Last year, a friend sent a newsletter to his customers containing a 92-word sentence. That’s a really long sentence – especially for an online newsletter. He writes it himself and to be fair, he’s doing his best. But the sentence was difficult to understand and it detracted from an article that contained great information.
Next time you are tempted to write a long sentence, think again.
Here are 5 reasons to avoid using long sentences in your online marketing content.
Reason 1
Long sentences usually contain multiple ideas. As a result, readers are more likely to become confused.
Reason 2
Long sentences require more punctuation to help readers navigate the information. If you’re not confident on where to put commas, semi-colons and the like, stick to short sentences.
Reason 3
There’s more room for ambiguity in a long sentence. Conversely, short sentences are easier for readers to understand.
Reason 4
Our online reading and comprehension skills drop by 50%. That means we simply don’t have the ability to understand long, sophisticated sentences like we can when reading paper documents.
Reason 5
To compensate for our slower reading and comprehension skills, we tend to scan the screen for the information we need. Anything that looks hard or time consuming is ignored. That includes long sentences.
Looking for words that sell?
If you want to translate your marketing ideas into Words that Sell, contact Karen at Consider It Done Australia.
