Integrated Digital Marketing

Is your website readable?  Think: Do your customers want to use it to find information?  The answer is important.  Because, most often, people are going to your site for two reasons:  (1) to find information and (2) to perform tasks.

A lot of our customers are making a transition from shouting to content marketing (we’re proud of you!)  Content marketing places a premium on good info, whether you’re telling a story or explaining your prices.

One compliments the other, and vice-versa.  Good content is informative.  And information is good content.  Like cereal and milk.  Like nooks and crannies.  Like George and Weezy.  They go together.

Good info- it’s clear.  Concise.  Crisp.  Just the facts.  Don’t bury it in long paragraphs.  Don’t hype it up.

Recognize that a lot of your customers are just looking for information.  Here are some good ways you can let them do just that on your website-

•    Use Active Space (the blank areas between the text).  Passive space rests in the margins, allowing readers to focus on the page.  But active space is found inside the main content area.  Your active space helps readers group and separate information.

•    Less Is More Better.  Be able to separate content that’s important to you from the content readers can use.  Before you write, go back to the reasons your customers come to your site, and ask:  Is this informative?  Will this help them perform a task?

•    Cut.  Cut Again.  Then Cut Some More.  Most web users don’t want to read- they just want information.  Focus on the facts, and cut the fat.

•    Make Your Point At The Beginning.  Traditional writing makes its point at the conclusion.  On the web, most readers won’t get to the end.  Put your conclusion first.

•    Use Bullets.  They’re nice.  They’re easy to read.  People like them.  Bullet it up.

So, can you censor yourself?  It’s the hardest thing about writing.  But I think your customers will thank you.

Tags: content marketing, Copywriting, writing

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Content Creation, Copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.