People don’t read

I must be joking, right? You are reading this after all.

I wish I was! The truth is, that we often skip reading anything that is long, text heavy, or simply uninteresting.

Which means very often the things we need our clients to read most, they skip.

Terms of Service? Skip! Who wants to read even 1 page of boring legal text? No one. Unless you’re learning to be a lawyer 😉

I know I’m just as guilty of not reading when I should-even though I love knowing answers and not having to ask questions. It still happens-I come across a big block of text and I skip it.

How can we combat this problem of people not reading?

• Be interesting
• Keep text to a minimum
• Be succinct-revise and revise again until you distill what you have to say in the fewest words possible
• Include images
• Repeat, repeat, repeat
  • Seriously, include the SAME information on many pieces. Doesn’t have to be the same exact phrasing but the same concept.  The more often they encounter it, the more likely they are to read it at least once 😉
• Make IMPORTANT things easy to read and clearly important
• KISS (keep it simple, stupid)

The best way you can encourage people to actually read your policies so you don’t have to deal with inane questions later is quite simple: REPEAT.

Marketers know that it takes seeing a message 3-10 times before it sticks-great marketers know that number is closer to 7-10.  That means you have to see a commercial, ad, or other form of communication 3-10 times before you’ll retain the information. Think of how many times you might laugh at a commercial but not remember what it was for-but see it a few more times and it will solidify. If not, they’ve done a poor job communicating their message and that’s a failed commercial. 😉

Great books repeat themes to make it stick and make a point.

The most effective public speakers do it to help the audience retain the key points and you should be doing it too!

By repeating the important information, you not only increase the chances of it being read in the first place, but you also increase the odds that the info will be retained.  So-share info and share it often! Repeat often, in various places and you’ll find that more of your clients/customers are bound to understand what you’re saying, what you’re offering, and what to expect.

If you’re not repeating your key messages and information, start NOW.  Rinse + repeat, y’all 😉