3 Ways Less Content Means More to Your Audience

I made a surprising observation on my last trip to the grocery store.

For certain brands, it cost less to buy a 2-liter bottle of soda than a smaller, single serving of the same cocktail of carbonated water and high fructose corn syrup. Spring water? Contain your astonishment: it also comes cheaper in large size.

Armed with awareness of this sobering paradox, who would be foolish enough to pay a premium for less product? Why aren’t more of us slinging barrels of Poland Spring to the gym and laughing all the way to the bank?

Of course, there’s a reasonable explanation for this particular contradiction. For starters, I can’t comfortably carry a gallon of water in my hand during a workout (not until after I hit the weights, anyway). Abdominal limitations are a factor. The store also keeps 20-ounce bottles nicely chilled while their larger siblings sweat it out at room temperature in aisle 5. Contrary to our instincts, there’s often greater value in having less of something. 

Turns out, the same principle also applies to content. As a content creator ― a writer, blogger, photographer, musician ― you have prodigious stockpiles of your own Mountain Dew. More to the point, there are members of your audience who would jump at the chance to pay more (in dollars, subscriptions, pageviews, eyeballs or ears) if you would only offer them less.

In our role as custom content experts, we continually look to identify these opportunities. By making use of existing content in shrewd ways (and sometimes even saving work in the process) your readership or fans will reward you. What’s not to like?

Here are a few examples of this idea in practice ― less, after all, is more.

1. Ease digestion

Are you a prolific writer who churns out columns on the hour? Your die-hard fans will be thrilled, but casual visitors might get overwhelmed and lose interest if they can’t keep up.

Follow the lead of tech news site Ars Technica and consider posting weekly summaries to draw in readers with limited time or attention. Ars’ digest posts (such as “Week in Apple”) make it painless to catch up with several days of headlines in one shot.

Likewise, experiment with the length of your offerings. There’s a place for essays and half-hour videos, no question ― but is that place your blog or video channel? Try publishing bite-sized content to find the sweet spot for your audience. Analytics (and feedback from your regular users) can help you discover the ideal format.

2. Curate your creations

Just as “best-of” albums attract casual music fans who might shy away from an artist’s regular catalog, you should make sure to show off a prominent selection of your strongest content. Left without guidance, some users feel like patrons at a restaurant with too many menu choices.

Even if your latest blog post isn’t one of your classics, you can offer new visitors a dozen reasons to stick around and become a regular. Indie music site Pitchfork, tech industry blog TechCrunch and (ahem) the blog you’re currently reading all take this approach: each displays its most popular posts in a dedicated area on the right side of the page.

3. Make sure it fits in a pocket

The early years of the web were marked by rapid advances in sophistication. As quickly as computer hardware and Internet connections rose to the challenge, web sites piled on images, multimedia and increasingly complex features to match.

Smartphones and tablets have abruptly reversed this trend: webmasters are now hurrying to tailor their sites to a burgeoning audience carrying devices with small screens, touch interfaces and mercurial data connections. Users are warming to the idea of paying a premium at services like Spotify, Rdio and Hulu for mobile access to content that’s often a humble version of the original.

Simplified content and a core set of features are exactly what mobile users are seeking while on the go. By adapting your content for nomadic visitors ― for example, with a slimmed-down, mobile-friendly web site or app ― you’ll capture the attention of a readership that’s on course to overtake stationary users in the not-so-distant future.

[Image: LOLren]

What techniques have you used to help your content reach an audience hungry for less?