The ROI of Readability
How Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Readability
come together to deliver high quality content
2The ROI of
Readability
1• Introduction
2• The ROI Of Readability
3• The Science Behind Our Measures
4• Where We Fit In / Everywhere You Write
5• Conclusion
3
According to research done by the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, the #1 challenge faced by
content marketers today is “producing engaging content” – a staggering 60% of those surveyed said.1
This should not come as a surprise – content that consistently engages audiences is essentially the “endgame” for
most content marketers. Whether it’s responding to a Call to Action (CTA), filling out a particular form, or sparking
interest in your company – your content exists to engage.
Of the various ingredients that make up a highly engaging piece of content, one gets oft ignored: readability.
One definition of readability is "the language you use, the length of your sentences and your use of grammar“2 - and
not surprisingly, these aspects could actually be getting in the way of your audience enjoying and engaging with
your content.
With regard to B2B content marketing, we find that readability plays a crucial role in how successful a piece of
content could potentially be. Optimizing readability for content can dramatically impact conversion rates as well as
SEO rankings - thereby improving your visibility.3
We created Atomic AI to address this very issue - how does one determine what the readability of a piece of content
should be? With the platform we wanted to address the various complex challenges that face modern content
creators and provide them with an all-in-one solution that assisted them throughout the content creation process.
Chapter 1:Introduction
4
There has been a plethora of research around
the concept of readability. These focus mostly
on printed physical content for mediums such
as magazines, newspapers and print ads.
With the rise of the internet, and businesses’
use of it, more content is now available
exclusively online. Unsurprisingly, the metrics
related to digital written content differs from
their physical counterpart – and we are only
beginning to learn more about those
differences. There are, however, many
similarities between the two as well.
According to George Klare, readability can be
defined as “the ease of understanding or
comprehension due to the style of writing.”4 It
can also be defined as measuring “the
complexity of the words and sentence
structure in a piece of content.”5
Chapter 2:The ROI of Readability
5
Continued interest in readability has led to the creation of various formulae to determine the readability
of text. The most often used is the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease scale, developed by Rudolf Flesch and
J. Peter Kincaid in 1975 in conjunction with the US Navy.
The reason for this project was to ensure that technical manuals pertaining to essential job functions
were written in a way that could be easily understood by servicemen, no matter their level of education.
The formula was proven to be effective and was soon adopted as a military standard in 1978.6
In 2010, President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act - the law requires that federal agencies use
“clear Government communication that the public can understand and use.” This further underscores
the rising importance of readability in our everyday lives.
Although there are many readability formulae out there, a general theme can be deciphered. Using
shorter words and sentences reduces the reading level of the piece of content and in turn increases the
speed and reduces the difficulty in reading.
Brian Scott, a contributing writer for Lousy Writer, summarizes reasons why introducing a readability
formula or test for content creation in a business environment is a good idea.7
His first point states that most Americans (and other English speakers as well) have limited reading
ability. Writing in plain English is the best way to mitigate this issue – ensuring that the widest portion of
your potential audience will be able to understand it.
Using shorter words and sentences reduces the reading level
of the piece of content and in turn increases the speed and
reduces the difficulty in reading.
6
Another reason to use a readability formula is that if
the text is not understood, all your hard work in
creating it will be wasted and the very point of the
piece of content will be defeated. This is especially
true for critical tasks, such as those in a military or
health and safety context. Productivity could be
negatively impacted, and may lead to bodily harm or
critical errors on the part of the employee.
By using a readability test, organizations can save
“time and money that you might have wasted in
writing a complicated document”7 that doesn’t provide
value to your target audience. By producing an
unreadable text, you drive up costs as the text now
needs to be re-written to better suit your target
audience.
Furthermore, studies have shown that reading difficult
text can negatively impact the mood and psychology
of the reader. This will drive down their engagement
with your content, potentially resulting in the loss of a
sale or lead. You can increase retention,
understanding and speed of reading by ensuring the
content is at the correct readability level.
Another benefit of carefully considering the readability
of your content, especially web copy and blog
content, is the indirect impact it has on SEO. Search
engines don’t strictly measure the readability of a
page – rather, many search engines are looking at
the behavior of visitors on the page in question.
