Why your readers aren’t reading, and how you get them to

by | May 23, 2018 | Church website best practices, News, School Marketing, SEO tips, Stronger Writing

People no longer read. They scan.

People also consume more content than ever before. Even long articles.

So what’s the secret? How do we turn scanners and skimmers into focused readers?
It’s not about how fancy your sentences are, how descriptive your adjectives are, or if you have lots of statistics sprinkled into your text.
And at the core, it’s not even about the actual length—though research does show that long-form content (1000+ words) gets read more, shared more, converts more, and ranks higher in search results.
85% of content published (excluding videos and quizzes) is less than 1,000 words long. However, long form content of over 1,000 words consistently receives more shares and links than shorter form content. Either people ignore the data or it is simply too hard for them to write quality long form content.  [MOZ, “Insights from Analyzing 1 Million Articles“]
It’s about giving people what they want. Showing them you have the answer. Helping them get to the information they need.
And this is done very effectively in long-form content (especially if you have several pieces of shorter content promoting it!)

The key is putting careful thought into your microcontent.

What is that, you ask? To learn more, we recommend this article put out by highly-sought-after communications expert, Ann Wiley:
TLDR? Top-notch headlines and subject lines. Subtitles. Subheads. Lists. Pull quotes. But this is worth your time to read, memorize, apply. Your readers (which you’ll soon have more of) will thank you for it.
All in all, whether you’re a church, a school, a small ministry or a large ministry, you have info people want (and often need). Don’t sell yourself short—you are valuable, and you have much to offer your corner of the online mission field.
Optimized microcontent can breathe new life info any website, social media campaign, email series, newsletter, or even flyers you pass out on the street.
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