R.N. Johnson Creative Marketing

This is an old post that we thought might deserve another look. It contains some observations on copy and content, which in my mind is always helpful. Much of this was inspired by Jacob Nielsen’s famous research on “prioritizing web usability.” He can be tough on creative types, art directors in particular who chafe at his hide-bound rules and restrictions on design values. But there’s no getting around the quintessential strength of his advice.

So here’s the original post written a few years back. As always, please let us know what you think:

“Through technology…”

… we have adapted our eyes into optical tools that seek nuggets of information. Think for a moment what it means to scan content (as opposed to reading a novel). Your eye is searching for keywords, lists, highlighted phrases and links.

Because of this usability research now shows us how Web content should look:

• Concise subheads
• Highlighted keywords
• One core idea per paragraph
• Concise lists
• Succinct headlines, page titles and first paragraphs
• Lean copy (cut word count)
• Dark type on white (or on light background colors)

For direct marketers, much of this is old news. Yet, old school hard sell tactics or hype (often misused in print advertising and direct mail) is a very bad fit online. Users are busy people in control of their searches or verification of online credentials. They want hard facts and real information, without exaggeration or hype.

If you’re an old school marketer, it’s time to learn new ways. High quality graphics, good copy and outbound links show that you know your stuff. Credibility goes up. People respond to the content because so many websites are driven by people who are trying to exploit or misinform.

Save money by writing your own Web copy? You may want to think again. Does it make sense to save money and lose sales? Or, at the very least, if your site has poor information architecture, convoluted copy or dense blocks of text, you are not doing your cause any favors.

As in everything else in marketing, it pays to put things into their proper place of importance.

I have begun to wonder if the world has gone mad about Google.

Google has a 72% share of the U.S. Search Market and their world-wide share is pretty close to that. Google is my personal search favorite for the same reasons it has become so dominant worldwide. Google displays the most relevant search results. Additionally, it offers a religiously clean and uncluttered interface and a cult-like devotion to preserving the the search experience. These are the strong, historic reasons for its amazing rise.

So, on the one hand the world is bonkers for Google. Yet, on the other hand, maybe we still need a more competitive marketplace? Perhaps Bing will close the gap. Or, maybe Yahoo will edge its way into capturing more of the market. One thing is clear: they will have to do something significant to gain momentum.

Our shop has always been very impressed with Google. It’s very hard to not recommend them. They literally invented the current search marketplace. They’re the innovator, the ones who wrote the proprietary algorithm which evaluates the number and quality of inbound links for every site they index.

Google doesn’t just take money from advertisers and display sponsored listings. They pioneered in ranking paid search advertisers, not just on a CPC basis, but on the click through rate as well. They had the audacity to take the measure of their clients and reward them with a Quality Rating if they offered a high degree of relevancy (there’s that word again) to the user’s search, thereby keeping themselves aligned with the intentions and passions of the user.

Like Watching Tiger Woods Play Golf

Paying attention to Google is a little bit like watching Tiger Woods play golf. You almost hope he slips up and let’s someone else capture a win. But you always come away impressed. Tiger Woods is capable, dominating and likable at the same time. So it is with Google. They had the good sense to be altruistic, to give their employees great perks (such as free haircuts) and to stay rooted in the belief that the user experience was the holy grail of their company.

I’m here to leverage their success on behalf of my clients and my own business. What else would a thinking marketer want? With Google you see how important it is to think about the user mindset (called user intent). When people are using Google they’re not just passively watching. They’re actively engaged in looking for information. They might be ready to transact that moment. Just when you want them at your site. The second thing keeping me in the Google fold is the principle of simplicity. Everything they do is a reminder of the power of simplicity. They came of age during a time of cluttered portals. Google stood apart with its clean white page. Additionally, their call to action was center stage.

The important lesson is to make every call to action equally clear and clean whether it says buy now, or order online. And, keep the design environment clean and uncluttered. Maintain a high degree of usability. That’s always in style. Of course, that Google market share is also a good reason to keep your interest in them at a high level.

