A dedicated web-writer is not a popular person. Here’s why. You meet your project manager. They proceed to tell you all the things they want on a website/microsite/e-mail/banner. Their strategic plan says the outcome of all this communication is action by the customer. Your response? Nope. Not happening. Nothing doing.
It’s a common argument I have everyday. You can say all the things you want in an online world. Your audience doesn’t care.
Websites are not books, and they don’t just operate differently. People using websites approach them differently. They are not looking to read, they are looking to do.
People are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online. A recent study by Jakob Nielsen found that people only read about 20 per cent of the words on a page.
Research also shows users are ignoring any attempts to keep people on a page (people will stay on a page for 4.4 seconds per 100 words). People have become better at knowing where to go, and like the TV commercials we skip, people are better at ignoring marketing/pr information that is irrelevant to their task.
The key? People want websites to get to the point. This is especially important when you consider that roughly 75 per cent of people will find your homepage by search engine. The key is to help people do exactly what they want, and make it seamless – from search engine – to your homepage – to their task.
Your website/microsite/email is a tool- no different from a hammer or a measuring tape – if you make it easy and useful, people will keep using it.
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