Factors such as time spent, exit rate, social signals
and bounce rate are looked at by SEO. By writing to
the correct readability level, you are also improving
audience behavior on the page, thereby helping the
page rank higher.8
The easier something is to read, the longer the reader
will stick around and consume the content. Your goal
is that they get enough information to click on a CTA
or interact with your brand. Contrast this to a page
that is heavily populated with industry terms, jargon
and long-winded sentences and paragraphs. The
reader may get frustrated by the fact that they are not
getting the information they need quickly enough –
they’ll close the page shortly after landing and
negatively impact your exit rate.
Paul Allen’s preliminary research from 2009 showed
that pages that had an easier readability level
generally ranked higher than their more complex
counterparts The average score for first page was 55
(10-12th grade reading level), whereas the second
page averaged around 40 (college reading level).9
This is great evidence to support the importance how
readability impacts the popularity and visibility of
content.
Gleanster Research claims that “$0.25 of every dollar
spent on content marketing in the average mid-to-
large B2B firm is wasted on inefficient content
operations.”10 At Atomic Reach, we believe that the
lion’s share of those 25 cents comes as a result of
content marketers failing to recognize the importance
of the readability of their content. By ignoring the fact
that a portion of their audience is unable to fully
understand their content, organizations are severely
handicapping the potential for engagement.
Readability is at the forefront of the Atomic AI
platform - we recognize the importance of writing to
your audience, as opposed to writing at your
audience. Not only is it important to have a great
subject or topic for your content, but the complexity of
how you put your ideas forth is also crucial.
The following chapter will delve into the some of the
measures Atomic AI analyzes to ensure that the
readability and overall quality is optimized for your
unique audience.
7
Atomic AI takes over 20 different measures into consideration when analyzing your content. Below we will
take a look at some of the most important factors that should be considered when creating a piece of content.
Chapter 3:Our Measures and The Science Behind Atomic AI
8
Readability
Unsurprisingly, readability is
one of the major measures we
look at while analyzing content.
We used the Flesch-Kincaid
reading ease scale as our base
and we modified it to suit digital
content as opposed to print.
Under the umbrella term of
readability, we are also looking
at the components of written
content - sentence length, word
length, word count and
paragraph density.
The Flesch-Kincaid scale takes
the amount of syllables in a
word and the amount of words
in a sentence as a
measurement for readability.
This implies that shorter words
and sentence equate to an
easier read. In addition, we
found readers of online content
scan text as opposed to actually
reading it all – so it is essential
to make sure that the text is
easy to digest when scanned.
Lowering the readability level
would make this much easier
for the reader.
Paragraph Density
The length of a paragraph
greatly impacts a reader’s ability
to enjoy and understand a piece
of content. Christopher Coake,
a professor of English at the
University of Nevada states that
“paragraph length is one tool (of
many) that a creative writer can
use to speed up/slow down a
reader’s path through a piece.” 11
This is especially true for online
audiences; concise and to the
point paragraphs extract very
little effort from readers. This is
essential if you consider the fact
that readers are now consuming
your content on smartphones
and tablets more often. No one
likes scrolling through large
walls of text – it’s exhausting
and demands too much
attention from the reader. This
leads to a reader that is easily
bored, overwhelmed, or both,
resulting in them disengaging
and navigating away from your
content.
Although no rules exist to
govern the ideal length of
paragraphs in online content, it
is safe to assume that readers
consistently prefer it to be short.
Conversely, content that
contains too many short
paragraphs can also chop up
the flow of your ideas, proving
to be too distracting to the
reader. Striking the balance is
essential and requires some
trial and error.
Readability: “the ease of understanding or comprehension due
to the style of writing.”
9
Emotion
Emotional language can greatly impact how engaged a reader is with your content. Viral content is a good
example of this – written in a way that ramps up the emotional intensity, it elicits a reaction or feeling in the
reader that compels them to share it.
Political content with a bias (left wing vs right wing news) will write about the same event in wildly different
ways. Depending on what the event it, a conservative website will report on it in a way that perhaps shows it in
a positive light whereas a liberal news site will “spin” it in a negative way. Using strong emotional words will
essentially tell the readers how to feel about the event. The more emotional the wording, the more influenced
the reader will be.
The recent coverage on the impact of “fake news” further solidifies the impact a highly emotional piece of
content can have on readers. Regardless of how preposterous the claims are, if written in a highly emotional
manner, it can sway the opinions of the reader. The emotionality of it sometimes will outweigh the logic, and
this can be a dangerous thing. Consider some of the dictators of our past – most were excellent orators and
speakers that really focused on using language that they knew would elicit a particular reaction.