Has the world gone mad about Google? Well of course it has.

Now, what are you going to do about it?

Fixing your website is easy, right?

Maybe. But many times the makeover process can be quite confusing. In reality, with so many possibilities at hand, the process of upgrading or “fixing” a website is never as easy as it may seem. The plethora of themes, ideas, functional technologies and web properties make it a challenging prospect for many smaller business to consider how to update their sites.

I want to reinforce the importance of staying grounded in your thinking when you plan a website, or revise one that’s currently online. Many of our clients have traditionally fallen into one of two distinct categories of web development:

1. Those who yearn for new applications, technology and dazzling effects;
2. And those who simply want a more effective business tool.

Now, you may think we prefer clients who want new applications and technology. Yet, our practice tends to attract more practical, grounded business people who are less focused on pyrotechnics or dynamic functionality. In fact, most of our customers don’t feel very romantic about the Internet. Instead, they want sound methodology and analysis to provide a more profitable return on their investment.

We’re happy to comply with their needs. After all, it’s their demand that drives our business.

However, this duality can present a curious dilemma: Despite the growth of the Web, desire for new technology must be considered in light of a site plan that’s based on the appropriate use of today’s resources. Right now, the Web is the fastest growing advertising medium in the world, out pacing television, newspapers, magazines, radio and other traditional media (which still lead in market share, but the gap is narrowing). Many leading marketers are seeking a competitive edge in user generated content, wireless computing, video blogs, social networking websites, behavioral targeting, and the continuing evolution in search engine marketing.

Yet, website developers and clients often confuse methods and goals in becoming deadlocked or compromised for the wrong reasons on site development priorities. The rush for new database functionality, online video or multimedia may seem promising. Yet, basic navigational problems, obscure page designs or difficult information architecture may be doing more harm than good. It is here that a well grounded viewpoint can help.

The grounded business person will move carefully with a well developed plan based on improved usability, well designed and informative product pages, better writing, and a solid navigational scheme.

We know of one construction implement manufacturer who was so caught up in a protracted redevelopment process that they let their site languish unchanged while the redevelopment effort bogged down. They’re intentions changed from basic makeover to a bigger project that could have been done in phases. The impact in lost business may never be fully realized or known.

At times the rush to be with it by making use of the latest functionality, may lead you down the wrong path. High tech enthusiasm may send the wrong signal. Though your next website should reflect a timely image, it may be more profitable to revisit the basics first. In essence if you stay grounded, you may be better off.

Here’s what current usability studies tell us to address as a first priority:

1. Fix the stuff that’s broken. There’s a good chance your language is drawn out and difficult to read online. Your photos may be too small or poorly lit. Try running a usability test of your current site with a small targeted group. You may be surprised to learn that the most important action items may not be high tech.
2. Consider this: people don’t spend much time with the first visit to a website (they move on quickly if they don’t find what they’re looking for). Because of this its important to design each main topic page as a landing page for your site. In supporting deep link visitors you’ll need to think critically about the content on all of these pages. It is crucial to the success of your site.
3. Check your navigation. Make sure it’s consistent, well thought out and easy to use, with good descriptive text for labels and links. Each page title should match the link names. Many sites lose visitors through poor information architecture.
4. Make sure every page communicates the essence of what your site is about. People will scan the page to make their decision to read further, or move on. Make sure they get the point quickly on every page of your site.
5. Provide information that real users actually want. The purpose of a site is often obscured by the many creators and cooks who conspire to build it. The problem comes when someone pays a visit. Users want to know whether your services meet their needs, and why they should do business with you.
6. Now that you have done justice to the basics, look to the burgeoning world wide web and its many high tech innovations. By staying grounded at first, you’ll be in a better position to seize that new competitive advantage.

Through technology, we have adapted our eyes into optical tools that seek nuggets of information. Think for a moment what it means to scan content (as opposed to reading a novel). Your eye is searching for keywords, lists, highlighted phrases and links.

