What did the Egyptians ever do for us …?

It may be rarely talked about, but the Rosetta Stone is one of the most famous objects in the British Museum.

It’s more than 2,000 years old but it holds a very valuable lesson to anyone sweating over fresh content for anything from a web page to a new brochure.

Created in around 196 BC the stone provided the key to deciphering the most beautiful and enigmatic of all writing systems – Egyptian hieroglyphics. A system older even than the pyramids themselves.

Ok, 196BC to 2020 AD is a bit of a stretch for it to be a useful lesson but bear with me.

You see, until the stone’s discovery in 1799 scholars had pretty much no idea what all the symbols meant.

Centuries had passed in fruitless quests to make sense out of these wonderfully enigmatic inscriptions.

Even with the stone, the full deciphering still took learned linguists 23 years to complete.

Which brings me back to the present day.

When we craft copy for our own products and services, we’ve got seconds to grab our readers’ attention and get them to act.

Never mind 23 years to work out what it is you’re offering; the average reader spends less than 15 seconds deciding whether a web page is worth spending more time on or not.

A hugely valuable lesson to all of us whether we’re writing our own sales material or getting someone else to do it for us.

Food for thought this week perhaps.

I’m here for a chat if you want to bounce around a few ideas over the phone or … arrange a Zoom call.

Stay safe.

Alec

Fineline Print & Web. The Eagles, 32 Clwyd Street, RUTHIN, Denbighshire LL15 1HW

T: 01824 70 8800 E: alec@finelineprintandweb.co.uk W: www.finelineprintandweb.co.uk