We’re all busier than ever, but there’s never been more to read! Let’s figure out how to cut through the clutter, in your publications and your email.

How much text do you come across on a daily basis? If you’re like most of us, the amount is vast: from your morning paper, to junk mail, to dozens of emails (most of which are spam), to business correspondence, manuals, advertisements, stories, books and more…. There’s never been more stuff to read out there!

Consequently, of course, we become much more selective about what we actually read. I’ve been finding, more and more often, that my clients are skimming my emails, and missing essential facts.

Recently, at the request of a client, I set up a password-protected Web site. When the work was complete, I wrote the client a quick email. I dealt with another piece of business, then wrote “The username and password is “yelos”, lower-case.” (Credentials have been changed to protect the innocent.)

Over the next two days, a back-and-forth ensued over the “problems” the client was having logging onto the site. Everything was working fine when I tried it, but the client couldn’t log in! It wasn’t until we got on the phone that it became clear that — surprise! — they were using all-caps on the password.

This is just one example of many. I get a good laugh when it happens, especially with examples like this one, because frankly I’m just relieved that nothing is actually wrong with the work I’ve done.

But there are examples where failure to read effectively undermines my work. Most often it happens when I provide the client with specifications for development work. In this case, I’m providing details about how a web application will function, outlining what features it will have, and often, what features it won’t. These are very important documents because most clients don’t understand the amount of work that goes into developing a web application; what seems like a small feature (say, giving a client the ability to place an image anywhere they like within a block of text) can actually be a very big deal!

Problems crop up when, having received and officially signing off on a spec document, the client wonders why the application doesn’t do something else entirely.

So why do people not read?

• Reading from a computer screen is more laborious that reading from paper. Text on screens is significantly lower resolution than on paper, so it takes up to 25% longer to read it.
• Text online is riddled with hyperlinks, all waiting to distract the reader with connections to other content. In web pages, this keeps the reader constantly looking for the next thing to read, moving focus away from what you’ve written.
• And of course, people just don’t have time to read. If you’re trying to find information about a particular topic online, you might start at Google. A search for “car parts” yields 97,500,000 search results! There’s just so much out there, we have to skim a lot more to find what we need.

Let’s not lose hope, though. With some careful writing, I think we can cut through the clutter and deliver text that gets your point across. Here are some tips to help ensure your words get read:

• Get to the point. Don’t waste time being too descriptive. A good rule of thumb is to write your first draft, then remove half the words for your second.
• Bullets, like the ones I’m using here, draw the reader’s eye and neatly summarize your content. Numbered lists are also useful.
• Break up your text by using frequent paragraph breaks — one paragraph per main idea! — and page headings. Most email clients offer the ability to create bold text: use that to make a bolded heading, and place a brief paragraph after.
• Write top-down, newspaper-style. Put your central point at the beginning, and less-relevant facts lower down. That way you’ll minimize the damage caused if/when your readers, well, don’t read.

I’ll finish with an example, a before-and-after, to give you an idea of what you can do to improve your email communications. Here’s a message I wrote to a client (all names have been changed).

Hey Craig,
Just got another call from Frank, he says Finance is working perfectly! Nice job. But he has a couple other issues in other parts of the application. For the cash deal area, can you remove the SDLD figure? And in the admin section, there’s a problem with the mid-size entry… you can’t take off the taxes.

That’s all for now. He’s really geared up about the app now, and wanting to know when you’ll have the updates here ready to review. Please do get back to me asap so I can inform him, please!

Cheers,
Aaron

This is a pretty standard style of writing: two paragraphs, just loaded with information. Trouble is, it violates pretty much every rule of concise writing. Here’s an improved version:

Craig,
Frank is thrilled with your work on the Finance section! Nice job.

Outstanding Issues

• For the cash deal area, can you remove the SDLD figure?
• In the admin section, there’s a problem with the mid-size entry… you can’t take off the taxes.

Please let me know…
Frank wants to know when you’ll have these updates ready to review. Please get back to me asap so I can inform him, please!

Cheers,
Aaron

Using these techniques, both in your email and your other communications, there’s hope that your stuff will get read.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 9:20 pm and is filed under E-Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.