WEBBED eCOPY

The New Copywriting Rules for Online Content

 
Anyone who writes for the web faces a paradox: nobody really reads online yet everybody looks for the text.

Eyetracking studies by Stanford University and The Poynter Institute prove this:
  • New visitors to a site largely ignore graphics. 78% of their attention is occupied by headlines, summaries and captions. Many do not even glance at the images until a later visit.
  • Visitors don't read in the usual sense. They are three times more likely than newspaper readers to limit in-depth reading to brief passages. Even those who do 'read' a whole article rarely absorb more than 75%.
SO: Your web visitors won't read. They'll skim.

The Stanford-Poynter study underscores earlier research by Sun Microsystems:
  • Reading from a monitor slows reading by 25%.
  • Only 16% of web users read word by word.
SO: Your web visitors will ignore details to enhance reading speeds.

Eye trackers have also discovered another curious fact
  • Unlike the traditional left-to-right viewing strategy, online users often follow a center-left-right scanning sequence.
SO: Your web visitors will modify ingrained strategies in order to drill down to your message faster.

Clearly, if online reading differs so radically from offline, your web copy has to follow suit.

Jakob Nielsen, the best known authority on website usability, often cites an experiment where he and colleague John Morkes introduced five versions of the same website to a group of test users. All they changed from site to site was the wording— conciseness, objectivity and ease of reading. Result: rewording improved usability up to 124%!

SO:
Make your site easier to browse
  • Highlight key words
  • Frame concepts as bullets
  • Open with your conclusion
Make your site more concise
  • Keep headlines simple and direct
  • Restrict each paragraph to a single idea
  • Cut your normal word count by 50%
Make your site more objective
  • Downplay marketese and slogans
  • Avoid subjective claims
  • Minimize exaggeration and emotion
Nielsen sums up his years of usability experience this way: "Anything that is a great print design is likely to be a lousy web design."

VISITOR FOCUS: "You" first


In the rush to adapt to this brave new world of webspeak, it's easy to forget that every good communication strategy builds on one foundation: customer focus.

The first step in creating a web presence that truly puts your visitors first is to conjure up all the key features of your product or organization. Make a list. Tack it up prominently. Then swear your team to a solemn oath: nothing on that list should migrate to your most visible entry pages. How come? It screams US not YOU.

Instead, brainstorm all the ways those product or company features translate into customer benefits. This is the cloth your web writing should be cut from. The language of YOU.

You should also get into the habit of communicating those user benefits not as one-way messages but as two-way conversations. Only by working with your visitors, listening to THEIR needs, addressing THEIR issues, can you seize the full impact of web culture.

Fellow Canadian, content guru Crawford Kilian, calls the web a "constructivist" as opposed to an "instrumental" model of communication:

"In the instrumental model, your information is a tool operating on a passive receiver, intended to get the receiver to do as you wish...Marketers "target" consumers, advertisers yearn for "penetration"...The implicit message in this model is "Do what I say."

"Instrumental communication is OK for radio, TV, and movies, and for print on paper, because users of those media really are targets who can't effectively reply. But web surfers sure can, and most of the time the reply is 'Goodbye forever.'

"And why not? They came looking for something and you didn't provide it."

Here's an easy test of user focus. I often use it in helping clients reassess their e-business content: How do your own people refer to your web guests--as "visitors" or just "traffic?"

The distinction is telling.

CONSTRUCTION: Building Solid Digital Copy


Contrary to what some web developers will tell you, constructing web content does not always mean reinventing the wheel. Yes, this is a new channel. And yes, your presentation strategies have to adapt. But the guts of your pitch— your core selling proposition— is still as valid as it is in any other environment.

In other words, a good place to start finding the raw materials for web content is among your existing, carefully polished and time tested marketing pieces.

Re-purposing content is not a sin.
  • Do you have a good brochure? Sales collateral?
  • Do you distribute a newsletter?
  • Do you publish case studies or white papers?
  • What about speeches?
That's a start. Now here's how to make them sing for the web…

Storyboards
Take a page from film production. When I worked in TV, nothing galvanized a crew better than creative storyboards.

Even though they may look cartoonish, frame-by-frame storyboards are invaluable in providing a mind's-eye view of your web project. They get everybody singing from the same music.

Website storyboards don't have to be as lavish as they might be for a commercial shoot but they should be a lot more than simply a flow chart.

