That’s what Mark Twain said over 100 years ago, and it’s still a challenge today. Writing content is easy; writing concise content in a limited space is a bit more difficult.

We are dealing with two limitations that point to “less is more”:

1. Fitting all the pertinent points onto the viewable portion of your visitors screen: You only have moments before your visitor will click away if they don’t see what they are looking for.  People will scroll down below the fold (the portion of the web page that is below their initial field of vision) if you catch their attention with what is above the fold. Make sure that the important information is right in front of their faces immediately.
2. Your visitors have the attention span of a 6^th grader: People don’t actually read on the internet...they scan. They see headlines, bullet points and graphics. You must attract their attention before they make an effort to actual read any copy.

The body copy on your landing page has to be good, but don’t delude yourself into thinking everyone will read it. Only about 20% of your visitors will actually read the body copy... still, it has to be good (less is more).

Focus on a great “enticing” headline, and easily digestible bullet-pointed list, or a graphic that tell a story at a glance (known as a “Hero Shot”). Headlines should refer back to what the visitor was looking at before they landed on your page. This “continuity” is a factor in the conversion architecture of your marketing campaign.

Don’t forget the call to action! You might test matching up the call to action with the headline since that is almost certainly the one element on the page that you can be sure they will read.

You are welcome to download my Whitepaper “Landing Page Design: Common Mistakes & Tested Techniques” from the free section of the WSIeWorks website. You can also listen to the entire recorded webinar as well.