Title Optimization
Article title optimization has been around for a long time due to its importance to SEO. The better optimized a
title, the higher the chance that it will appear near the top of search results. But it’s not enough to simply write
for SEO purposes, because in the end it’s the user that has to be compelled to click and read.
Based on our research of over 1 million blog posts, we have found various characteristics that constitute a high
performing title.
One of the most effective ways to compel a reader to click is to include numbers in the title. Listicles are very
popular because they indicate to the reader that there is potentially a lot of value in the post that they are about
to click on. They also indicate that the information will be displayed in an easily digestible manner (a list), which
is much easier to digest than a long winded article that makes the same points.
Another great technique is to posit the article title as a question. This works because it creates a connection
between the writer and reader, and may appeal to them personally in that context. One must be careful to not
create the title in a way that may be construed as “clickbait”. This would only anger the reader who feels like
they just wasted their time for very little payoff.
Using emotional words is also a good way to compel readers to click, but once again be wary to not overdo it
as it may stray close to clickbait territory as well.
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Content Uniqueness
Content uniqueness is also a factor that determines your SEO strength, especially in the context of
content marketing. How unique your content is strongly determines the overall “content quality” on your
website, thereby having a better chance of ranking higher in Google SERPs.
Dean Evans describes content uniqueness as “how original the words, phrases and paragraphs in your
articles are.”12 In plain terms, unique content is the primary reason someone would actually visit your
website - if there are dozens of other sites with the exact same content as yours, then why would
someone pick your website over another?
Google recognizes this and determines that unique, relevant content is a characteristic that would
constitute a “good” website. Google, and other search engines want to prevent the first 3 or 4 results to
contain identical information, therefore will filter these duplicates out to ensure that each result provides
the user with different information.13
“If there were dozens of other sites with the exact same
content as yours, then why would someone pick your
website over another?”
11
As our product evolves, so do the many ways in which you can use it.
Initially we were heavily focused on blogging, thereby limiting the ways in which a user could take advantage
of our platform. On numerous occasions, our users would ask us if it could be possible to use the same
underlying technology but apply it to a myriad of different content sources.
Below we outline the different ways you can use the Atomic AI writing platform for your marketing assets, and
where we fit in during your content creation workflow.
Chapter 4:Everywhere you write – Where Atomic AI fits in
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Web Copy Optimization
One application that was frequently requested by
clients was to be able to get an analysis on the
various linguistic aspects of a particular web page -
homepage, about us, product overview, etc. Clients
wanted to learn if there was a pattern or trend in the
way their web copy was written in regards to tone,
complexity and consistency.
Starting off with complexity, the importance is
apparent when it is understood that readers
disengage if they don’t quite understand what they
are reading. If the complexity of your product
overview page is way above your average reader’s
head, that’s a sure fire way to ensure that they
navigate away from that page in search of simpler
description elsewhere. This might take them to a
competitor’s website, thereby costing you a
potential sale.
For example, let’s take a look at the company
Cisco. Their network hardware solutions target 2
distinct groups; enterprise consumers and retail
consumers. The enterprise consumers would be
interested in Cisco’s line of enterprise level server
solutions, whereas the retail consumer would be
much more interested in Cisco’s home router
offerings.
If a network admin is tasked with making a shortlist
of potential solutions for their office, they will begin
by learning more on Cisco’s website. It is safe to
say that the admin knows his/her stuff, so it would
be a blunder to not include all the nitty gritty details
of what makes your enterprise solution worthwhile.
The admin would not shy away from highly
technical content, in fact they would relish it as it
saves them the task of finding this information
elsewhere. The readability of this particular page or
section of the website would be highly complex, as
this is the level that most resonates with potential
customers.
Furthermore, writing at a lower complexity level
may signal to the reader that your company lacks
credibility, or is glossing over facts and features
that may not be that great by only using words such
as “fast” or “efficient” to describe the hardware.
With engagement data, the platform is able to learn what level
of complexity, specific terms and the overall complexity
resonates best with your audience.
13
In contrast, consider average Joe - he just moved out of his parent’s place and wants to get a decent WiFi
router for his one bedroom apartment. All he really cares about is watching Netflix, playing Xbox and making
sure his tablet, laptop and smartphone all connect to the network. A quick internet search has brought him to
Cisco’s line of home routers. If the copy on these pages was written in the same highly technical way as their
enterprise solutions, Joe will get flummoxed and go search elsewhere for similar products.
