Does Content “Below the Fold” Kill Customer Engagement?

Is your Customer Engagement Level Being Affected by the Fold?

Since OpenView has launched the OpenView Labs site and is currently working on redesigning our main site, I have been thinking a lot about the idea of content “below the fold”.

There seems to be two schools of thought on this topic:

• Of course it matters – you need to grab people’s attention quickly
• It’s 2011 – people know how to scroll…it’s OK!

I recently posted this question on LinkedIn Answers since customer engagement is a key indicator of success in any content marketing program. After all, your content development efforts must be engaging to your audience. Here is what the experts had to say:

Holly Berberich, Marketing Manager and Project Manager | Executes Profitable Marketing Campaigns 

I think that regardless of the page, you need to have great headlines above the fold that properly target your audience and *keep* them on the page so that they will scroll. It’s 2011 and most people know that they can scroll, it’s a matter of capturing their attention right when they hit the page.

That being said, the best thing to do is to test. Sure, you may have a major overhaul of your website, but a site is not static – you can consistently update and improve it. Test with moving content above and below the fold or creating shorter and longer pages, and see which gets better results. In any content marketing strategy for any company, it is important to always test whether “below the fold” matters for your target audience or not. For some it may not matter!

Janna Hartley, Creative meets analytical: Graphic Designer with marketing MBA

I think it is still necessary to keep important information near the top. However, ppl are more likely to scroll these days…possibly due to the emergence and prevalence of blogs. I recently read that the most clicked link on TMZ.com is well below the “fold” at the bottom of the page. Additionally, research has shown that users are scrolling to the bottom, and that 76% of page-views with a scroll bar were scrolled to some extent.

Carl Diamond, Owner at Diamond Website Conversion

Keep in mind that new visitors are notoriously impatient. Depending on whose research you believe, you either have 3 seconds, or 4 to 7 seconds to engage them, so they will make the next ’30 second’ commitment to further engage.

As website visitors have become more sophisticated, they have not only become more impatient, but also more demanding.

One of the reasons they can make a decision so quickly is, when they arrive, they are not trying to figure out whether or not to do business with you, but only whether or not to stay or go. They can do this in a nanosecond.

We are in an era when new visitors pull up multiple websites at the same time and click on the one that engages them, or answers the question they came to the website with. Let’s say that someone pulls up multiple websites. Let’s also say that each of the websites is perfectly clear (a real stretch) about what they do. Now let’s say that only one of them has a great Unique Value Proposition (why should I do business with you instead of your competitors?) Scrolling, shmolling, guess who gets the visitor engagement?

If your website is crystal-clear about “What can I do, buy or get here?” and you have a great UVP . . . yes, they will scroll. In the absence of these, this is what you will get: a high bounce rate.

Polina Tarnopolsky, Principal User Interface, Information Architect & Usability Consultant at Idea Group

Only very important information that you want the user to receive immediately (eye-level and all). Otherwise you got the right idea… know your audience – if they read blogs and your site is a blog or blog-related (or the type where user is used to long pages) your audience will not have any issues with the fold-line nor care about it.

BTW: Given the latest studies, screen sizes and etc… unless its a marketing related material or specifically designed type of information the “below-the-fold” rule is outdated in 2011.

Paul M. Allen, Owner, PMA Technology Group

Out of sight – out of mind ! I would agree with those who suggest that what is visible on the opening screen is critical. You need to get the visitor’s attention and capture his/her interest immediately or the oportunity could easily be lost.

What many seem to forget or ignore is that a website is a publication and that over time, nothing has changed in respect to design philosophy. Take you cues from what you see when you walk by a newsstand. The front page sells the product!
Do you have anything to add to this content marketing debate?