Out of 18 choices, why does one piece of content get 49% of the vote while another gets 0%?
Over the last six years, I have tested a range of headings and summaries. The tests were carried out in 14 countries with almost 3,000 people. People were asked to scan 31 headings and 18 summaries about a particular subject and then quickly choose the one that stood out for them.
These were the subject areas:
- The launch of iTunes
- A pet-food scare
- A launch of discount software by Microsoft
- The launch of the final Harry Potter book
Here's a summary of the results:
Top Headings
- Tons of tunes (22%)
- Poison found in pet food (30%)
- $3 software for developing countries (23%)
- Flying off the shelves (31%)
Bottom Headings
- Apple's Music Store breaks the mould and sells technology (0%)
- Rodent poison found in now-recalled pet food blamed for animal deaths (0%)
- Three-Dollar Windows for Govt.-Subsidized Student Computers... (0%)
- 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' sells 2.6 million copies in 24 hours (0%)
Top Summaries
- 99 cents per download, no restrictions. One million tracks sold online in one week encouraging sign for ailing music industry. Apple... (49%)
- By Josh Fineman and Michael Quint. March 23 (Bloomberg)—Rat poison killed at least 16 cats and dogs and prompted last week's recall of 60 million cans of... (38%)
- Microsoft plans to offer a US$3 stripped-down package of Windows, Office and other software to people in developing... (34%)
- WARNING: If you don't want to know what happens in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," stop reading now. JK Rowling is far too savvy a... (38%)
Bottom Summaries
- The music industry owes a lot to technology. But the new millennium has brought slumping sales. Technology now terrifies music executives... (0%)
- BY MICHAEL AMON. At first, the pet food recall didn't much worry Jack Friedman. His cats love Iams canned food but had never eaten the "cuts and gravy"... (0%)
- In its effort to remain competitive and relevant to today's new generation of Windows users around the world, Microsoft unveiled on Thursday a new program... (0%)
- Cash tills around the world rang to the tune of Harry Potter over the weekend and the seventh and final book in the... (0%)
The Common Characteristic of Success
The Web is the ultimate laboratory for content. It allows us to know, with increasing precision, what content leads to a positive action and what content leads to the Back button.
The content that works on the Web has one key characteristic: It is customer-centric. The content that doesn't work on the Web also has one key characteristic: It is organization-centric.
"99 cents per download, no restrictions" is the essence of what people want today. They want an immediate answer to the question: What's in it for me?
They want brutal, pared-down content that gets to the point immediately.
Your Web site is not a murder mystery. It is certainly not a place for we-we content. Short, sharp, second person and active; that's Web content.
Get to the point. Then stop.