Because of this usability research now shows us how Web content should look:

• Concise subheads
• Highlighted keywords
• One core idea per paragraph
• Concise lists
• Succinct headlines, page titles and first paragraphs
• Lean copy (cut word count)
• Dark type on white (or on light background colors)

For direct marketers, much of this is old news. Yet, old school hard sell tactics or hype (often misused in print advertising and direct mail) is a very bad fit online. Users are busy people in control of their searches or verification of online credentials. They want hard facts and real information, without exaggeration or hype.

If you’re an old school marketer, it’s time to learn new ways. High quality graphics, good copy and outbound links show that you know your stuff. Credibility goes up. People respond to the content because so many websites are driven by people who are trying to exploit or misinform.

Save money by writing your own Web copy? You may want to think again. Does it make sense to save money and lose sales? Or, at the very least, if your site has poor information architecture, convoluted copy or dense blocks of text, you are not doing your cause any favors.

As in everything else in marketing, it pays to put things into their proper place of importance.

Let me hit you with this one: Successful websites can be analyzed by understanding the visitor’s sense of smell!

As crazy as it sounds this concept reflects scientific findings in human-computer interaction research which date back to the early 90′s (a nearly pre-historic age in computer technology) at the Palo Alto Research Center in California. Back then Stuart Card and Peter Pirolli used the analogy of wild animals gathering food to better understand how humans collect information online. This led them to the concept of “information foraging.” Hence the idea of information scent in predicting how people actually follow up on a spoor of data and then continue in following the path to hit upon the information they’re seeking to find.

It’s all so figurative, of course. But, that’s what makes the analogy so appealing. You can’t actually smell anything online (unless your computer keyboard becomes very dirty). But your eyes can translate what you’re seeing and reading into a warmer feeling, which is akin to the scent a predator picks up as it follows a path to its prey.

The website developer’s job is to make that scent appear when it should, to make it a bit stronger at every step, so the information forager continues on the right path and reaches his goal on your site.

There’s an inversion of natural selection here. No prey wants to be caught; but your website does. You want your site to be easily found and captured. You want people to satisfy their quest on your site’s pages and links. It’s our job to make it as easy as possible. We want them to catch the scent of a successful hunt and reinforce it as they click the links. To do this we make your site a nutritious meal (or even a delicious little snack) and allow the forager to sniff it out early as an easy catch.

Here are a few things we do to enhance the smell of success for information foraging:

1. Spend time on links and category descriptions. This takes some analysis and preproduction time, but it’s very much worthwhile. With so many navigational options available through a search query, the hunter has too many choices at every step. She can loose the scent quite easily. There’s work to be done here that you don’t want to short-change.
2. Avoid using jargon and cute words that have no common usage or “scent.” Slogans cannot be saught out ahead of time by people who don’t know what they mean. Unless you have a universal household trade name, try to make use of short, common English nouns and verbs to in your headings, link names, navigational elements, and copy.
3. Keep it easy for the visitor to know where they are in your site at all times, and provide stimulating links and for them to continue their efforts in drilling down to interior pages and information that will satisfy their search.
4. Use informative product pages. Don’t assume anyone knows your product names and model numbers. They won’t know them or find them on their own. Too often product pages are nearly barren of any real meat (hence no real scent to smell).
5. Use great product photography with people shown enjoying product benefits. This helps the visitor identify with the information and understand how the product will help them.
6. Drawing the visitor with the right scent is a cummulative process. Make sure these message elements find their way into main topic pages as well as the “deep links” on your site.

Today Web visitors use search engines as ‘answer engines’ which they view as part of a single, integrated Internet resource (for a great discussion of this pick up a copy of “Prioritizing Web Usability” by Nielsen and Loranger). They don’t think or care very much about individual websites. Their information grazing habits have turned them into answer engine query animals turning stones to find digestible nuggets of information.

Here are the four things they may be doing as they encounter your site:

1. They go to their preferred search engine and type a few descriptive words.
2. The look at the top listings of the search engine results page.
3. They visit some of the sites they find on that page, but leave quickly after a minute or two… at best.
4. They view most pages for less than half a minute.

