Readability Sales or No Sales

Keep your copy readable to increase sales!

Recently, I received a product promotion from a spa supplier.  I knew the product was a performer, but the description was hard to read.  Readability was at the post-college level.

This prompted me to go online and look at descriptions of the same type of product marketed by department store brands. Their descriptions were much easier to read and focused on what their customer wanted to know.

Readability sells and lack of it hinders sales.

Readability refers to how easily a sentence is read and understood.  Originally, it was used to evaluate educational materials.  Today it is used by well-trained professional marketers.

In today's world, we are bombarded by electronic marketing. Junk mail, emails, newsletters. We go online; lots more marketing.  Sensory overload.  We are in a hurry. We want what we are looking for quick and easy.  Your potential customers want the same thing.

Every written piece put out there needs to be easy to read.  Website pages, emails, newsletters all need to be visitor friendly and quick to read.

Get their attention fast…

In 2014, Hubspot Marketing reported that you have less than 15 seconds to engage your reader. A surprising 55% of them will click off your page in that period.

If the reader is on a page that doesn't answer their question or meet a need - they are going to be gone. They are in the wrong place.  But if they are looking for what you have, we need to help them stick around and find it.  We need to make what we have written simple, clear and readable.

Think about opening your email box first thing in the morning. There are probably at least 30 new emails waiting.  You have the time it takes for that first cup of coffee, or whatever before you have to get on with the to-dos.  If you're like most of us, you look for the obvious ones to delete.  Check, check, check, delete - done.  Then you start with the rest.

Keep it simple and readable with a clear message…

You don't actually read most emails completely. You quickly skim them to determine their importance and your interest. If they are hard to read, it bogs you down. The more you have to "work" to read the information, the more apt you are to think, just stuff it, and hit delete. The sender loses a potential client. You may miss important information, but it wasn't presented in a user-friendly way. We are so pressed for time it doesn't seem worth it to try.

There may be a few you will flag to read later. But later may never come. You see that file still sitting in your inbox several days later. Without reading beyond the subject line, you hit delete. Lost potential sales.

Our potential clients are doing the same thing with what we send to them and when they visit our web pages.  Help them with simplicity, clarity, and readability.

Judith Culp Pearson is a trained marketing specialist with over 30 years in the Spa/wellness industry. She specializes in web copy for Alternative Health & Wellness.  If you’d like to improve the return on your business marketing: [email protected]