Your boards should contain four basic sitebuilders.
  1. Objectives
  2. Content inventory
  3. Graphic look
  4. Navigation logic
Find a big wall and post a separate sheet for each of your web pages. Once they're logically organized into sections, put on your customer hat and jab a finger anywhere in the middle of this chaos. Can you tell how a visitor feels at this point? Can you tell how easy it was getting here? Can you tell where they'll likely go next?

After you're totally confident about the overall web experience your site will offer, it's time to drill down to the actual copy...

Copy Structure
Virtually all web text is made up of headlines, hooks, captions, lists, links and body copy.

Headlines
  • Provide the critical cues your visitors will scan first
  • Summarize page content
  • Make them meaningful, not cute or clever
  • Concise. Ideally less than 60 characters
Hooks
  • Use hooks to offer an abstract of details to follow
  • Use them to break pages into logical bites
  • Use them as attention-grabbers (with caution)
  • Up to 100 characters long
Captions
  • For identifying photos, illustrations, tables
  • Use captions sparingly and make them self explanatory
  • Avoid redundancy with your headlines or hooks
Lists
  • Usually presented as bullets if order is not important
  • Presented as numbers when list order is to be emphasized
  • No more than 9 items per list
Links
  • Provide definitions, explanations, sources
  • Point to supporting data that can't be presented on the same page
  • NB: overuse can create visitor impatience, confusion or wander
Body Copy
  • Usually in paragraph form
  • May be presented as 'chunks' (1 chunk = 75-100 words)
  • May also be presented as scrolling text (such as this document)
  • 6-8 lines max. per paragraph
  • Double space between paragraphs
Getting tired of these bullets yet? I know I am.

Bullet presentation caters to the hit-and-run visitor— customers who want to get in, transact and get out. Bullets are quick and easy, and they support scannability. But there is nothing distinctive about bulleting. It is completely utilitarian.

Pushing the bullets approach to its logical extension, web copywriter Kathy Henning shows how Herman Melville would have written Moby Dick, had he been writing for an Internet audience…

Moby Dick original:
"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea."

Magnificently evocative prose, no?

Now Henning's bulleted translation:

I must go to sea when:
  •      I'm depressed or melancholy
  •      I stop in front of coffin warehouses
  •      I follow funerals
  •      I have a powerful urge to knock people's hats off

Which version is better? Depends on your perspective.

My point is, web text is not a one-trick pony. Full paragraphs can capture as much attention as truncated thought clips. Your skill as a web author lies in knowing when to harpoon just a few salient bits and when to reel in the whole beast.

Inverted Pyramids
Here's more accepted wisdom: many web editors advise structuring your body copy in the journalistic, inverted-pyramid style. That is, always open with your conclusions and work backward to the supporting data.

The argument here is that no matter how little they may read, visitors will still leave your site understanding at least a few key points.

This is also the argument for building each paragraph around one single idea. As the Stanford-Poynter studies show, many readers scan just the first sentence or two of every paragraph, thus missing other points on subsequent lines.

Caveat: pyramid inversion can be overdone. Readers quickly tire of formulaic writing. My experience is that visitors will read traditionally structured text. Just be sure your content invites their investment.

Simplicity Builds Attention
I'm a big advocate for giving visitors access to information. If they don't want that level of detail, they can click past it. If they do want it, and it's right there on your site, they're sold.

The key lies in relentlessly simplifying.

The worst place for complexity is your entry page. Many large corporate sites are guilty of this— home pages with far too many options, buttons, gimmicks, all clamoring for attention. The implied message is: Sorry folks, we just couldn't figure out how to streamline this. Love to do business if you find what you're looking for.

You may have seen the term "attention economics." It refers to the theory that as information becomes more abundant on the Net, attention becomes a scarcer and more valuable commodity. Driving out complexity pays big dividends in sharpening attention.

WORDING: Tailoring Language for Web Readers


Your web text is your company's online voice. The language you choose has to perfectly represent your brand. And given that the target length for text on the web is 50% shorter than in print, each word takes on heightened importance.

Tone
Setting the right tone is an issue many people struggle with. In my opinion, it's time well spent.

Which is the most appropriate way of framing your message—
  • A formal tone that lends a down-to-business impression?
  • Or the more colloquial tone your sales force uses in the field?
The deciding factor is the degree of distinctiveness you want your site to communicate.

If you're trying to position yourself as a contender with other, larger businesses in your sector, you'll likely opt for less personal and more corporate language. If you're trying instead to distinguish your organization from a crowded herd, adopting a natural, human-sounding voice can make your site more memorable. There are good arguments for both.

