It’s direct marketing, Jim, but not as we know it

The chances are that you are conversant with all forms of digital media, have always been aware of the internet, and see it as a fundamental part of life, but these are relatively new formats that are only just being fully understood. One thing is certain, the internet has been around long enough for the novelty to have worn off, and it is no longer the case that the visitor will be impressed by the tricks that you can pull with interactive media – the content you create has to be informative, clear, and compelling.

“This is a medium that doesn’t require campaigners to jump through hoops doing publicity stunts, or depend on the good will of an editor to get their message across.”

Naomi Klein, No Logo

Copywriters usually lead the planning and structuring of a website (which is separate from actually building a site) because the content has to be linked together carefully so that visitors can navigate in whichever way they choose. The internet offers huge opportunities for creativity, but it is not the place to go overboard with your copy. You need to be even more controlled because the digital environment can be so unstructured compared with print.

Websites are a form of direct marketing, in that they can reach directly into the audience’s world to inform, guide, and sell to them, but they have one fundamental quality that shapes their every aspect: they are an interactive medium. All digital communications share similar properties and the guidance for writing for the internet applies in many ways to the other digital media you may work on.

In the absence of the boundaries that you have with print, you must set yourself clear objectives so that the content you’re working with doesn’t run away with you. Thorough preparation and planning is essential and, as with other formats, simplicity is the key.

Interactivity presents a whole new world of opportunities for communication in compelling and relevant ways, but if you don’t do the hard work of preparing and presenting the content clearly you will lose your audience before they have even started.

Your visitors don’t read, they scan

People don’t read online, they scan, searching for the material they entered the site to find. Rather than read your main headline, opening paragraph, and body copy in sequence, they will search for their key words in your text. It is only when they arrive at their destination that they will require full information and detail, which is often best provided in the form of a separate, downloadable PDF or similar document.

The differences between reading print and reading online

Offering plenty of material and clear navigation, this information-resource website presents each item clearly and concisely. The content leads with the key facts and provides the detail in a format that can be scanned and searched, and is easy to absorb when read online.

For the rest of the site you should use a brief, punchy, and energetic style that presents your copy as concise soundbites of quality information. Short sentences and paragraphs, bullet-pointed lists, and clear titles and sub-titles are all hard-working techniques for breaking up copy into easily digestible pieces.

An internet site presents visitors with options. As the writer (along with the other team members) you identify and clarify those options, while the users choose where they start, where they go to next, and where they finish. You have to present the information along the way in self-contained pieces that can be accessed in any order and still make perfect and compelling sense.

You are the tour guide to the site

You may be writing for an existing website (or similar digital format) or you may be creating a site from scratch. In both cases as the writer you are assuming the role of the tour guide to the site. It is your role to draw in the visitors and hold their limited attention span for as long as possible before they click off to another site. How you do this depends on what your audience expects from the site, and what you feel will work best. Whichever approach you take, you must be consistent with everything you write for the site.

You are providing the options to the visitor, and the way you create and present the links between sections and pages on your site is one of the most important elements of your copywriting. In the digital environment you are responsible for prioritizing the key information and steering the flow of your “story,” but you have little influence over the sequence in which visitors will decide to access this.

“The job of writing web copy, especially in small- to medium-sized enterprises, often falls to marketing, or in some cases IT staff. Even larger companies employ or outsource copywriters with insufficient online experience. The result is long pages of text, which do not appreciate how users read the web or help them find what they want.”

Peter Burns

Top 100 Internet Mistakes You Can’t Afford To Make

Instead, you have to ensure that the right links are in place at each point on the site where the visitor may decide to take a diversion. Give the users full control of how the content can be accessed and used, and anticipate their needs as far as possible so that you can guide them to the places you want them to visit. Brainstorm all of the options and prioritize them, and then make sure that they are expressed clearly.

It is a good idea to work with the site designers and programers, at least in terms of understanding what your options and restrictions are. Does the programing language they are using allow you to include lots of links? Does the graphic interface of the site present any restrictions in terms of the number or location of links? Can links be included in the live copy as well as by hot buttons? Do the programers have any solutions of their own that will help you with the structuring of the site and the way pages will link? You are part of a project team, whether in-house or freelance, and if you haven’t met the key people on the team try asking if this is possible – it is likely to open up a whole new range of possibilities.

Preparation is the key to success

With website projects it is essential that you have established a coherent plan for all of the content before you start.

Having taken a thorough brief, your impressions of the target audience will be your starting point, just as with every other copywriting project. Take the time to analyze and process the raw material you are working with, and conduct some original research of your own to add detail and gain a better insight into the target audience, marketplace, and your client’s position. Retain only the most pertinent information and collate this material into logical sections.

The web is a very visual environment, so be sure that your copy solutions will complement all of the graphical elements that will be used. How can illustration, photography, charts, diagrams, and graphics be incorporated, how can your copy enhance these, and how much breathing space does this leave for the written messages? Your copy must be concise and clear, but you are allowed to present information in great detail if this is appropriate.

