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Impact
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From the work undertaken by those who research in the field of the psychology of perception, what we know is that the amount of brain power that we, as readers, will give to anything put in front of us, depends very much on our motivation. Thus if we’ve just spent £2.99 buying a magazine we are motivated to read it more than if an unsolicited mailshot has just popped onto the desk. Likewise if the topic highlighted is one that is of great interest to the reader, the reader will put more energy into reading than if it is a topic of only minor interest.
But these matters change over time, for our attitudes are amended depending on experience. To give a simple example, five years ago if Arsenal FC wrote to me I would read every word, because a) I am a totally committed supporter and have been since the age of about six when I lived near the ground and b) because the club bothering to write to me at all was such a novelty. Now however I often give their letters little more than a glance because they write to me a lot, and most of the letters are repeat requests for me to take out an Arsenal credit card – which I don’t want to do.
A simple rule arises from this: the more one is interested in looking at an advert or notice, the more brain power one will put into this. This is obvious, and yet its implication is generally overlooked. An advertisement with colour in it requires far more brain power to be given over to reading it, than an advertisement that is (for example) black print on yellow paper. An advertisement with illustrations in it requires far more brain power (by a factor of over 100) than an advertisement that is plain text. In short, colour used for any reason other than an essential reason, distracts. If you want to advertise a summer holiday you have to include full colour pictures of the beach and hotel. But there is nothing in your advertisement
This does not mean one can write page after page of plain text, because one also has to generate interest and enthusiasm, but it does mean that unless one is working with an audience that is utterly committed and totally wanting to read everything, one needs to keep the colour and the pictures – indeed the complexity – down to a minimum. The best way forward is to grab the reader with a really exciting meaningful headline, and then stay on message throughout.
It is from this understanding of the psychology of perception that we need to look at “friction” – keeping the reader on the page, ensuring that the reader takes it all in, and in short, stopping the reader popping off to do something else. Remember the average reader might be flitting from one thing to another, the phone might ring, an email arrive, a colleague might ask a question, a child (at home or at school) might want something. We do not give our message across in a perfectly calm environment.
Experimentation reported by Marketing Experiments Journal shows that conversion from a person reading a piece to taking whatever action the advertiser desires is enhanced by reducing the number of steps involved, and having shorter and simpler messages.
Friction can also be reduced if we are working towards one clear objective. We may note that often when I say to people, what do you want to happen as a result of this page or this advert – do you want them to place an order, phone up with an enquiry or apply for a free incentive – the answer is often “any of those”. This causes problems – we should always have one clear objective in mind.
Friction is mostly reduced by an increase in incentive – the reader pushes on and gives time to this because the benefit is always clear. Simplicity and clarity of benefit enhance the chance of a successful completion. Length and difficulty enhance friction and reduce the likelihood of a positive outcome.
Pictures
There are three things to remember about pictures...
1. The psychology of perception
One of the key lessons from the psychology of perception is the fact that placing pictures alongside text can be very distracting, and does nothing to enhance the readership of the site, unless the pictures are they key reason for the site - in which case you need to keep the text to a minimum.
2. Slow loaders
Not everyone has the fastest computer and fast reliable broadband. Some pictures can take a very long time to load on some machines, and in such cases the reader can get bored and go away.
3. You can't search on Google
You can't search for pictures on Google, only for text.
Colour
Obviously if you are using pictures, you will have colour therein. But this does not mean that this level of colour should be maintained in the text.
Using colour within the text should be used sparingly, because each use of colour requires a much greater use of brain power to decode the message. The reader might well give up reading simply because of the colour.
Committed readers will keep reading - but there is no real difficulty in bringing in these readers. It is the non-committed readers you have to think about, and they will be affected negatively by colour.
Text
Research carried out by Ben Chestnut, Partner at RocketScienceGroup, and reported on the Marketing Sherpa news group analysed those email messages that were most opened and those that were least opened.
Almost all the ones that were most opened had the company name in the subject line - often followed by words like News Bulletin, or Update or Newsletter.
The ones that people did not open had lines like "Last minute gift". Where a company name was mentioned it was followed not by "newsletter" but by a boast or claim - such as "Pioneer in Computing Technology".
What seems to come from this is that emails which are about news or information appear to readers to be more worthy of opening than those that are obviously advertisements. The survey is American, and it might be different here - but I suspect similar answers will be found.
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