The Delta Media P.R. Clinic

Less is More: Getting Your Messages Read in the Digital Age

By Bernard Gauthier, MA

I’ll be brief. People are busier than ever. They are deluged with more information from more sources. To survive, they scan more, ignore more and remember less of what they do read.

The reality of this trend hit me when I moderated a focus group designed to test a direct mail kit with people who had purchased a similar product in the past. Our audience was: a) paid to read a letter and brochure, b) captive in a room with nothing to distract them, and c) asked to read two documents on a topic of interest to them. And what did they do? They scanned the documents for less than a minute.

Even university professors –whose very career is based on acquiring knowledge – now find that they simply don’t have time to cope. As the Ottawa Citizen reported on November 17th, 2006: “Pointing to the time-compressed ‘wired-to-the-world campus,’ the majority of university professors report they skim sources for useful bits of information and don't read as deeply and reflectively as they once did.”

What’s a PR practitioner to do?

1. Get to the Point
   

   We have to write fewer words than we once did. Long texts discourage readers and are more likely to be ignored altogether. A client responsible for ensuring compliance with government regulations tells me that people who register for his program are sent 10 long PDF documents with the rules and regulations they must follow; he’s convinced most people don’t read any of them. Instead, he now also sends a short brochure with the key points and finds that compliance is improving. So make every word count. Get to the point and aim to reduce your texts to one quarter of the length they used to be.

2. Invite Scanning
   

   No matter how brief your writing, readers will scan. Go with the flow and make your document easy and inviting to scan. Use meaningful sub-heads for each section and use a bold font for key words. Put important lists in bullet form. Make it easier for readers to spot what interests them most and jump in.

3. Think Google
   

   The beauty of Google is that it strips down the navigation experience and saves the detail for later. Each website in your search results is distilled to a short list of words and a link. It’s an approach worth emulating. Rather than assuming your readers want the entire page of details, give them a sentence or two and direct them to the details. Use your time with the reader to convince them that the details matter to them personally and to tell them where to find them (i.e. on your website, on the phone, in an accompanying document).

   Whether in websites, brochures or letters, messages that are short, easy to scan and that point to the details are more likely to be read and remembered. Your members, journalists, government officials and the public will thank you by paying attention.

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