Whatever you do, try to align your tone with the natural idiom of your visitors. You won't convert institutional investors with one-liners and you won't sell to Gen Xers with a prospectus.

Positiveness
Whatever tone you ultimately settle on, your site should always convey an upbeat, positive focus. If you introduce problems, follow with solutions. Avoid pessimistic language unless you plan to close with the opposite, or with an opportunity for positive action.

Herbert H. Clark, a psychologist with The Johns Hopkins University, discovered that it takes the average person about 48% longer to understand a sentence using a negative than it does to understand a positive or affirmative sentence.

"This is confirmation of something every successful person knows: The secret of good communication is positive affirmation. It is not what you can't or won't do that interests people, but what you can or will do."

Brevity
The quickest way to tight, effective wording is to write long and then edit fiercely.
  • Use smaller, simpler words
  • Cut sentences short
  • Omit needless instruction
Make every word fight for its place on the page.

Active Voice
The web is a medium of action. Your copy should be just as fleet footed.

Passive voice: "After processing your order, a confirmation will be sent by email." Active voice: "You'll receive an email as soon as your order is processed."

An active voice converts visitors and drives sales.

Buzzwords
Nobody likes confusion.

What does ABM say  to you?
  • If you're in financial services it means Automatic Bank Machine
  • If you're in engineering it means Asynchronous Balanced Mode
  • If you're in the military it means Air Battle Management
That said though, certain buzz phrases must be included in your text. These are the keywords that search engines use in directing traffic to your site. The acronym for this, if you can stomach one more, is SEO— Search Engine Optimization.

SEO
SEO involves identifying the most frequently used search phrases or key words unique to your visitor base, and then writing keyword-rich copy around those words. That way, when search engines scour your site for clues in your metadata , your content will deliver everything they need to rank you high and to match you with your best prospects.

Need help deciding which words to use? Try WordTracker, a database of all the main keyphrases.

Credibility
Trust is important to any business. On the web it is paramount.

To many users, the web is still an electronic Wild West. The absence of bricks and mortar, or handshakes and signatures, creates an air of impermanence.

That's why visitors put such great stock in the way you express yourself. To them, your words and style are the most tangible expression of your trustworthiness.

WRITERS: Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em


Let's be clear on something: e-business is just that--business. Your web copy is text with a job to do.

As we've seen, creating commercial online content calls for a peculiar set of writing skills. I learned this years ago when I was working for IIT, one of the pioneers of interactive multimedia.

IIT was producing a user-guided training simulation. Groundbreaking stuff, for the times. Amid much fanfare, they hired a star TV documentary writer to script some dramatic vignettes.

A week into it, he quit. It simply made no sense to him. The writing was too unstructured, too modular. He couldn't fall back on time-honored conventions like linear plot development. How could he tell which scene the audience was coming from or going to? This wasn't writing at all.

He was right. Interactive writing is only marginally similar to writing for other media.

If you find the online writing task a bit rocky yourself and decide to bring a freelancer on board, here's how to get the best mileage.

Package Your Research
Pull together every scrap of company-related information. Before you hand it over, separate it into three files:

File I) Deep background— Business plans, white papers, market surveys, focus group results, consultant reports. Anything that will give your writer a better feel for your industry, your place in it and your plans for driving change down the road.

File II) Site-eligible information— Ad campaigns, direct marketing pieces, executive profiles, testimonials. Anything you feel could be grist for your online mill.

File III) Content that absolutely must find a place on your site. Just be sure to update any facts that have changed since original publication.

Much of this will be proprietary. If you don't have a standard letter of nondisclosure, ask your writer to provide one. Confidentiality agreements remind your writer that sensitive in-house documents are to be handled with care, and remind your in-house team that this person can and should be trusted with the big picture— company strengths and weaknesses.

Assign a Content Champion
Every successful web initiative needs a strong leader. Before bringing a writer on side, appoint one person, a internal web czar, to coordinate things at your end. This will save the writer from having to sort out conflicting directions, and save you money on dead-ends and revisions.

Set Realistic Timelines
The web is the ultimate hurry-up-and-do-it-yesterday environment. Your customers expect instant turnaround and that urgency gets passed down the line. But when it comes to information architecture, haste really does make waste.

The biggest scheduling error I see people make is signing off on a critical path before the writer and designer even speak. I always advise clients to get their creative group together— preferably in the same room or at least on the same conference line— to enlist their help in coming up with workable delivery milestones.

If you try this, you'll quickly identify scheduling hurdles. You'll also have access to the widest range of workaround ideas.

