Commune Media | Measurably Effective Digital Marketing™

Why all your readers are bargain hunters

Posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 PM by Simon Smith  |  Comments (0)

Remember your last big purchase?

You probably spent time considering your investment.

Maybe you wondered whether you could find the same product—or something with similar benefits—for less.

Well, keep that memory in mind as you write for the web.

Because just like you, your readers want a bargain.

Raise your information density

Specifically, readers want to maximize information retrieval and minimize time spent on your page.

To keep them longer, you must raise your information density.

This means increasing the amount of useful information relative to the number of words conveying it.

Force readers to wade through 500 words for one useful five-word fact and your information density is about one percent.

So don’t expect them to invest more than one percent of their web session on your page.

Understand some complicating factors

Of course, if information density were the only factor, you could capture 100 percent of a reader’s attention with single-sentence web pages—or maybe even a site full of mathematical equations.

Thankfully, being someone who loves the written word, I’m happy to say that other factors do apply.

You can learn eight of the most important in our Breakthrough Web Writing e-book.

But for this post, let’s just focus on one: scannability.

Why scannable words work

"Scannable" words have formatting (such as bolding) that helps readers find information most relevant to them.

Using them allows you to raise your page’s information density to near 100 percent without writing just one sentence.

Think about it.

Good scannability means that all the most important information has special formatting.

And that allows readers who review just the scannable copy to get the most information for their time.

It’s like paying only for the features of a product you actually need.

So when you write for the web, think of your readers as shoppers.

And write them the best deal possible—preferably in big, black, highly scannable font.

Tags: copywriting