Get the word out to lookers, skimmers & readers
Online readers read shallow and deep, according to The Stanford Poynter Project: Eye Movement on the Internet, a study by Stanford University and The Poynter Institute.
So how can you give your in-depth “divers” enough information without overwhelming your casual “surfers”?
“The Internet is for everybody,” write Daniel A. Cirucci and Mark A. Tarasiewicz of the Philadelphia Bar Association. “It’s for the 30-second reader, the three-minute reader, the 30-minute reader and even the three-hour junkie.”
So how do you serve all these groups?
Write for three audience groups.
Present each message for:
- Lookers, who may give you 10 seconds. Get these folks’ attention with a sharp headline and large image.
- Skimmers, who may give you 30 seconds. Reach them through display copy: headlines, decks, subheads, links and bold-faced lead-ins, for instance.
- Readers, who may give you 2 minutes. These folks may read the paragraphs.
Write shallow, deliver deep.
For the web, you may need to write shorter, making each web page as tight as possible. But you also need to deliver longer pieces for your deep divers.
“Open with kernels for the 30-second reader,” write Cirucci and Tarasiewicz. “Break to bits for the three-minute reader. Branch to detail for the 30-minute reader. Link to verbal and visual feasts for the three-hour junkie.”
As Eric Morgenstern, president and CEO of Morningstar Communications, counsels, offer your readers:
- USA Today level
- Wall Street Journal level
- Harvard Business Review level
For an executive speech, for instance, you might offer:
- A headline and summary blurb on the homepage
- A one-page summary of speech highlights
- The full text of the speech
- The speech in streaming audio and video
Visitors can surf as shallow or dive as deep as they prefer.
Move readers up the attention ladder.
The good news is, you may be able to move these folks up the ladder of attention. If the 10-second view is interesting enough, you might turn a looker into a skimmer. If the display copy delivers real value, you might turn a skimmer into a reader.
But even if you don’t move visitors up the attention ladder, you need to reach each group where they are. You need to write for all of your readers.
Lift Ideas Off the Screen
Web visitors read, on average, 20% of the words on the page. But which words — and how can you put your messages there?
Would you like to learn which words they’re reading, and how to put your key messages where their eyes are?
If so, please join me at Reach Readers Online — our web-writing workshop on June 20.
In this mobile web-writing workshop, you’ll make sure even flippers and skimmers can get the gist of your message — without reading the paragraphs.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.
