Various studies show that the content strategy average time a website viewer will linger around on a site is less than 15 seconds, before making the decision to continue or not. What that means is that you’ve got only a few seconds to capture visitor attention and make a great first impression. If your website content can hook them for a longer time, you are exponentially raising the chances of business conversions.
So what is your game and content strategy? Without a proper one, you just have your head in the clouds. Here are few rules to keep in mind.
1. Jot down in inverted pyramid style
It simply means to front-load your story putting the most essential and attention-grabbing lines first. The supporting information next in the order of descending importance. Be direct. Make your points first and then explains it.
- It gives a quick and easy access to the points of interest of visitors.
- It helps visitors to skim through the entire content of website efficiently.
- Readers can stop at any point and still can catch the crux of it.
2. Keep it scannable
You can kiss that magic 15-second first impression goodbye if your content is not easily digestible. What most of the web visitors do is just a glance at a page, scan for some text and click on the interesting link. Researchers show that 79% of web readers scan through the content, unlike the print readers. The web isn’t about communication with splendor. It is all about communication with speed.
- Use only necessary words. As author Crawford Kilian says about web writing, “Every word and phrase should have to fight for its life”.
- KISS it! Keep it short and simple.
- Use familiar and simple words that convey right information.
- Use clear and relevant subheadings.
- Keep paragraphs short and convey one idea per paragraph.
- Use Indicators like headings, bold texts, bulleted lists, and captions.
3. Shift the spotlight to the customer
Just riffle through the titles of your content marketing. If your website products or services hog the spotlight, you are missing the vision of your products through customer’s eyes. You miss the opportunity to build customer relationship and Return on Investment. What you need is a content overhaul that makes your website customer-centric.
- Understand your customers and their pain points.
- Talk their talk. An airline company may sell their ticket ‘low-cost’, but their customer buys ‘cheap’.
- Adopt your content strategy in response to the customer feedback-give them value.
4. Resonate the landing page content with your customer needs
Any page on your website can be the landing page. Each should offer all necessary information but not so much as to overwhelm the customer. Use your hyperlinks on each page to funnel visitors down the desired pathway to make conversions easy. As a customer clicks on that ad and head to your landing page, he needs right away what he needs to know or he will leave. You should make their time on that page worthwhile to stick around. The landing page require compact and concise content with social proof if you have any.
5. Keep the Content Strategy
You should practice what you preach. Just make sure that your website contents are genuinely useful and credible resources.
- Sprinkle some facts like statistics to back up your opinions and prove your point.
- Use reputable source when using a quote, figure or fact.
- Avoid spelling/ grammar errors, false facts or inflated qualifications.
Source:
blog.chartbeat.com/2013/03/18/using-engaged-time-to-understand-your-audience
time.com/12933/what-you-think-you-know-about-the-web-is-wrong
