« Communicating the Complex: The Art of Abstraction
Taking White Paper “Podcasts” To A New Level »

How Does “The Look” of Documents Engage Readers?

By Michael Stelzner

Can physical appearances of written documents such as white papers actually persuade?

Is it possible that certain types of formatting can engage readers?

This is the essence of a question webinar attendee Mitchell Neff recently asked me.

I am a strong believer that if something looks ugly, people will not want to approach it.

This brings me to a story:

When I was young, my dad handed me a dirty looking rock and told me to eat it. I thought he was nuts. He insisted I would love it, if I would only try it. I never did. I later learned it was rock candy. How was I to know?

The moral here is that if something does not appear to be worth someone’s time, they will never try it.

No matter how well crafted the content, the outward appearances still do matter.

So, what are some visual things that can be done to engage a reader? Do colors and formatting matter?

What say you?

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend Receive email updates when new articles are posted.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 9:34 am and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Mitchell - Great to hear! - Mike
  • Mike,
    I want to thank you for both the webinar and this discussion thread. As a BRAND new marketing manager, my first assignment was to update and refresh our whitepapers. Using the increased responses that we recieved from an fresh formatting update, I got the green light to look into other areas that needed similar treatment. Long story short- In my first 6 months out of college, I have already been charged with spearheading a complete rebranding effort including web site, communications, and marketing materials redesigns... Thanks again for peaking my interest.
  • Mitchell, thanks for sharing that! I feel validated. :] Really, what a great idea to test with a focus group. Nice!

    kk
  • I have been watching the responses to this question carefully (afterall, it was my question that started it). I decided to test the formatting theory with a focus group. The non-formatted paper score average for content value. I found that the average score for "quality of content" rose about 20% when a person read a more heavily formatted version of the same paper. How the paper looks affected how they viewed the information contained in the paper... that is all the proof I need.
  • Kristen - Great points!!! - Mike
  • Formatting is critical. If the document looks ugly or intimidating, it doesn't matter how great the content is--folks won't want to read it. Making something pretty won't hide bad content, but it will get people into good content so they can understand and, hopefully, enjoy it. The container is just as important as the content when the content is solid.
  • It seems like it depends on the interest level and amount of time available for the reader. More images and shorter is good for the busy reader who might be scanning. At the same time, a lot of visual frills might slow such a reader down. Good headings and sound visual rhetorical relationships are always good.
  • Hi Joshua;

    Thanks for your comments.

    The trick to the game is fly in circles---much like our clients do.

    For late arrivals, see http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/fun.html

    Mike
  • I guess Anna Nicole Smith breaks that theory!
  • Is "The Look" important in creating documents that move people?

    Just ask a newly wed couple.

    I mean, I have never met a young twiterpated guy that said, "She was the ugliest, most plain looking woman I ever saw... but we fell in love anyway."

    Usually it is some thing more along the lines of, "I couldn't take my eyes off of her! Then, when I got to know her, I realized she was smart, clever, fun, AND good-looking... I was sold!"

    Moral of the story... when packaging is poor, prospects plummets. ☺

    BTW... Mike, I regret to inform you that more than a dozen quality designed whitepaper planes have met an untimely and terrible demise... Thanks for the game time!
  • As a rule, I try never to have more than 3 or 4 paragraphs before I break things up with a subhead.

    I feel strongly that formatting is VERY important. ALMOST as important as quality righting (I said almost).

    Stuart - The best thing you can do is look at other papers that are well-formatted and copy their techniques. You know good formatting when you see it.

    Tom - What has some of that research suggested?

    Jonathan - Could not agree with you more!

    MIKE
  • Look and feel to a white paper is just as important as a website. Unfortunately, many companies do see the comparison.

    When a company puts out a simple "text-only", black and white white paper, they are telling their audience, "Hey, look over here -- we're just a simple, boring, technical company!"

    I'm always amazed at companies that spend thousands of dollars putting together an elaborate website, and then want the cheapest simple text white paper.
  • Direct response fiends have created a fairly sizable body of work on document readability - everything from the number of characters in a line to paragraph size, etc.

    The differences in document completion rates are surprising.

    So from that perspective, I'd say it's 100% clear that formatting will affect how much of your white paper content actually gets read.
  • Yes. Definitely. First impressions count.

    The difficulty is knowing what can be done, what works and who you can turn to for help or to do the work on your behalf.
blog comments powered by Disqus