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Killer Web Content Examples

Out of 18 choices, why does one piece of content get 49 percent of the vote while another gets 0 percent?

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. The subject areas were:

• 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 percent)
• Poison found in pet food (30 percent)
• $3 software for developing countries (23 percent)
• Flying off the shelves (31 percent)

BOTTOM HEADINGS

• Apple’s Music Store breaks the mould and sells technology (0 percent)
• Rodent poison found in now-recalled pet food blamed for animal deaths (0 percent)
• Three-Dollar Windows for Govt-Subsidized Student Computers… (0 percent)
• ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ sells 2.6 million copies in 24 hours (0 percent)

TOP SUMMARIES

• 99 cents per download, no restrictions. One million tracks sold online in one week encouraging sign for ailing music industry. Apple … (49 percent)
• 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 percent)
• Microsoft plans to offer a US$3 stripped-down package of Windows, Office and other software to people in developing … (34 percent)
• 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 percent)

BOTTOM SUMMARIES

• The music industry owes a lot to technology. But the new millennium has brought slumping sales. Technology now terrifies music executives … (0 percent)
• 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 percent)
• 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 percent)
• Cash tills around the world rang to the tune of Harry Potter over the weekend and the seventh and final book in the … (0 percent)

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 website 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.

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Gerry McGovern, a content management author and consultant, has spoken, written and consulted extensively on writing for the web and web content management issues since 1994.