Clients regularly ask me how much text is enough versus too much. Often entrepreneurs are afraid to put too many words on a page since all we hear is that people don’t read anymore. And everybody wonders what the deal is with those long, online sales letters that scroll forever…How can they possibly work?!?
The thing is, content—and in particular written content—is king. And it always will be.
The text on your Website, or in your ad or sales letter, is what is going to hold someone’s attention. It’s also what is going to explain your products or services, answer prospect’s questions, deal with their objections, and convince them to take action.
Sure videos and audios are great. And a picture says a thousand words.
But not everyone likes to watch videos or listen to audios (I, for one, much prefer to read than watch or listen unless a demonstration is warranted). And a picture can be interpreted, or misinterpreted, any way you want.
Without enough copywriting, there’s no telling what someone might think of your business, products or services. Or what action they’re likely to take after visiting your site, seeing your ad or reading your letter. That means you need copywriting, and plenty of it, to effectively market and grow your business.
However, you can’t just stick a ton of text on a page and expect people to wade through it—let alone buy. The key to getting prospects to read every word of your copy—whether it’s on a Website, in an email, or on paper—is proper formatting!
These days most people skim before they decide to invest time in reading. So visual clarity is key. You need to make sure prospects can get the most important information at a glance.
Below are a few steps you can take to ensure prospects get all the info they need from your marketing materials to confidently take the next step…
1) Create a Hierarchy of Information Importance
You communicate the importance of different info via its size and color. Whatever is most important needs to be the biggest and boldest text on the page (think headlines, guarantees, offers, calls to action). The next most important info is still going to be called out, but it’s likely to be less bold and smaller. And so on.
2) Create and Follow Standard Formatting Guidelines
You don’t want to end up with a rainbow colored page, or too many things called out. Do this and the reader can no longer tell what’s most important. Instead, come up with standard formatting guidelines and stick to them.
So all headlines might be font size 20 and red or orange. Whereas subheads, which are a step less important, might be font size 16 and blue. And information that’s still important but not as critical might just be bold, or red or highlighted.
No more than three colors should be used for text, usually dark orange or red for headlines, guarantees and pricing, plus one of your brand colors for subheads and call-out boxes, and black for body text for best readability.
3) Create a Double Readership Path
A double readership path is a way for you to ensure skimmers get the most critical information from your marketing pieces. So once you’ve got your information hierarchy and formatting in place for all the really important stuff, go back and skim your text.
Now, use bolding, highlighting, bullets and call-out boxes to create a more complete story for skimmers. That way as their eye skims across the page it picks up enough info to create a pretty clear picture of what you offer, why they would want it, and what they need to do next to get it.
Remember, don’t overdo it. If you bold or highlight too much then you lose your information hierarchy and skimmers can’t tell what’s important.
A Few Final Rules of Thumb for Formatting Copy
- Keep sentences short (21 words or less) and paragraphs short (no more than 5 lines). Giant blocks of text and super long sentences are both intimidating and hard to read.
- Make headlines bold and at least 6 points larger in size than body text.
- Make subheads bold and at least 2 points larger than body text.
- Use red and bold for critical information.
- Underline links and links only.
- Use all caps sparingly. Too many words in all caps makes it difficult for the eye to skim. And online all caps are the equivalent of shouting.
Got thoughts, suggestions or ideas to share on this topic? Please do leave a comment…
