notessamuele onelia

The 120-Word Post That Outperformed Everything

The Story

In Tom’s first year of Marketing Ideas he wrote long. Some issues were 2,000+ words “packed with context and backstory” (Source 1).

The data didn’t support the effort: “My longer posts underperformed, while my shorter posts went viral.” (Source 1).

The realization about audience fit: “My specific audience is probably different than other newsletters. They want to learn the cool tricks and quick wins, but they don’t need full A → B guides or walkthroughs. That’s why I developed a new rule of thumb: If something can be understood with common sense or a simple Google search, I don’t mention it.” (Source 1).

The scope shift was as important as the word-count shift: “I’m not only talking about writing with fewer words - I’m talking about writing with a lesser scope. When I’m putting maximum effort into writing an article like 9 quick wins for pricing, I sometimes get the feeling that people would prefer to read it in smaller chunks - e.g. 9 different articles where each quick win is featured independently, with more examples and inspiration.” (Source 1).

Tom’s current writing process: “I spend 90% of my writing time deleting words. My most popular post ever? Only 120 words.” (Source 1).

The book that changed his approach: “Smart Brevity. ☝️ It’s about saying more with less.” (Source 1).

His takeaway lesson: “Test different styles and lengths. Stick with what your audience likes (NOT what you like).” (Source 1).

The HubSpot version of the same lesson: “Stop writing like you’re trying to impress other marketers… readers didn’t want a mini-essay. They wanted the tactic. The ‘here’s what to do and how to do it’ part. Once I leaned into that, engagement shot up. Every week, I now focus on delivering one thing: Something useful you can try today.”

Lesson for Creators

Long-form is what writers want; short-form is what readers want. Most newsletter writers fall in love with their own context, backstory, and supporting reasoning — none of which the reader signed up for. The 120-word post outperforming the 2,000-word essays isn’t an audience quirk, it’s a default. The other lesson is “lesser scope” — the temptation to bundle 9 ideas into one issue almost always loses to publishing 9 separate issues with one idea each. Each becomes individually shareable and indexable. The 90% deleting time is the part most creators won’t do because deletion feels like wasted work. It’s not — every cut sentence increases the chance the next one gets read.

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