Why Nobody Is Reading Your Marketing Content
Almost weekly, I inform a customer that their marketing copy has a serious flaw.
The topic, writing style, grammar, or even mistakes are not the problem.
The issue is that their formatting makes their material difficult to read.
The Reason Why No One Is Reading Your Marketing Content
I've seen across websites with fantastic material that were simply impossible to read because of poor formatting.
Nobody reads the blog post or service description you spent a lot of time writing.
Because you are too close to the situation and lack objectivity, you, the author, probably aren't even aware of it.
The good news is that readability can be easily improved.
You won't make the same errors again once you become aware of them.
The following seven organizing errors make it challenging for readers to read your content.
Since we read most online marketing content on websites and blogs, I'll concentrate on arranging content for those platforms.
1. text that's too small.
The most typical text formatting error is this one. You have an issue if someone has to squint to read your text.
And did you know that more than 50% of people currently visit the web on mobile devices? Little text is substantially more difficult to read as a result.
Now that more websites are using WordPress, page widths are greater than ever, which causes small text to disappear into the vastness of the screen.
What font size should you use? Although I advise against going any smaller than 16px, 20px is becoming increasingly popular. A bigger IS is preferable.
2. text that's too light.
3. text that's too wide on the page.
Format your text from edge to edge now that you have a large, wide page to write on!
Don't do this, please.
The light text is a major reading disaster due to the wide blocks of text added to the already small text.
To make the text blocks on the page smaller, you need some white space.
The font size is 21 px and the margins on either side of the text occupy nearly 50% of the screen space on a website like Medium.com, which has millions of users.
Having a tight left or right margin and a broader margin on the side containing graphic content or page menus is another approach to make your text block appear smaller.
This is shown on my blog pages.
I recommend that your main text block take up no more than 60% of the width of your screen.
4. paragraphs that are too long
Long paragraphs are just as problematic as smaller, lighter, or wider text. Immense sections are essentially difficult to peruse on the web.
A web page doesn't read like a book. Furthermore, similar section rules don't make a difference.
It's OK, to have short paragraphs.
Even one-sentence paragraphs.
Do you understand that?
I recommend that paragraphs be no longer than five lines. If you pack just one key idea into each paragraph, readership will skyrocket.
5. poor choice of font
This point is more difficult because there are a lot of fonts nowadays.
I usually recommend a legible serif font like "Georgia" or a sans serif font like "Open Sans".
But be careful when mixing fonts. You don't believe your site should seem to be a payoff note.
It's common to use a bold serif or sans serif font for headings and the opposite for content.
This is where a designer can be helpful and give your web pages a consistent, professional look.
6. missing bold print
This is my secret weapon for improving readability. You don't see this online often enough.
If your text is just black/grey text with no variation, there's no focal point to draw the eye.
Here's what happens:
A reader comes to your page and sees nothing but solid color text. Nothing attracts the eye.
The subconscious says, "Where's the good stuff? Do I've to dig through all that text to find it? Damn, this is too exhausting, let me go somewhere else!"
But if you highlight the first few sentences (sometimes even the first few sentences) in bold, the eye is drawn, and it pays immediate dividends.
The reader is focused and immediately understands what your content is about, and is encouraged to read on.
If you use a lot of bold in your text, the reader can quickly search for the meaning. And even if he doesn't read the whole page, he gets the gist.
One mistake you should avoid with bold: You should almost never bold words or phrases in the middle of a paragraph. That simply makes it harder to peruse.
If you want to emphasize something in the middle of a paragraph, use italics instead.
7. don't use subheadings
Another good way to increase readability is to divide pages by subheadings.
These simply text in a larger font, often colored and/or bolded, as I've done in this article.
Subheadings serve to organize the most important sections of your content.
All of this increases readability, and that's what you want when a visitor comes to your website, right?