INTEREST:
In my last article, I wrote about getting people interested when they come to your website. Vital to that is the Emotional Message, which I’ve discussed with you many times before; but there is another essential factor which is on the Informational Messaging side, and that is giving them enough to get them interested and no more. Give ’em a “teaser” and get them to click on a link to “Read More” or to scroll down the page. Just as in the successful showbiz world, “Leave ’em wanting more.”
ATTENTION SPANS
Another reason to do this is simply that attention spans are shorter in this day and age. It isn’t just that people these days have shorter attention spans; it’s that we are bombarded daily with too much information. Human knowledge doubled every century until 1900. Today it’s doubling every 13 months, and IBM forecasts that it will soon double every 12 hours. That’s a LOT of information to take in if you want to keep up with anything at all. On top of that we have TV, movies, Social Media, advertising, emails, sports, and a hundred other things we might want to put our attention on. We simply feel we don’t have the time to invest unless we know we’re interested.
THE WALL OF TEXT
That’s why I’ve written before about what I call “The Dreaded Wall of Text”. Large chunks of text on a home page that require reading BEFORE you have someone interested enough to make the effort are like a wall that keeps people out.
ANOTHER REASON
But there is another reason for Less is More, and that is the big NO. When you are face to face or even on the phone and explaining something to someone (like why your products are worth buying, your services worth using, or, say, your book worth reading), you have clues as to how the person is reacting and you can adjust what you say accordingly. With the written word on a web page, you have nothing like that.
THE MORE YOU SAY
The more you write about something, the greater the chance that someone will misunderstand, find something to object to, or find a reason to say NO. The less you explain and the more you concentrate on offering the benefits in very short, easy to read sections, the better. Don’t explain. Don’t go on and on with what it’s all about. Give them the benefits and get them to call you, write you, click, or sign up to find out more.
Email us at hello@21thirteen.com or call us at 646 808 0249 to learn more or about having a truly effective website.
