How do you feel about "read more" links? There's a weighty question to ponder on a summer afternoon. I've been thinking a lot about this question as I'm working with clients who are just starting their newsletters. There are pros and cons.
ProOn the plus side, "read more" links help
keep newsletters short, which is especially good for people looking at them on mobile devices. Just the first paragraph of an article is included and then the reader is directed to another page for the full article. With
Constant Contact that page can be located on your Web site or uploaded to the
Constant Contact library as either a Word document or a .pdf.
Another plus is that
the clicks are "tracked" so you can see which articles interest your readers and you can give them more of that.
ConOn the minus side,
people need to take one more action and click the link. They might just not bother, whereas if the whole article is right in front of them (and it's relatively short), people might actually read to the end.
My biggest objection is that you're
asking readers to read the first paragraph twice. Why? Because you've put the full article on the jump page and they need to figure out where they left off reading from the original newsletter. This frustrates me and I figure others as well. I've done some research and haven't found a way around this.
And
it's more work. You have to create the full article, put it where the reader will jump to and then put in the opening paragraph.
I have a hunch that
preferences on this subject are determined by generation. Younger people don't mind links and prefer things to be really short. The older generation is OK with something a little longer and is less inclined to take the extra step of clicking. But after some effort, I've not found any evidence online that this is the case.
Love to have your thoughts on the topic.
Please be in touch.