You're paying for experience. Get your money's worth.

Insist on Professionalism
Professional web writers are realists. They understand that writing for the web puts commerce before art. This means…
  • Supplying you with regular updates and even work in progress
  • Feeding the web team rough drafts that nonetheless read smoothly
  • Checking egos at the door and really listening to feedback

I could use stronger language here but I shouldn't have to and neither should you. Hire a pro.

Cap Your Costs
Every business venturing into new web content wonders the same thing: What's this going to run us?

When you bring in a freelance writer, two of the most common rate structures are cost-per-section (your site's major divisions) and cost-per-hour—typically $60-100 here in Toronto.

I strongly suggest you avoid per-word pricing. It really doesn't make sense to reward a writer for long-windedness when the very nature of online writing demands the opposite. Also bear in mind that it is actually tougher to write snappy than run long.

The fairest method I've come across for controlling your final outlay is to negotiate a realistic ballpark fee but manage it with a series of milestones, working toward a target 'cap.' Tell the writer you'll need an update whenever the writing is approaching one of your cost milestones and that you can only push your cap up if the dimensions of the job change mid-project. This frees you to budget accurately and hold your writer accountable, while also protecting the writer from unforeseen changes in direction.

My advice: If a prospective freelancer can't give you a solid quote, plus details about the scope of the writing you're paying for, shop your business around.

Payment Stages
Most writers will spread their invoicing over two or three stages:
  • 50% in advance/ 50% on delivery
  • 35% in advance/ 30% at midpoint approval/ 35% on completion
Ask for a letter of agreement with the first invoice, specifying rate, payment stages and writing parameters. If you want to get to work ASAP, either PayPal your first installment or cut a check and send it overnight express.

Nothing says you're serious like timely payment.

TROUBLESHOOTING: CPR Basics for Ailing Web Content


Okay, your site is live and you've got plenty of action. But something just isn't clicking.

Not unusual. Launching a website with perfect content is everybody's dream and almost nobody's reality. Face it, the web is a moving target.

The good news is, problems with web text are generally easy to diagnose and quick to fix.

Go back to basics…

Your Objectives
Jakob Nielsen claims that "Not knowing why" is the number one problem facing web management. I agree. All too often, managers are frustratingly vague about what their site is really expected to deliver.

Clarify your goals and your content will fall into line.

Your Readership
Are you pitching to the right online population? What segments are you targeting? Is this realistic, given Net demographics? You know the drill.

Now check your log files. Which pages get the most hits? How long do visitors stay? What about your click-through rates? And how do these fit with your targets?

It's easier to heat up your writing when you know your audience cold.

Your Style
How rich is your writing? Do visitors find laundry lists or motivating, actionable content?

Your writing style should lift your unique selling proposition off the screen and drive it deep into the psyche of your customers.

Your Look/ Feel
How well do your graphics complement your text? Do they enhance one another or do they elbow for center stage?

Axe the eye candy. For instance, when you create links, forget glitz. Go with underlined text or simple buttons. These are what most visitors will understand.

Your role isn't to invent razzle-dazzle; it's to make navigating your content intuitive.

Your Editing
Many people (writers included) think of editors as the ruthless gatekeepers of free-flowing prose.

Not true. A badly edited site whispers incompetence. A polished site instills the confidence to do business.

Lisa Price offers an excellent guide to web editing in The Communication Circle.

Fully editing a website involves three levels:
  • Level Three focuses on content and structure. Its overriding concern is rhetorical: does the document achieve its objectives?
  • Level Two involves stylistic changes to the prose to reduce wordiness, enhance clarity and improve cohesion.
  • Level One covers issues of convention and rule that can be decided by authorities such as style guides, handbooks and company policy. Its central concerns are consistency and correctness.

Your Proofing
Proofreading material you've already read and reread is tough. Typos, misspellings, grammatical errors get less visible each time you scan them. Yet you can be sure your visitors will trip over every one.

Try this…
  • Print out your pages and proof from hard copy. Seeing the same content in a different light helps shift your awareness from big picture to details.
  • Do at least one read aloud for awkward constructions.
  • Read from the bottom of the page to the top, putting a ruler under each line and gradually bumping it up.
  • Double-proof headlines, captions and anything in upper case. This is where the stupidest mistakes seem to slide by.
  • Don't do a final read yourself. When you're positive everything is right, get somebody else to read it for you.

