version.

See which sells better.

It is possible that, for his customer base, that he is right. Some people want BS.

[Seacrest]

cbelt3 wrote:
Recommend an experiment. Put together a prospect page for one product with his verbiage. Put together another prospect page for another product with a pared down version.

See which sells better.

It is possible that, for his customer base, that he is right. Some people want BS.

So you recommend me doing MORE WORK? ;-)

(not a bad idea, though)

I have considered that the customer base likes all the hard sell, but the amount of stuff is way more ridiculous than most.

[Racer X]

"He is very old, and fairly "successful," so he will always pull the "experience" and "it's worked for over 40 years" cards."

Ah, the old "I'm not dead yet, so I must be leading a healthy lifestyle argument."

[threeprong]

Does his copy also scare off unwanted elephants?

[Seacrest]

"But wait! There's more!!!!"

[OWC Jamie]

If he's happy and your wallet is full, what's the problem ?

Is this your only resume reference ?

I can relate to hate doing a sloppy or crappy job and then having to put yourr name on it. But eating is fun, too.
Plus some day you'll have a war story to tell the young 'uns.

[decay]

never use a large word when a diminutive one will do.