Bit Literacy - Mark Hurst [35]
Two concepts are useful to know here: frontloading and structure.
Frontloading the content
Frontloading could also be called “first things first”: always deliver the point of the message as early as possible. This guideline can be applied to any bit-type, but the most relevant is e-mail. Recipients have an overabundance of e-mail messages, with new ones constantly arriving, so it’s especially important when writing an e-mail to frontload the point of the message. Practicing this concept in e-mail will then translate naturally to any other bits you create.
When an e-mail arrives in the inbox, the first thing the user sees is the Subject line. If the Subject line is not empathetic to the recipient’s scarce time and attention, it might be the only part of the e-mail he reads before moving on to the next message. To maximize the chance that he’ll read the body of the message, the sender should frontload the content. This starts with writing a Subject line that is fully descriptive, as early as possible, and is as short as possible.
For example, consider this Subject line:
Subject: Everything you need to know about the upcoming meetings in Chicago
Even though the Subject is descriptive as a whole, it’s “backloaded”; the reader can only get the point of it by reading all eleven words. Rewriting the Subject to frontload it, we get:
Subject: Chicago meetings: schedule, agenda, directions
This revised Subject is more descriptive with fewer words. It frontloads the most descriptive text (“Chicago meetings”), and only then moves on to secondary items (“schedule, agenda, directions”).
The content in the body of an e-mail should also be frontloaded. It should plainly state the point of the message early on—usually in the first sentence after the greeting—and be as short as possible. In other words:
State the most important idea first.
State the second most important idea second.
If there’s a third most important idea, consider whether it needs to be in the message at all.
End the message as soon as possible.
The length of an e-mail is important. The less time a message takes to read, the more likely it is to be read.20 This also means avoiding e-mail attachments if possible. Writing the entire message in the body of an e-mail allows the recipient to see it all in one place, instead of having to open a separate application. (Attachments are discussed further in the file formats chapter.)
Similarly, when sending a news clipping, as discussed in the media diet chapter, it’s best to send the entire text of the article along with the URL, instead of just the URL with no descriptive language. Even though that lengthens the e-mail, it’s easier for the user to see the point of the e-mail than if they had to click the URL to see what it was about.
The hook and support
Before describing bit-literate message structure, we must define some terms. First, rather than continually mentioning “the most important idea” or “the point of the message,” which are rather wordy, I prefer “the hook.” This term is helpful shorthand for a concept that bit-literate users apply constantly while creating bits. The hook is the main idea of the entire message—in an e-mail, a presentation, or any other document. (In different contexts it may be known as the crux, the thesis, or the “nut.”) In fact, any chunk of information—a Subject line, a paragraph, a Web page—can and usually should contain a hook.
Frontloading, then, means stating the hook as soon as possible. And then the message should end as soon as possible. But there’s a step missing. What happens between the hook and the end of the message? The missing piece is the “support,” which is any information needed to explain or back up the hook. A support might be necessary, for example, if the hook is provocative, requiring the reader to be convinced of its validity, or if the hook is obscure or for any reason needs clarification