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Keeping it Simple
(Article Contributed By Marie, of Sex Story Text - Posted on July 26th, 2010)
Well after spending the last four days away ... most of it traveling I have to say that I hope I don't see another billboard for quite some time. Unfortunately I already know that we're going to be back on the road in two weeks time for another long trip but hopefully by then I'll be over my billboard overdose.
So why am I talking about billboards on a site that deals with selling adult products online? Could there really be any common ground shared by the designers of billboard advertising and web advertising?
Well actually there is quite a bit of common ground that we share with the designers of billboard advertising and even though I have talked about it in the past it's certainly worth looking at again.
There are a lot of lessons that we can learn from what we see on billboards and, because billboards are everywhere, everyone is going to learn a little bit every time we head downtown ... go for a drive to get out of the city or just head off on a road trip to visit family.
So what is the common ground that we share with those who design billboard advertising? Well for a start there's time ... especially if the billboard is going to be out of the city.
Depending on the speed zones around where the billboard will be located a designer may only have as little as a second or two to get their message through the eyeballs of the people who are in the passing cars.
For webmasters there are the same constraints with time. We might only have a few seconds to get our message through the eyeballs and into the brains of surfers as they scan through a website looking for the content that will interest them. So how do we get the message across in the shortest possible time?
Short messages
So what does a good designer of billboard marketing do? He keeps his message short ... how many words can you read in just a few seconds while there are a myriad of things around you that are all competing for your attention?
At the same time he has to use something ... whether it's a word or an image ... that will capture the attention of those who are whizzing past and make them want to spend a few more split seconds looking at his message.
It's the same with us ... a single word that appeals to their imagination or has some power over them will stop a surfer in their tracks and they'll spend a few more split seconds looking at your message.
Simple graphics
So as you're sitting in a car doing 60 miles per hour how long do you think you have to take in a lot of detail on a billboard? The answer is: not much. That means that there's no point having too much detail in the graphics because people won't see them on a billboard.
It's the same for a website ... keep the graphics simple and they will have far more impact than one that's full of intricate patterns, shades and tones. Strong, simple colors are going to have far more impact than a lot of shading and pastel tones.
Simple layout
One of my favorite billboards ... yes, even after nearly 2000 miles spent on the road in the last four days and thousands of billboards that flashed before my eyes I do have a favorite ... is one that we have passed probably 50 times in the last year or so.
It consists of just three images and a single line of text that displays a website's URL. The three images tell the story and the URL both supports the images and tells people where to go to find the information they need. Not only is the URL short but the two words that are joined for the URL are very firmly focused on what the billboard and the website want to sell.
Contrast that with a relatively new billboard that we have probably passed four times in the last month. It's packed with words and images ... most of which you can't see clearly until you're about to pass the board ... and a URL that's in a color that contrasts poorly with the background.
It's so hard to see that it wasn't until yesterday that I actually noticed the URL and even then it was so long and not terribly focused on the product the business wants to sell that I had to scribble it down as we went past or I would have forgotten it by the time we got home.
Now look at the layout of your web pages. Are they simple or are they so jumbled that surfers are going to skip over them rather than take in the marketing message?
That's all I've got time for today but there are quite a few more lessons that billboards can teach us. All you have to do to learn those lessons is drive around with your eyes and your brain open.
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