A better idea would be to write in much simpler terms - referencing common problems and features that these
types of users are looking for. For example, they could advertise the router as “perfect for Netflix and Chill”, “
amazing lag-free gaming” and “connect multiple devices.”
Although both approaches are saying the same thing, the difference is night and day. It is therefore extremely
important to pay attention to your audience, and the level of understanding that they are likely to have in
regards to all of your products and product lines.
With the new Atomic AI platform, analyzing your web copy becomes possible. Intelligent recommendations are
provided within your CMS so actionable edits can be made to improve the optimization of the written content.
Equipped with your engagement data, the platform is able to learn what level of complexity, specific terms and
the overall complexity resonates best with your audience.
An additional service offered, the Atomic Audit, will take a look at all of your web copy assets and provide you
with a deep level of analysis on its readability. Learn if a certain section of your website is written at a higher
readability level compared to a another. This will give you a better understanding of the distribution of your
content, and will give an indication of what areas need more attention.
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Business Email Optimization
When looking at the most effective outbound lead sources – email marketing still reigns supreme.
Although the marketing world has moved on to prioritizing content, social media, and mobile marketing
as new sources of outbound leads– email marketing still outperforms them by miles.14
The first challenge is getting the receiver of the email to actually open it. This means your subject lines
need to instantly draw the reader’s attention. This is especially true when conducting campaigns on the
B2B side.
Prospects are bombarded daily with requests to try out this tool or that tool, to help them with their
marketing/sales/HR efforts. You need to somehow cut through that noise with a simple one sentence
subject line that addresses a particular pain point, emphasizes a keyword or uses words that perform.
Optimize your subject line by ensuring they are concise and informative, thereby giving the receiver a
reason to open it.15 Include characteristics that would intrigue the reader – a question or personal
statement does wonders to improve open rates. Learn what types of subject lines have worked best for
you in the past, and strive to improve on them in the future.
The first challenge is getting the receiver of the email to
actually open it. This means your subject lines need to
instantly draw the reader’s attention
15
Moving on to the body of the email – it is important to
include words that invoke some sort of emotional
response (both positive and negative, depending on
your product). Words that inspire fear, uncertainty
and doubt induce a sense of urgency in the reader –
pushing them further down the sales pipeline.
Likewise for words that invoke positive emotions – it
all depends on the product you offer.
Clarity and simplicity is also very important in the
body of the email – you must easily convey what your
product is, why it’s important and how it can address
the reader’s pain points.16
If you sell a lifestyle or luxury product, approach the
copy in a fun, light hearted manner with a tone and
easier complexity to match. Try not to overstuff the
email with industry jargon – rather, get your point
across in simple terms to easily grab their attention.
Density of the content also plays a major role in
engagement.
Picture someone on their smartphone, heading home
after a day at work. He/she receives an email from
you, is intrigued by the optimized subject line and
decides to open it. What he/she sees next is a long-
winded spiel about this product or that feature. Your
campaign email is not the place to describe every
feature of your product, or every benefit it offers – it
will never be as informative as your website.
The body of the email needs to be concise and
simple and is meant to invoke a sense of interest. If
their interest in piqued, they will click through the links
and visit your website – which is exactly what you
want.
A core aspect of the Atomic AI platform is the
Chrome extension, which is designed to go wherever
you create content - in this case a business email.
The extension will provide the same
recommendations and edits expected from Atomic AI
- available right in your inbox.
Couple this with insights gained from an Atomic Audit
looking at all sales emails and related engagement
data, and you can have everything you need to create
emails that will get higher open rates, click-throughs
and engagement.
Infographic courtesy of Hubspot.
16
Newsletter Optimization
Courtney Eckerle of Marketing Sherpa is spot on when she writes: “The newsletter is where two of the
most valuable marketing tools come together: email and content.”17 In fact, ExactTarget found that 68%
of marketers considered email marketing and newsletters as a core business driver.18
Combining two essential tools into one marketing package requires skill and good judgement to ensure
that the potential is not wasted.
MailChimp, a leader in the email marketing space, has mined through billions of emails to provide us
with some very interesting insights. A major finding is in regards to subject line – this is the first point of
contact with the reader and needs to written in a way that entices the reader. From the data, it is
recommended that “boring works best” – that is, don’t write an overly salesy subject line. If you miss
the mark on the subject line, chances are the reader will either ignore or delete – rendering your hard
work useless.