With such pressure to communicate effectively, you’ll want to:

• Avoid fluffy talk, vague language, misleading statements, or poor graphics and photography.
• Give them well written and concise information
• Avoid the temptation to engage in a concentrated sales pitch.
• Make sure your site is lean, well designed, easy to navigate.

It may not seem to be earth shaking news. But these four behavioral patterns influence everything else. The moment you consider building a website, you should start thinking as much about how people succeed in their tasks using the web, and how they fail. It’s not just a question of what you want to say about your products, what photos you use, or the baseline functionality (though that’s certainly important). The whole issue of usability will affect how successful your new site will be.

In short, web  users are far less invested in your product or brand. So think a bit differently about what they want and need. Step outside the box regarding your day to day activities and what might interest you. Think about them.

It’s all about the customer. Do everything you can to catch and hold their interest.

Most Web users simply do not take the time to scroll down a web page, at least not very far down anyway. This may be disconcerting if you’re a website publisher or marketer. It’s likely you have worked hard on your site’s content and delivered a lot of good material and data.

Did you do the right thing in developing longer copy that takes up several screens of information?

Or, should you start over with shorter pages which require less scrolling?

It is a question every site designer will consider at some point. Just how much information constitutes a page? Based on usability and tracking data, most site visitors don’t scroll past the first screen of a landing page. Just over 40% of them remain for a short time on the first screen before choosing to move on, or back to the search engine results page (SERP) to click another link.

For professional and business to business sites a higher proportion of users will take more time to investigate site offerings. In fact, more experienced web users will do more scrolling than people who are less comfortable on the web. The experienced user knows that important information is often hidden below the first screen on many websites. However, for any site geared to consumers, it’s very important to think through the content that will appear “above the fold” (i.e. the top portion of a folded newspaper) on the first screen of the landing page.

This is a quick business. Since most web pages offer up convoluted writing and limited information at best, users often make the right decision to keep on clicking instead of scrolling and reading. It is important to be there with what they want by providing well written headlines, subheads, and pin-pointed copy above the fold, or on the landing page for their keyword query.

What’s the best approach?

Shorter pages can be seen more easily, yet genuine in-depth content requires longer treatment. Learn the proper way to engage the visitor with strong opening copy. Make good use of text links within the content so your visitors can find related information easily without leaving your site or returning to the search engine results page.

It’s in your interest to keep them engaged and interested. Additionally, don’t be shy in helping them find your product or service offerings. You must know how to present good copy headlines above the fold to gain their interest and engagement.

We used think about a website in a different way that we do today. It used to be that we were expecting people might visit our site, bookmark it, enjoy visiting, etc. But in truth, that’s not the case, according to recent usability studies (Prioritizing Website Usability, by Jacob Nielsen is an excellent source on these and other usability topics).

The web today is a vast integrated resource for users who want answers to immediate questions, often isolated pieces of data such as

• How long it took Lewis and Clark to reach the Pacific.
• Or, where can I find the best price for the new ipod.
• Or, give me a nice hotel in San Francisco this weekend.

For most users this targeted search activity has redefined how they use the Web. They seek focused information, usually the stuff that’s found on the interior pages of sites, with no stop-over for the home page, and very little use or exploration beyond the immediate need or task.

In old days, prior to the development of modern browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape, a few people used the Internet to find articles, technical information and arcane bits and pieces of research. There were perhaps, 30,000 websites on the Web. The idea of visiting a site for entertainment, pleasure, or a visual tour of a hotel room, or any other kind of “visiting” simply did not exist.

Today, we have gone full circle. In the aggregate, users worldwide hit the web for specific answers and don’t bother to bookmark anything at all. Their loyalty is to a search engine, used primarily as an answer engine which can dredge up an endless numbers of interior web pages to address an immediate need or task. The user simply doesn’t care about the sites themselves (unless you are talking about Facebook, Twitter, and other social media). This kind of behavior, called “information foraging” has allowed users to search out information by through keywords more easily than by sticking with one site and exploring the links.

