7 Thoughts to Consider That Might Improve Reader Retention.
I've had a couple of experiences today that have reminded me of many past experiences and moved me to write this article.
I'm reading a book right now on social networking that is written like a novel. Bad idea. Somehow this author is trying to WOW me with his big paragraphs.
Guess what I'm doing, though? skipping them to get to the next headline.
1 - Use Headlines and Sub-headlines
Your readers don't have all day.
I really don't care. And most people don't care - about how many words you can fit into a page - or how many words you can fit into a sentence.
They only care about what they are going to walk away with. And, if you are going to hide your message in big dark paragraph caves - your visitors will leave.
Readers are not interested in playing hide-and-seek games with your article.
Give your readers a good headline that tells them what you are actually going to tell them.
2 - Don't Ask Your Readers Questions
I keep seeing people asking for reviews on their pages. 99% of the time, I don't read what you are writing.
Ok, maybe closer to 100%. Somewhere in between.
Why? because the paragraph begins with some silly question such as -
"Have you ever wondered ....... blah blah blah ..... ~~ ?"
Don't ask me a question that I'm not going to answer. For that matter, don't ask someone a question even if they can answer you back.
3 - Stop Writing CRAP
Crap is basically filler words. Throwing words at the page so that it fills up the white area. If you are going to do that, you might as well past some Lorem Ipsum in their instead.
Example: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation"
Tell your audience something they want to hear. If you are going to tell them how to make money, then don't tell them everything that is wrong in the world about how making money is so hard. Just tell them how to make money ~ or whatever your article is trying to get across.
Follow these three simple steps if you aren't familiar with writing or teaching. This is essentially the introduction - content - conclusion phases of teaching.
1 Tell Them What You are Going to Tell Them
2 Tell Them
3 Tell Them What You Told Them
4 - Break it Up into Chunks
Break your paragraphs up into easy to understand and visualize chunks.
Don't just keep writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing.
Get it?
5 - Don't say more than you need to say to deliver your point
...unless you are showing people what NOT to do when explaining something.
6 - Don't HIde the Timer in Your Videos
This is a pet peeve of mine when watching videos on sales pages. For some reason all the meta-information about the video is hidden. Bad Idea.
This goes for slide-ware presentations, too. If you are in the business of doing presentations using any sort of flip-chart or presentation - I would like to recommend that you display on every page which page you are on and how many pages are left.
The same for videos on sales web-pages.
If I can't tell how much longer I have to listen to the sales presentation I will click off the pages ~ and quickly.
7 - The Reason Why List Articles are So Popular
The reason why numbered lists articles - such as
.... Top 10 ~
.... 5 ways to ~
.... 23 examples of ~
are so popular are directly related to the previous point of
"Don't Hide the Timer in Your Videos"
People like knowing when you are coming to a finish so they can time their own attention to the article. If they don't know - they might just leave.
By the way - just my own personal opinion here - DON'T increase the number in your list thinking it will make a better article.
For example:
... 10,001 ways to train your dog to poop outside.
... 700 ways to pick up a girl
because i'll be looking for the next article
8 - Bonus Point:
Try to make the entire supporting section of your sub-headline fit into the viewing area. In other words, if the reader can see the title of the next bolded sub-headline then you are doing good.
Otherwise, consider how you might break it up into another section and sub-headline.
Conclusion
Ultimately keep your reader in mind when writing. Whether it's useful to them or not - go in with the intention of providing information that you at least feel is important and no more.
Let your readers and viewers pace themselves by providing easy to see headlines and paragraph chunks - hence "don't hide the timer"
I look forward to your comments.
Kyle
Recent Comments
22
This is "spot-on", Kyle! I totally agree. Our articles should get to the point...discussing only what we say we are going to talk about.
We should make it relevant to include enough white space so that the article doesn't look like it came straight out of a boring medical book.
And, include some on-topic pictures to illustrate some of your key points.
Sounds like common sense!
Jim
absolutely. I think that people are becoming afraid of giving away good valuable information. Instead they are trying too hard to meet word count quotas and how to rank high in search engines.
Well, if they give away good content with valuable information, I think that search engine rankings will follow naturally, don't you?
And, I know...as far as I'm concerned...when I publish an article with valuable information, I usually have at least 800 or 1,000 words by just getting to the point without adding useless elaborations. Thus, I don't worry about word counts...even if I am on the low side. To me, it's the content that counts!
Jim
I absolutely agree. Ordinary good content will push it's way to the top of rankings.
But, I think that a lot of people have been brainwashed about to follow certain rules of ranking and end up with low quality content.
A single 1 page site can potentially rank very high in Google. A lot of pages and words aren't necessary for ranking.
Great article! Especially point 4. I've always to remember myself to keep it nice and tight. I've the tendency of loosing myself on what I'm talking about. Especially on subject I master well. Thanks for sharing! Happy Easter!
I think I was somewhat writing this article to myself as I was writing. When there is a subject matter we know well, (as you pointed out) it's easy to get carried away instead of keeping it nice and tight.
Kyle...I keep reminding our WA Community of one of Shakespeare's lines from Hamlet, when Polonius said, "Brevity is the soul of wit."...but this applies to marketing as well...we can actually talk ourselves OUT of a deal when we do not know when to shut up!...Happy Easter...
LOL.... it's very true. A more hypnotic approach of planting the seeds and allowing the reader to fill in the details carries a lot of weight.
I'm single so this also applies to the courting scene. Shutting up works like magic sometimes.
That actually makes a lot of sense Kyle, we can all be guilty the thing is to keep these tips and advice on our radar it does make for better content, thank you so much for delivering that message.
I agree with all of this except for the point where you say not to ask your reader questions. One of the best sales techniques is to ask questions and answer objections. The same goes for effective copywriting. Some of the most successful people I follow ask questions periodically all the way through their copy.
Not harsh. Crystal clear.
You verbally and visually demonstrated your point.
You took the time to help people.
Maybe frustration prompted that post, but the end result was very helpful.
You did a great job. :)
I hope you have a wonderful Easter.
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Some of this should apply to our web pages also, is what your saying? I like this eather way. Thank you for posting.
Yes, you bet. Web pages and any form of communication for that matter. But, especially in written material. Thanks for your response Thomas
Awesome! thank you Kyle.