How to tap into online reading styles (soundbite)
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In this week’s episode of Marketing + Margaritas, Jade hands out some great advice on how to tap into online reading styles + gives you a sneak peek into our new Copywriting Essentials Course, which is now on demand!
Okay, so – the reading styles 📚
It was discovered aaages ago through heat mapping + some other techie things, that people read in set patterns when looking at a screen + this carries over to hard copy reading as well. We truly are creatures of habit 😉
These patterns are C, F + E.
C: We scan along the top, scan down the side + then scan along the bottom.
F: We scan along the top, come down a bit, scan out a little bit, scan down again + that's it.
E: We scan along the top, scan down, scan out through the centre, go down + scan along the bottom.
The one we want people to do? E – this is what gets us the most value. Your audience will be reading the headline, scanning the content + reading any standout parts that appeal to them, scanning down the body of content again + then reading your call to action at the bottom (which of course you DO have, right?).
So then, how do we get our audience to read in an E style?
You need to optimise for online reading styles. When people are reading online – they’re often scanning. The best way to guide the reader through your content is to visually break it up + here’s some things you can do:
Use headings + subheadings
Bullet points + lists
Formatting (using bold, caps, italics, underlining etc.)
Breakout elements (image – photo, table, graph, graphic, video, quote or statement etc.)
Now, not sure if you noticed or not, but you can see most of these things in action on this page 😉
What about this copywriting course you mentioned?
Understanding online reading styles + how to optimise them is just one tiny element from our Copywriting Essentials Course. We have that and much more in each module, which is now available ON DEMAND – so you can access it whenever and wherever you like. If you’re interested, check it out 👉https://www.rebelnation.com.au/copywriting-essentials-course