How Much Copy Should You Write On Your Homepage? [Infographic]

HOW MUCH COPY Should You Write on Your НOМE НОМЕ РАGE? How muCH Is enouGH COPY? It depends on What you want your visitors to accomplish on the page What information they need to make a decision to take action How aware they are of the solutions that exist to their problems According to Neilson Norman Group study on users reading behavior on the web: 79% of users scanned a new page, only 16% read word by word. Making the copy more scannable, concise and devoid of marketing hype, increased usability by 124%. After analyzing 1.5 million eyetracking fixations from hundreds of sites they found that what converts scanners to readers are Good information Good page layout architecture Website visitors will read when they can quickly find the information they're looking for. Маке тне рРaGe as LonG as IT NEEDS TO BE It requires as much copy as is necessary to help people complete the task at hand. ExamPLe If you're goal is to get an email opt-in, you need to provide necessary amount of words to convince them to do so. How TO FIGURE OUT THE RIGHT amounT OF COPY? Your copy length is determined by a combination of 2 elements. 1 ELemenT ELement What action you want your ideal customers to take. What information those people need to achieve their goals. SeT THе GoaL OF THE рaGe Every page needs to have a reason for being. An independent landing page A cart page on an ecommerce designed to generate sales site, each has a purpose. of a particular product An email opt-in Sign up for an account. Getting visitors to convert requires the level of persuasive argument based on the goal. 2 Know YOUR CUSTOMERS' mOTIvaTIOns It's critical when determining the copy amount to persuade your visitors to take the next step. IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT: If you don't know what brought the visitor to your page in the first place, you won't know what will get them to take action. 3 ADDRESS FeaRs, HESITATIONS, conceRns Friction arises when you don't adequately address the impediments to your visitors taking action. Include bullet points near a button letting people know that a software trial is free and doesn't require a credit card. Add a few paragraphs of body copy to back up your argument. Add a line of copy below an email opt-in CTA and let them know that you won't spam them. 4 Awareness OF PROBLEM anD SOLUTIONS avaiLaBLE The amount of persuasion involved in convincing a farmer that lives in lowa to purchase an app that predicts rainfall will be far different than a surfer who lives in California. According to Gene Schwartz from Breakthrough Advertising, the primary states of awareness that customers have The Most Aware Your prospect knows your product, and only needs to know "the deal." Product-Aware Your prospect knows what you sell, but isn't sure it's right for him. Solution-Aware Your prospect knows the result he wants, but not that your product provides it. Problem-Aware Your prospect senses he has a problem, but doesn't know there's a solution. Completely Unaware No knowledge of anything except, perhaps, his own identity or opinion. ConcLUSion It's not about short or long copy. It's about writing just enough to convert the prospect. QUICKSPROUT References Nielsen Norman Group // bit.ly/1gpNQYd Nielsen Norman Group // bit.ly/ljriM8 Sloan Review // bit.ly/19c27tS IconiContent // bit.ly/1B4usb4 Copyblogger // bitly/1Ez0phb