Once you’ve found your focus and written your one-sentence story summary, use it.

A well-written summary statement can become a headline, deck or theme sentence. That summary communicates your idea clearly to your reader while it keeps you on track.

Here’s how some writers and editors have used summary sentences to make their points:

• What to buy when you have enough to give the very best: the theme sentence for Ingram’s magazine guide to luxury gift giving
• How to manage your newfound nest egg: the theme sentence for a mutual fund company’s marketing magazine article on how baby boomers should handle an inheritance
• Build new networks, reach real people, master social media: the theme sentence for PRSA’s 2009 Digital Impact Conference

“When you have that ‘one thing’ … that free offer, 20% discount or whatever … get it into your headline,” writes Nick Usborne, author of NetWords.

Use it … or your readers might lose it.

Test for focus.

Finally, make sure every paragraph — indeed, every sentence, every phrase, every word — in your piece works together to support your theme. To test this, reread your copy with your focus in mind.

With each paragraph, don’t just ask, “Does this paragraph work?” Also ask, “Does this paragraph work to further my focus?”

You define your focus more by what you leave out than by what you put into your story. So if a phrase or sentence doesn’t pass the test, take it out.

That’s focus.

The post Make your key point in writing appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Decks — those one-sentence summaries under the headline — do the heavy lifting on webpages.

Indeed, according to The Poynter Institute’s Eyetrack III study of reader behavior:

• 95% of webpage visitors read all or part of the deck. That’s huge when compared with any other element on the page.
• Visitors spend five to 10 seconds, on average, looking at the deck.That seems like a flash, but it’s actually a substantial investment in a scanner’s time.
• Decks “may be the only thing many readers view,” Eyetrack III researchers say.

If you want visitors to pay attention to your point, the researchers say, put it in the deck. Yet too many corporate communicators drop this power tool of communication.

Why decks?

No doubt about it: Decks are power tools of communication. Decks are important because they:

• Orient visitors at a glance, letting them know whether they’ve arrived at the right place.
• Offer a second layer of detail to scanners who don’t read word-by-word.
• Take a load off (and words out of) the headline.

(Not sure what the deck is? The deck for this piece is “Because it’s the best-read element on the page.”)

Put your message where your deck is.

Once you’ve gained attention in the headline, use the deck to sell the story. To write an effective deck:

1. Explain your message in one sentence.

Make it a full sentence.

2. Telegraph a single point.

Choose a secondary angle deck to go with news headlines, a summary deck to go with feature and benefits headlines.

3. Tell, don’t tease.

Don’t try to trick visitors into reading the page. Instead, summarize the page so well that visitors can get the gist of the story without reading the text.

4. Don’t repeat yourself.

A deck is an extension of the headline. It should expand on the headline, not duplicate it. So don’t repeat a single word from the headline in the deck.

This is San Francisco real estate. Make each word do new work. (Besides, repeating words in the head and deck may be a clue that you’re saying the same thing twice. Force yourself to revise repetitious layers of information.)

5. Use sentence-structure capitalization.

Sentence Capitalization is Fresher and More Contemporary than Title Capitalization.

But don’t include a period.

6. Keep it short.

Aim for 14 words or fewer. That length is easy for people to read and understand, according to research by the American Press Institute.

People read decks because they’re short and easy to scan. If your deck becomes a paragraph, it will lose its power to attract.

Don’t drop the deck.

This second layer of headline is essential to communicate to today’s audience of flippers and skimmers.

So don’t drop the deck — from webpages, news releases, blog posts and other pieces. Why skip the most important element of your piece?

The post Why write a multi-deck headline? appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Web visitors spend 74% of their time on the first two screens, just 26% on all remaining screens, according to the Nielsen Norman Group

So don’t blow your top.

To reach mobile web visitors up top, communicate the gist of the message in the first four elements of the web page:

1. Headline

Tell the story, don’t tell about the story. “Hallmark doubles profit-sharing contribution,” for instance, not “Benefits changes announced.”

And don’t even get me started on label headlines: “Benefits changes” is not a headline.

Before:

Preventing and declaring conflicts of interest

This buries the topic behind 25 characters worth of –inging words. Plus, it’s unclear: Who’s preventing? Who’s declaring?

After:

Conflicts of interest: How do you handle?

This moves the topic to the top and clarifies who’s responsible.

2. Deck.

Deliver a secondary angle for news stories and a summary for benefits and feature stories. Don’t drop this essential element: 95% of web page visitors look at the deck.

Before: The writer dropped the deck, missing 25% of her chance to get the word out within the top four elements of the story.

After:

Conduct all your business ethically with our new policy

The new deck adds the benefit to the readers and introduces the new policy.

3. Lead

Show, don’t tell. Leads that illustrate the point with concrete material like stories bring the point to life for readers. And they draw 300% more readers and 520% more reading, according to a split test by Alex Turnbull and the Groove HQ.

Before:

I think I’d read 520% more of this if it were 15% more colorful.

After:

Just a light touch of detail makes this piece more engaging, puts the reader in the story and brings the message to life.

4. Nut graph

Put the story into a nutshell in the second paragraph. Don’t drop the deck: 95% of web page visitors read the deck, so it’s a key element for communicating to skimmers and other nonreaders in a hurry.

Before:

I’m sure this is all true, but it doesn’t define the story and move it forward. I’d consider this background rather than a nut graph.

After:

Here, we make the story snappier and get that policy link up among the first four elements.

Now test it.

Now email those first four elements to yourself and test them on your smartphone.

Can you get the gist of the story from the first four elements? If so, congratulations! You pass the 1-2-3-4 test.

The post Get content above the fold on mobile appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..