Another piece of advice that goes without saying is avoiding spammy words such as discount, free or
multiple exclamation marks. Beeketing has compiled an excellent list of words and phrases to avoid as
they have a tendency to trigger spam filters across the board.20
The newsletter is where two of the most valuable marketing
tools come together: email and content.
17
Not surprisingly, consistency (in terms of language,
layout and frequency) is essential as well. Ensure that
the language and complexity in each weekly/monthly
newsletter is consistent so readers can feel a sense
of familiarity with your content. Furthermore, the
visual layout of the newsletter should also be
considered. Opting for a more visual approach does
wonders to grab your reader’s attention.
This leads directly to the next point: length and
density. The newsletters of yesterday were
excessively lengthy and chock full of content. A better
idea is to highlight key articles within the newsletter
and provide links to other articles. This drives more
people back to your website, boosting your traffic
metrics and conversion possibility.
Another important characteristic to consider is mobile
optimization. Chances are a large portion (66%
according to Movable Ink)20 of your readers will be
accessing your content through a mobile device;
whether it be a mobile phone or tablet. Content not
optimized for mobile may appear as a big jumble of
images, headers and text. This makes a terrible
impression upon the reader, reducing your legitimacy
as a trusted content provider.
Last, but not least, make sure you are providing
value. The reader subscribed to you expecting to get
something in return. Being bombarded by sales
messages while reading a newsletter is a sure fire
way to one more unsubscribe. It’s also a good idea to
link to or reference other company’s content and
news – this shows that you care about the industry
and the reader.
Atomic AI can assist the newsletter creation process
by analyzing your content as you write. You can
optimize the content in regards to readability, the
emotional intensity along with length and paragraph
density. You can draft out the content within the
platform, run an analysis and then address any
issues that are flagged. This ensures that the
readability and overall structure of the newsletter is
optimized for your audience. With the help of an
Atomic Audit, you can learn about what readability
and structural factors led to the highest engagement,
and then apply those insights to any future
campaigns you initiate.
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Chapter 5:Conclusion
The task of content optimization is not an easy one. It is essential to recognize the type of content asset, the
purpose it serves and its place in the buyer’s journey. Depending on those variables, the optimization process may
greatly differ.
A one size fits all approach may be quick and easy at first, but will take a toll on your conversion rate as it does not
take into consideration all the variables that come into play.
Atomic AI is the writing platform for content marketers looking to optimize all types of written content; be it web copy,
blog content, outbound emails or newsletters. With our convenient Chrome plugin, the platform can “follow” you
everywhere you write – from your inbox to your CMS.
The Atomic AI WebApp is capable of connecting to your engagement data to extract valuable insights on how your
audience interacts with you content – giving you a deeper look into their reading habits and preferences.
Using the most advanced readability engine in the world, Atomic AI will match the readability to your unique
audience and produce measurable results. Reduce the time, effort and costs involved in creating all forms of content
and increase engagement by using data-backed insights.
19
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2. https://readability-score.com/content/what-is-readability/
3. https://www.act-on.com/blog/what-every-b2b-marketer-needs-to-know-about-readability/
4. http://www.impact-information.com/impactinfo/readability02.pdf
5. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/legibility-readability-comprehension/
6. "Readability formulas: Useful or useless. (an interview with J. Peter Kincaid.)". IEEE Transactions on
Professional Communications. 30: 12–15.)
7. http://www.readabilityformulas.com/articles/why-use-readability-formulas.php
8. http://seopressor.com/blog/improve-content-readability-and-seo/
9. http://www.advancedinternetmarketing.co.uk/seo-readability
10. http://marketeer.kapost.com/marketing-inefficiency/
11. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/whats-the-rule-about-paragraph-length?page=1
12. http://goodcontentcompany.com/good-content-writing-tips-unique
13. https://moz.com/blog/how-unique-does-content-need-to-be-to-perform-well-in-search-engines-whiteboard-
friday
14. http://www.convinceandconvert.com/email/email-marketing-case-studies/
15. https://www.clickz.com/7-strategies-to-optimize-your-email-marketing-campaign/32349/
16. http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/9-components-optimized-marketing-emails-
ht#sm.0019kiy3513ivcngrqb1ol0jmu8xo
17. https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/how-to/improve-your-email-newsletter#
18. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/04/08/how-important-is-a-mobile-optimized-email-
newsletter/#be8ae0f24326
19. https://beeketing.com/blog/spam-words-to-avoid-in-email-marketing
20. http://marketingland.com/34-percent-email-opens-now-happen-pc-83277
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