Much of what exists on the web is out of date in this sense, not because it is unattractive or unprofessional looking. Instead, it just does not meet visitor needs quickly and simply. Visitors are not going to browse. Instead they arrive at a page, find what they need, and leave. Maybe twenty or forty seconds in all. No further visiting, fun as that may be. It’s more like, “here they are… now they’re gone.”

You cannot change their behavior, but you can redesign you site to catch the bird when it’s in hand.

Ask yourself:

• Do users quickly find what they need on the interior pages of your site?
• Do you show them text based links within the content area for related choices or more information?
• When you give away free information, do they find your product shown immediately and clearly as the solution to their need?

“Also See” links can be placed strategically within your site, on each and every page, to keep them reading and discovering what you have, both for the intrinsic value of the information and for the main selling points of your product. This is where usability, information architecture and page design naturally flow into each other. It is the place where search engine marketing resides. Natural, organic search results derive from the way you present your content, the link names you use and the way in which your site is designed.

In the pre-Mosaic age the web was a network of information where the base unit was an article about a certain topic. It was not about websites per se.

Search engines have become the user interface to the world’s abundance of information. This is good news for users, who merely spend a few minutes making their query in a brief string of key words to find what they need. Unfortunately for the marketer who is building a website, this is not necessarily such a good thing. But you can set a course to take advantage of how today’s web is being used.

As they once said in the stock market, “don’t fight the tape. Make the trend your friend.”

The power of effective writing for the Web has been recognized as more marketers strive to create sites reflecting higher standards of usability.

Yet, despite this good news, there’s an overwhelming abundance of bad writing on the web. Convoluted paragraphs, repeating phrases and vague navigational elements may cause visitors to abandon pages that might have information or products they want.

Here’s a few points to remember:

• Effective writing… is clear, concise, descriptive. It reveals interior contents and site purpose.
• Ineffective web writing… is repetitious, complex and wordy.
• Bad writing is disorganized and confusing, to the point where visitors bail out completely.

The irony is that bad web writing may be rhetorically admirable, well informed, and possess an interesting style or personality. This disparity comes from a distinction between computer pixels and real ink on a page. Whereas we’re conditioned to read printed books, articles, and magazines in a linear, sometimes reflective consciousness, the web is about delivering usable data and nuggets of information that visitors are actively seeking.

So, the writer’s style can get in the way, even when the writing itself may work reasonably well in print (say in a book or article). Yet, if you dump that article online and it may look daunting. A dense sea of text that fails to reveal its contents.

You may be thinking, “this isn’t true for our site.” However, you may want to recheck. Sometimes content experts are too close to what they’re doing. They don’t realize the phrases, acronyms, or common industry terms they work with everyday, may be inaccessible for others. Also, clever writing, metaphor, lengthy descriptions and examples often break down on screen, as visitors lose their patience.

• Great images help.
• Good design helps.
• The right words help.
• Especially when you get to the point right away.

Writing for the Web is very different than writing advertising copy or corporate white papers. Web visitors surf and search with specific goals. They scan for simple descriptive labels. They make decisions quickly. They avoid busy pages, with confusing labels and link names. They’re impatient with over-written boastful copy or marketing hype.

Some direct mail writers do poorly in this medium due to a bias for hard sell copy. Yes, product benefits should emerge. But the writer must remember the visitor is in control, already in search mode, and looking for solid information. They want technical information, product comparisons, frequently asked questions, etc.

This is not the time to hit them over the head with your marketing. When people enter a query, they end up with a “million hits” on their desktop. Their first task is a ruthless leap through the pages they don’t want to see. And, these days it doesn’t take long. Usually, a smart marketer has figured out how to design, write and optimize a site, one that ranks high in the search engine response pages.

The short of it: if your site won’t satisfy; they won’t stick around (assuming they even find your site).

Style Tips

• Quickly serve up the major point of each page.
• Give ‘em text bullets, short sentences and short paragraphs.
• Get to the point!