Enrollment Marketing for Higher Education

Shaun Fitzpatrick, on right, shares her expertise with Volt at this spring's CUPRAP conference.

You want your higher ed website to do two things: make prospects feel like they belong, and give them the information they need to apply and enroll.

Design plays a huge role in supporting the user experience. But your copy is also integral to good UX. Using clear, plain language on your website can help users better navigate and understand the information on your site. Here’s how it works.

Understanding how users make decisions

Let’s start with the concept of satisficing. Satisficing (satisfy + suffice) is a decision-making strategy and information-seeking behavior. Some refer to this as “information foraging.”

Users search for just enough information to make a decision, even if that decision isn’t ideal. Once they find enough information for their purpose, they stop reading to prevent information overload. On average, a user spends less than a minute on a page. Sometimes they spend as little as 10 seconds or less.

This means that we need to make key information as easy to find and understand as possible. If we don’t, users won’t remain on our webpage or perform the actions we want them to take.

That’s where plain language comes in.

How plain language benefits users

Plain language is clear, straightforward writing that helps you connect with audiences of many different reading and education levels.

Using plain language benefits users by:

• Requiring less cognitive effort to read
• Making it easier to remember important information
• Improving comprehension
• Helping to avoid misunderstandings or errors
• Improving time on tasks, success and satisfaction

The principles of plain language

So, how do we use plain language in practice?

1. Use words familiar to readers
   Make sure you aren’t relying too heavily on internal or industry jargon. This can be confusing or even alienating to users. It’s important to find a  balance between using appropriate industry phrasing with copy your average user will understand.
2. Avoid expressions, puns and idioms
   We all love a good pun. But you likely have a wide audience, and they may not all understand your humor or expressions. Is there a chance your users’ first language may not be English? Could they not be the right age to recognize certain slang? When in doubt, don’t use them!
3. Write in the active voice
   Using the active voice makes your content more direct and engaging. Users can quickly and easily understand the subject of the sentence and what they’re being asked to do.
4. Be concise
   I’m about to tell you something you don’t want to hear: Users only read about 20-28% of the words on a page. Ouch! That means it’s important not to bog down your important information with a lot of excess words.
5. Use subheadings, bullets and bolded text
   Subheadings, bullets and bolding help users find important information quickly. They increase scanning and reading ease, especially on mobile.

Best practices in readability

Readability stats measure how easy your writing is to read. These are typically based off the Flesch-Kincaid model. Readability tools look at factors like reading ease score, reading grade level and use of passive voice.

Checking your readability is easy. Microsoft Word has built-in readability statistics, and other tools like Hemingway can provide this information for you.

Best practices in readability include:

• 15-20 words per sentence
• Reading ease higher than 50
• Grade level around 8-10

Plain language supports all audiences

I often hear, “But my audience is highly educated! Why should I use plain language or a high school reading level with them?”

Studies have shown that even professionals prefer to read below their reading level, especially when being asked to process information and make decisions. Just because someone can read at a college or even post-grad level doesn’t mean that they want to! These users are still looking for the same clarity and accessibility as anyone else.

You can make your web copy accessible to your audience while still showing off your expertise. Get in touch with Paskill to learn how we can help you create a website that speaks to every segment of your audience.