Utility companies should face facts and deliver facts: online visitors are not persuaded by hype. We browse utility web sites mainly to comparison shop for facts and figures. We select the company with the best services, not the most eloquent preacher.
Consider the way Mercury Energy squanders their precious top-of-the-screen space and our time.
Banner and navigation bar occupy the top 4cm of screen space: OK. Below the banner, they miss 8 chances to get to the point.
1. First headline, 4.5cm down my screen, is just a label: Price Plans
2. Second headline, 5.5cm down, corporate jargon: Price Plan Rebate
3. First paragraph, 6.5cm down the screen, still no information:
Our amazing new service will make sure that each year your Mercury Energy electricity bills are as small as they can be.
4. Second paragraph, 9cm down, and we're still none the wiser:
Mercury Energy's new Price Plan Rebate service is designed to make sure you never pay more for your Mercury Energy residential electricity than you have to.
5. On the right a truism:
AS YOUR LIFE CHANGES, YOUR ELECTRICITY USAGE CAN TOO.
6. Now a 6x4cm image of a 1960s lightshade, very quaint. Words: Price Plan Rebate, only from Mercury Energy.
7. After 11.5cm of content, they expect us to stop and admire two versions of their TV adverts - come on! View TV Advert - 30 seconds ⇒
8. Not again? View TV Advert - 45 seconds’9. Finally, 14cm. from the top of my screen, some facts.
This page communicates, 'Mercury Energy is amazing and unique' nine times before bothering to say why. Will anyone read it on an iPhone? They're in hyperspace. Let's hope the page changes before you read it, but anyway, I found it here:
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