3-step secret of presenting lists ⋅ EV #021

Your website is mainly made up of lists. Not always bullet-point lists. Just sequences of items from the same category: benefits, features, clients so far, integrations available within your product, etc.

When the right person — someone your business needs — visits your website or flips through your slide deck, they start scanning lists. Whether these lists will convince them or not highly depends on how you present the information.

Let's take a specific output — the list of benefits. Chances are high that your list is 12 items long. Sometimes longer.

Here is what you can do:

Step 1.
Polish the hierarchy

Are all of the items on your list actual benefits? Can one item be a part of another?

After mapping these relationships, you'll discover that there are primary items and sub-items on your mega-list.

Step 2.
Finalize the total number

How many primary items do you have? 3? 4? 6?

Thousands of years of culture carved two magic numbers in people's minds — 3 and 5. These numbers are perceived as a balanced whole, an entire cycle, a complete story. 3 is a stronger number than 5.

Here is how to adjust the number of benefits you have:

2 items >>> add one more.
3 items – perfect, do nothing.
4 items >>> remove one (more effective), or add one more to make it 5.
5 items – perfect, do nothing.
6 items >>> split them into two 3-item lists (more effective), or reduce one to make it a list of 5.
7 items >>> remove one item and split the remaining 6 into two 3-item lists.

And so on.

Step 3.
Prioritize

Now you have a few lists made of 3 or 5 items.

What is the most important item in each of them? If only one item will be remembered, which one should it be?

Here's how to prioritize a three-item list:
(the spiciest item is the most important item)

For a five-item list:

Your list is ready.

I learned this lesson 15 years ago from "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" book by Carmine Gallo. It hasn't failed me even once.

I hope this secret will serve you well, too.

Yours,
Ira