Get Results By Keeping It Simple

The Marketing Profs newsletter reported this week on a recent Neuromarketing blog regarding typeface and likelihood of customers to provide the information you seek. In the blog, Roger Dooley writes, “you will be more successful if you describe the task in a simple, easy to read typeface.” he reasons that when something can be completed in a shorter amount of time, people are more likely to comply with the request - and less complex fonts create the impression that it will go more quickly.

Dooley cites research by Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz, who asked two groups to estimate the amount of time required for identical exercise regimens. The first group read instructions in Arial—a simple, streamlined font:



The second group viewed a more complex, brush font:



Guess which group estimated the regimen would take longer? Winner, winner chicken dinner to those who guessed the second - 15.1 minutes vs. 8.2 minutes for the first regimen.

The moral of the story, of course, is to keep it simple. Not just in what you say, but in the way you say it. Complicated fonts mean complicated process to the consumer. The less time they perceive they need to spend, the more likely you will be to get them to sign up.