A WEBSITE IS A PRESENTATION:
A website is vital marketing tool – perhaps your most vital tool – and its design is not a matter of being “pretty” or “cool”, but a matter of being effective. Dr. Carmen Simon of the Rexi Method teaches that to be memorable, a presentation must have Attention Triggers, Memory Magnets, and (of course) Decision Drivers.
Images, video, short and impactful statements, unexpectedness, curiosity, repetition, alignment, separation, contrast, empty space, typeface, colors, size, division and proximity are just a few of the many factors involved in getting your message across by directing the viewers eye to where you want it to go and penetrating the viewers mind with the impression you want to make.
ATTENTION SPAN
Blame it on whatever you like, but some findings show that the average human attention span has dwindled from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to just 8 seconds today.
Once you’ve gotten someone interested in what you have to say (their attention focused) you can expect that span to be a lot longer. If you must give them paragraphs of text you do it on the inner pages of your website. Get them to click that “Read More” link and you’ve won the battle.
THE WALL OF TEXT
What you do NOT do on your Home page – and I see this in website after website – is push your reader up against the “Dreaded Wall of Text” and stop them from going any further. A long paragraph of small text – even two or three or more – is a killer.
Grab a newspaper and observe yourself as you look at the front page. They have these things called “headlines”. Your eye scans columns of text which you don’t read. Only when you see a headline – a large, short, easy to read statement that interests you – do you stop scanning and start reading.
If you want to stop someone from getting interested inside that 8 seconds, give them the Wall of Text. My advice: don’t do it.
Email us at hello@21thirteen.com or call us at 646 808 0249 to learn more, or for help in making your website an effective marketing tool..
