Click! ….. And they’re gone.
The typical “Millennials” (those born in the early 1980’s to the early 2000’s) are madly clicking away. On their laptops, on their tablets, and most often, on their phones. When they’re not texting or playing on-line games, they’re surfing. Fast. Fast. Faster. What are they surfing? The millions and billions of websites. For what are they surfing? Anything and everything! So how do you get your site noticed and not merely clicked on and bounced off?
First and foremost is the need for creating a great first impression! This is far from an original idea. But… it’s a tried and true fact. If, at first look, your content has nothing to grab the “clicker’s” attention, they’ve already bounced off and on to the next site. Keeping in mind that they are most likely using mobile devices, your site has to be mobile-friendly. Since you have only a millisecond to convince them to stay, your best attention grabber is an exceptional, high quality photo or an outstanding graphic. If you combine this with a bold, colorful, easy-to-read text, the clicker may stay long enough to peruse the rest of your site.
But… will this leave out the “Baby Boomers”? No! Those who are more “mature” (the forerunners or the parents of those aforesaid “Milliennials”) are rapidly catching up. More and more are switching from their desktops to mobile devices and are click, click, clicking away along with their offspring. Although they may take more than a millisecond to decide whether or not your site is worth their time, it’s not too long before they determine to click or not to click. They, too, are heavily influenced by that first impression.
Once the user makes the decision to stay on your website, you have to keep them there. Does your content read as “Blah, blah, blah” (like Charlie Brown’s teacher)? Is it just white noise? Or more annoying, static? If so, you need to revise or…throw it out. Start over. Your text needs to be short, to the point, spell checked, grammar checked and organized, as well as informative. If the user doesn’t think your content is relative to what they’re searching for, off they bounce! And if, hopefully, they return, they don’t want to reread the same thing over and over again. They want new, fresh material – relative to their needs.
So how do you make your website go from “BOR….Ring!”to “WOW!”? Make that first impression bold and loud enough to stop their clicking. Only then will they stay long enough to determine whether or not your site has what it takes to convert.
Fascinating Facts:
“While Millennials were not the highest in usage of mobile phones and smartphones, the study found them to have the highest usage of social media. Eight-four percent of Millennials are social media users, with 66% of Gen X on social networks and 44% of Baby Boomers. According to the study, more than half of the U.S. users on Twitter are Millennials.” Carolyn Cohen, How Do Millennials Behave On Social, Mobile, And The Web?
89% of seniors 65+ have personal email and use it regularly (Nielsen).72% of baby boomers have broadband Internet in their homes (ThirdAge and JWT Boom). 36% of adults 50+ own a Smartphone (Pew). 44% of Smartphone owners age 50+ access the Internet or check email daily from their device (Pew). (2020 Updated: Fact was from Immersion Active, but web page is no longer active.)
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