Keep Your Audience Wanting More

“Books in 60 seconds.”

--Amazon.com

Amazon is reaching out to traditional media this Holiday season, advertising the Kindle on TV with the tagline: “Books in 60 seconds.” That got me thinking about people who can’t wait to buy a book, but willingly wait hours or even days to see how a story ends.

They actually want to spend more time reading, not less. It’s called a rich user experience.

A lot of websites today talk about it -- with language like: “We create experiences that produce desired perceptions, cognition, and behavior among your users, customers, visitors, audiences.” So what experience does that create?

Just using fewer words doesn’t work. Face it, graphics on most websites still aren’t that immersive -- not even a 1280 x 720 pixel video (unless, of course, there is a great script behind it).

This doesn’t mean bury your value prop. There are lots of techniques to elevate your message and still keep your audience wanting more. The longer you keep them engaged without getting bored, the greater the chance they'll buy something. And writing is still the only way to sustain someone’s interest in your story for more than 60 seconds.