Before you begin planning, write a short summary of the site’s intended role, including who it is catering for, what it aims to provide them with, and what the overall objective of the project is. Keep this to a single sheet of paper if you can. This is to help you and the designers clarify the overriding purpose of the site and remain focused on this at all times. Try jotting down some rough headlines and sub-headers to get a feel for the style and tone of voice that you will adopt.

Now you can plan the site. Think of it as an environment in which visitors can immerse themselves, and identify the different levels of information and detail that this will require. A commonly held, and sensible, view is that a visitor should be no more than three clicks away from any piece of information on your site. Don’t take this as a fixed rule that cannot be broken, but bear in mind that if your visitors can’t find their information easily they won’t hang around for long. They’re scanning impatiently and will have other options at their fingertips, so make every phrase and sentence totally relevant.

“A short saying often contains much wisdom.”

Sophocles

A common approach is to create three main layers: the introduction and main navigation; directions and generic information; and specific material with detailed facts and figures. This organizes the information according to visitor profile – visitors to the site can take themselves deeper as their search continues.

Visitors need to feel immediately at home within the site and recognize that they have reached the right place. They will then start to look for the content they require. Your generic information pages will provide more detail and direct them to the specific places they are looking for. Once at this specific place, they will want all the details and will be prepared to spend time absorbing this information.

Most visitors don’t read the information in any detail online, so it makes sense to make your specific information available as a downloadable document that they can store on their hard drives and read or print out as they see fit. Plan to create these separately and don’t underestimate the time required to write them. Another tip is to ensure that the key menu options appear at the bottom of every page as html links as well as in graphic format at the top or side of the main pages. This will give the key navigation to each visitor at each point in their visit.

The three layers to website content

Sketch out your site plan as thumbnail-style pages, preferably on large sheets so that you can add notes and comments, and ideally use pencil so that you can rework it easily. Start with your home page and draw lines out from this to represent each key section in the site. Each of these will have a “landing page” that will in turn lead to further information in that section, so draw lines to show how these link into each other. Your visitors may start at any of these points.

Once you’ve mapped out all of the pages and their main links, take a different color and start to draw out the peripheral links that the visitors will find between the pages of the site. A clean version of this will form the site map that the programers will follow, so check in with them as you progress to ensure viability and maximize the performance of your site. Having completed your plan you can now roll up your sleeves and begin drafting your copy.

Scanners don’t like complex concepts

Don’t forget, your readers will not be reading your copy fully; they will be scanning for the key words that will take them where they need to go. This does not absolve you from your responsibility to incorporate all of your copywriting techniques (promise–deliver, intrigue, benefit-led propositions, and so on) for holding the visitors’ interest, keeping them entertained, and encouraging them to visit frequently.

Techniques for editing web copy

More than any other, digital formats require you to pare your copy to the bone, which can be a very satisfying process. There is no room to go into great detail on a thought-provoking concept – your priority is to deliver maximum understanding coupled with very clear navigation, and the fewer words you need to do this the better. Distilling a complex message into its purest essence is one of the most rewarding copywriting challenges.

Keep the main information to the start of your headers, opening paragraphs, and body copy, and use generic industry terms in full. This will help your readers to scan your copy for the information they require.

Gathering together the available material for the content is a core part of your role as the copywriter, but the time and effort required to do this thoroughly is often underestimated. The visitor will see only one page at a time, and rarely understands how much work it takes to create the entire site. When you plan the site, do a separate plan for the writing time required.

You will gather a lot of your content through the briefing process, where you will be able to enquire about the context, detail, and priorities for the site. You will be able to add more detail and context to this by conducting your own research, but there may still be a lot more information missing. Depending on the nature of the site, you may have to interview people within the client business and arrange for photography at the same time. It takes time to arrange an appointment, conduct the interview, write it up, and get it approved by the relevant signatories. Plan ahead and don’t leave this to the last minute.

“Good things, when short, are twice as good.”

Baltasar Gracián

Knowing that you will revisit your copy as an editor, you can create the first draft in a looser form than you would use if it were to be finished copy. In fact, it is wrong to craft finished copy at too early a stage. At this stage you should view this more as taking comprehensive notes for yourself. If you write the copy for the entire site in this way, you will break the back of the project as well as gain a thorough understanding of the overall feel of the site. This will be very helpful when you return to cut the copy down, as you will have a complete overview that will guide your decisions about where to cut back and how far you can go, and ensure that you have a good balance of information across the site.

When revisiting the copy to edit it you can experiment. Keep a copy of the original text so that you can return to it if required, and then sharpen your scalpel – you’re about to perform major surgery. Wherever you spot repetition you can combine messages. Wherever a conversational tone is spotted you can cut out the chat to leave the core message. Wherever long words are used you can replace them with short ones. Keep cutting and cutting, being careful not to lose any of your core content. Once you’ve filleted your original copy down to the bare minimum you may find that it is far more powerful, punchy, and concise.

“We’re working on the ‘micro-micro-micro’ scale here.”