Website Content: Don’t assume people read what you write

I’ve been meaning to write a quick blog post about email newsletters and website content.  The danger in crafting website content be it on pages, email newsletters and blog posts is simply assuming people will read it. 

In 1997, Jakob Neilson was writing on his UseIT.com site saying quite simply, that people don’t read webpages.  He has since said that people read email newsletters even less….

People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word. (Update: a newer study found that users read email newsletters even more abruptly than they read websites.) (Source: UseIt.com, October 1997 – 13 years ago)

I am a big fan of Jakob Neilson. He goes on with more imperical research…

On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely. (Source: UseIt.com, May 2008)

Facebook invites, Twitter rubbish, old marketing emails from the sportshop you bought a t-shirt from a year ago… our Inboxes are being bombarded with information and demands for attention.  Despite striving to have an empty Inbox it just never happens.  So when a newsletter pops up, my decision to read or click is usually made up very quickly.

 Yes, context plays an important role…  you can hope that email newsletters being sent to a subscribed list will be a ‘warm’ audience.  Blog posts should be punchy and engaging.  Web page content should be prioritised, specific and abbreviated.  (/cheer bullet points!)

Ideas for newsletters:

• Brand newsletters with your logo, slogan, and contact details  (checking compatibility when images are not displayed)
• Break up content with images
• Subtle use of colour (but do use colour)
• Lead with an engaging newsletter title
• Provide a synopsis at the top of the content
• Topics should be in the form of extracts – avoid lengthy subjects
• Consider using a 3rd party service to provide a template, manage email lists (sign ups and unsubscribes)
• ALWAYS remember the objective of a newsletter
  • The objective of a newsletter is to inform, capture attention and drive people to your website.  The newsletter should be part of your online offering enouraging people to click to the site. 
  • Therefore, avoid writing tombs of newsletter-specific content, only to have curious readers find a static site of different information
  • Why not focus efforts on site updates and blog posts and simply use the newsletter to summarise whats been posted in the last month… its the best use of your time.
  • Search engine ratings focus on site content not stand alone newsletters – putting the effort into the site makes for a more specific newsletter and boost the opportunities to people to find you

Just a few ideas.  Ensuring you avoid the pitfalls of having your newsletter go straight into Junk boxes, is another area of concern.  However, I’ll put some more information soon; I found a very good book over Christmas which will lead on from the rambling above!