Your Updating
Clicking on a dead link or wasting time plowing through outdated stats is like taking a big swig of past-due milk. It won't kill you but it sure leaves a bad taste.
  • Test every link. Re-check them on a regular basis.
  • Weed out old content. Nobody cares about three-year-old press releases or last year's price list.
  • Cross-check vigorously. If your refund policy changes make sure that change gets updated everywhere— your product page, your FAQ, your shipping page, in your emails.
  • Don't let less-traveled pages offer information that is contradictory. Even in the electronic age, house cleaning is a fact of life.

Your Call to Action
The goal of any e-commerce site is to stimulate activity: to get visitors to sign up, engage with you, make a purchase. And this couldn't be easier: click, enter and it's done.

But easy isn't good enough. Without a convincing reason to act, along with consumer-friendly directions, visitors wander aimlessly. Your job as content ringmaster is to present an effortless course of action, and communicate the terrific upside for customers who take your offer.
  • Click here AND YOU WON'T MISS A SINGLE…
  • Buy now AND YOU'LL SAVE…
  • Subscribe right away FOR VALUABLE…
Call your visitors to action with a pitch that is clear, instructions that are painless and rewards that are irresistible.

QUESTIONS?


Q: Doug, you promote brevity and 'chunking,' yet this doc is one long scroll. What gives?

A: Guilty as charged, and unrepentant.

How come? To me, the various elements of content creation are so interwoven that subdividing them feels forced.

It's hard to search a document when it's split across half a dozen different, self-contained pages. Here for instance, if you want to check what I really said about 'chunks' you can just hit your browser's Find field.

Finally, it works. People hate being lost. You found your way here, right?
 

Q: You give the impression that 're-purposing' any old print materials a company has lying around is a good way to built web content. You can't be serious?

A: Yes and no. In the blue-sky stages, anything that gives you traction is worth throwing on the table. But I admit, there are a few items that make such patently awful content they should be handled with tongs…
  • Slides. If you've got a killer PowerPoint deck, great. Before it wins a spot on your site though, rework it as a self-standing presentation. Otherwise you risk confusing more visitors than you convince.
  • Matrices. Online, a matrix makes the Cyrillic alphabet seem like Dick and Jane. It's cryptic and frankly it's just plain boring. Boil it down to its essence.
  • Mission statements. This is a borderline case. If your mission statement says something that honestly sets you apart, and you are prepared to back up the promises it makes, by all means feature it on your website. In fact, give it a page of its own. Some companies offer an email link from their mission statement directly to one of their execs. This can be a great source of feedback if somebody at your plant actually reads the stuff. Mission statements are also useful if you use your site as a recruitment tool.


Q: How can I copyright material I publish on the web?

A: Original writing is intellectual property. As such, international copyright law protects it. In Canada and the US (and other Berne Convention signatories) you automatically hold exclusive rights to your work in perpetuity. You don't have to register it or affix a copyright symbol (©) or seek any kind of official copyright status— although all of these can make proving your copyright easier at a later date.

To doubly protect themselves, some people send a copy of their work to a person or association who can testify as to the date of receipt. Some even send it to themselves as unopened registered mail, relying on the postmark to serve as a witness to the time of creation. These are by no means foolproof, but like the suggestions above, may strengthen your case.

However (isn't there always one?)…
  • First, you can't copyright a title or an idea. Only the words used to express your creation, in the sequence you wrote them, are copyrighted.
  • Second, anything published electronically is much tougher to protect than in print. The Berne agreements are not global. The Internet is.
  • Third, lawsuits in any country are expensive. Settlements rarely outweigh the costs.
  • Fourth, like it or not, the web is not about protection and exclusivity. Ask Sony Music. The web is about speed and scale. When it comes to original website content, your most effective protection is to constantly enhance and innovate— outdistancing, not outlawing your copycats.


Q: What other online resources should I know about?

A: Although the web is still barely in its adolescence, its strongest features have been shaped by some talented and dedicated writers. I can't agree with everything they say but these resources are well worth a visit.

Subscribe to their lists. Get their books. If I've missed anybody, let me know and I'll happily rectify.


LOOKING FORWARD


Net watchers predict that within 25 years, almost everything we know and do will be learnable and doable online.

As that time approaches, companies with a polished digital presence will lead the charge.

Strong writing lies at the heart of this enterprise—web text that your guests recognize, from the first click, to be squarely focused on them.

Connecting with you via engaging web content is how visitors become customers, customers become partners and relationships are cemented.

ISSUES? COMMENTS? WANT TO GET STARTED?


Let’s talk.