Articles

August 2012

What Great Magazine Editors Can Teach You about Websites

Graydon Carter, Rick Stengel & Jane Berentston are each award-winning editors (Vanity Fair, Time and Inc. Magazine, respectively). Although magazines and websites are different, I have to wonder, if a magazine can cause you to stop, look, read and buy, why do so many companies fail to look to them for marketing inspiration?

Typically business websites address the—who, what, when, where, why and how, but miss the most important ingredient of all—the sizzle. Perhaps some businesses are just too insular. While they may look to the competition for ideas, they miss finding true inspiration by not looking outside the box.

Magazines covers and articles provide great examples for how to move a website from boring to engaging. Editors, photographers and headline writers have been mastering their craft for years. The skills they use to engage and sell are exactly what every website strives to achieve.  

If you are ready to move your website from a yawn to a wow, here are five simple, failsafe tricks that I learned from magazines, and have used successfully with clients for years:

The Cover

A magazine cover is the equivalent of the website home page.  The next time you pass a magazine that catches your eye and practically begs you to pick it up at the checkout stand, stop and ask yourself what just happened. What drew you in? Chances are it was two simple techniques: a great photo and an enticing headline. Unlike your business website, the magazine cover did not try to tell too much of the story. Instead, the combination of bold visuals and multiple, large, interesting headlines were crafted to tempt you to read more. Admittedly, this is easier said than done on a website. The trick is to take the time to know what interests your audience. Once you know this, you can focus home page content and visuals on doing one thing–hooking their interest to capture their attention. When you do this, they will not be able to resist the temptation to click into the site for more.

The Art of Storytelling

Magazine content is interesting because every article is a story. Readers can quickly peruse the table of contents and select what interests them. Websites often forget this part of human nature and bury great content in deep, obscure areas. The hope is that readers will find it when they read every page. Unfortunately, visitors do not engage that way.  We want to be enticed and we want skim. Websites need to copy the magazine model and deliver a collection of stories. Too often business websites present facts, features and benefits, without the framework of a story. Worse yet, blocks and blocks of uninterrupted copy, prevent visitors from easily discovering what interests them. The trick magazines use to address this is to frame a story with creative headlines, subheads and pull quotes so readers can quickly discern their interest.

 Headlines, Subheads and Pull Quotes

Think of headlines, subheads and pull quotes (HSPQ) as the cliff notes of the story you want to tell. Using the HSPQ technique is the greatest gift a business can give their website visitors. The first step is to know what story your “page” needs to tell. Once your story is clear, follow these rules:  Use the headline as the hook to engage your reader. Break up copy blocks with subheads that—when read alone—provide the context of the story. Finally, use pull quotes to highlight the most interesting facts, stats and details of the story. The pull quotes, if read alone, should pique the readers interest enough to engage and read more. For those of us who never read a full page of copy, the headline, subheads and pull quotes we do read should provide the gist of the message.

 Visuals

Humans are visuals creatures and too often websites forget this. At minimum, every page of the website should include a compelling visual. Ideally, the visuals will echo the story we want to tell. Think about it. What magazine articles have you read that didn’t have an interesting visual? As a rule, use the show and tell principal. Whenever possible try to “show” what you want to communicate first, and then “tell” the story.

Courting Comments

Magazines have mastered the art of making their readers feel famous. Who hasn’t, after writing a letter to the editor, rushed out to get the next magazine issue to see if it was printed? Editors understand this. Letters show that readers are engaged. Beyond a static “contact us” page, does your website try to interact with visitors? Does it court comments on your blog, video, images, products and services? If not, think about how limiting the learning is compared to if your site sought commentary everywhere. Counting visitors and page views is only the tip of the iceberg. People want to share and like knowing how to interact publicly. You’ll learn more about what visitors want, and they’ll feel connected when their comments show up.

If you have any doubt about the ability of these techniques to work, the next time a magazine at the checkout stand compels you to stop, read and buy, take the time to figure out why.