Slower Reading & Digital Content

There’s a slower reading rule with regard to digital content.  Did you know we read twenty-five percent slower online.  Yes.  Reading digital content takes longer than traditional, paper content.  This means your email newsletters, blog posts, and overall website content needs to accommodate how we read online and not just what we read online.  It’s the human scanners rather than the traditional readers you must write for.

Below is a list practical tips you can apply to reduce the impact of the slower reading rule:

• Keep it simple.
• Write your first draft, then reduce your words by 50%.
• Start with a simple opening paragraph.
• Use bullet points for mail points.
• Use active verbs.
• Be direct.
• Get to the point.
• Make sure a ten year can understand it.
• Make sure your key point is made in the first or second sentence.
• Remember what Shakespeare said: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

Because of the slower reading rule, if you don’t write to accommodate this, it could impact your sales and the average time visitors spend with your content.  Slower reading means slower sales if you don’t get to the point faster.  Website and digital content readers scan, they don’t read.  Write for scanners not readers.

By Stuart Atkins