Designing content modules

In my last post, I talked about the "why" and "how" of using content modules to improve efficiency and user experience. In this post, I'll talk about some of the specific considerations in designing content modules. 

Content Module Categories

It's important to think about content modules as a whole, and not to use them for a bunch of one-off messages. Think about the type of information that you want to convey through content modules, and then categorize them. For example, in a recent project that I worked on with Theresa Putkey for Rocky View County in Alberta we decided to use these categories:

• Alerts
• Events/Meetings
• Profiles
• News
• Related Topics
• Contact
• Application CTA
• Survey
• Interesting Facts

Categorizing content modules is extremely important for a number of reasons. Categories are a cornerstone of developing an effective taxonomy, which is they only way to automate updates of contextually relevant content. They're also important to ensure that similar types of information are presented consistently.

Content Module Types

Once you've got your key categories, you can break them down further into content types. These represent the different common types of information that you'll present in each category. You really need to have a strong understanding of your content at this point. Using the examples from the Rocky View County project, here are two of their categories broken down into standard content types:

• Alerts:
• Fire bans
• Weather warnings
• Road closures

• Events/Meetings:
• Basic statistics and link
• Statistics with brief description and link
• List of upcoming events/meetings and links

Defining content modules to this level helps to keep them focused and consistent and prevents a reactive approach to using them to publish any small bits of content that don't fit anywhere else. It also really helps writers to have a template to follow so they can quickly and easily write content that works for each type of content module.

Content Module Priorities

Depending on your website, you may want to assign each category of module with a different priority so that your CMS can pull one type of content module in preference to another. In the examples listed above, the Alert modules were the only content module given a priority one. This meant that in the spots that we wanted Alerts to appear, they would take precedence over any other content modules if they were available. If there were not, then that spot would be filled by a priority two module that met other specifications required of that spot.

Content Module Design

Once you know the type of content you'll be working with in each module, you need to define design requirements. Content modules should be designed to stand out on the page, but not compete against each other for user attention. “Alert” modules should be the most prominent element on any page. Strong CTA's should also be very prominent and obvious. All content modules should follow a consistent visual schema, with each type of content module having its own consistent structure and design. 

Some of the design decisions you'll need to consider and standardize include:

• Visual design
• Size and dimensions
• Text and font size
• Headings and phrasing
• Information design
• Number of characters or words per text element
• Use of photos and/or graphics

Visual design aside, the best way to figure out these design issues is to draft some copy for a number of each type of module and get a sense of the "norm".  Then you can develop sample copy for each content module that can be used to inform the visual design and content guidelines. That way you can be sure that the design requirements actually support the content and not the other way around.

Below are two examples of different types of content modules in the Events category:

Looking at these examples, you can see how a visual designer could get a good understanding of the type and scope of content that he's designing for, and how you could easily create templates and guidelines to help writers develop consistent content across similar content modules. 

Be sure to include content modules in your writer's style guide, and include specifications for each content module type. For example, one type of content module may consist of a heading, brief description, and a descriptive link to the main topic page. You can also specify if there are any constraints such as character limitations, phrasing preferences, or tone of voice variations. 

What other ideas do you have for working with content modules? I'd love to hear other stories about what has worked well for you, or what challenges you've encountered. 

And I extend a huge "Thank You" to the Rocky View team for allowing us to reference their project work and examples in this post. 

Text is Not an Ugly Step-Sister! What Web Writers Can Learn From Technical Communicators

Note: This article was inspired by, and has borrowed liberally from, Duncan Kent's Writing Revisable Manuals: A Handbook for Business & Government. I've frequently referred to this excellent resource over the years—ever since Duncan assigned it as required reading for one of my first tech-writing classes. It's fantastic to know that, in this era of ever-changing technology, basic principals continue to remain true. Thanks, Duncan!
____________________________________________________

It's no secret that there's more than one way to present information online. In fact, there's a dizzying array of ways. But this article isn't going to address videos, podcasts, presentations, infographics, or any of the other sexy communication methods that are important to engage and entertain your audience. Because text-based web pages still makes up a large part of the communications online, and will for many years to come. And most text-based web pages still really suck.

One reason why web content continues to suck is because most of the discussion about presentation methods take us away from text. Text is treated like an ugly step-sister we have to deal with, while we give all of our attention to the prince charming of social media and creative communications. But, text is not an ugly step-sister! It's the foundation of most online communication strategies, and it's way past time that we integrated better presentation methods within our text-based web pages.

After all, technical communicators have been all over this for years. There's a few tricks we could borrow from them. Here's a few "Tech-Writing 101" presentation tips that every web writer should master.

Narrative text
Narrative text is best for telling a story. It's also useful as introductory text before other presentation methods. When you use narrative text by itself on a web page, for a story or article, break it up with multiple sub-headings and consider adding sidebar text to highlight certain elements. Try to avoid using only narrative text on product or service pages.

Bullet Lists
Bullet lists are not the silver bullet of web writing that they're often made out to be. I can't tell you how many web-writing guidelines I've read that tell people to break narrative text into bullet lists without any more guidance than that. In my opinion, that's a crime. But bullet points are very useful if you follow some basic rules:

• Use bullet lists for three or more related items.
• Structure all items within a list similarly (for example, if one item begins with a verb, they all should).
• End complete sentences with a period. If any item on a list is punctuated, punctuate every item.
• Do not use numbers unless the sequence of the items is important. Bullets imply random order.
  

Checklists
Checklists are simply lists that have tick boxes in front of each item. Use them when you want to help readers ensure they have all of the proper materials or have completed all required tasks. If you use a checklist, provide and easy and obvious way for readers to print the page so they can actually use the checklist.

Sidebar text
Sidebar text is used to call out information that is related to the text on the page. If you use sidebar text, make sure that its design immediately differentiates it from the body text on the page. Some examples of when you may want to consider using sidebar text include:

• To provide commentary on the text.
• To emphasize key concepts.
• To provide definitions of technical terms.
• To highlight quotations.
• To provide tips.
• To provide supporting information.
• To show a short example of the key concept at work.

Tables
If you have to convey a large amount of data, using a table is often the best way to do it. Tables are also useful to compare different products in terms of characteristics such as size, weight, price, or performance. "If... Then" tables are excellent when you want to show different conditions. Here's some tips for writing tables:

• Introduce the table in the text preceding it. Don't expect readers to figure it out entirely for themselves.
• Simplify the table data down to just that amount of data that illustrates your point (without distorting the data!).
• Don't put the unit of measurement in every cell of a column. For example, in a column of measurements all in millimeters, don't put "mm" after every number. Put the abbreviation in parentheses in the column or row heading.
• When there is a special point you need to make about one or more of the items in the table, use a footnote instead of clogging up the table with the information.

Charts and graphs
Charts and graphs are actually just another way of presenting the same data that is presented in tables — but a more dramatic and interesting one. However, they provide less detail than tables. Imagine the difference between a table of sales figures for a ten-year period and a graph for that same data. You get a better sense of the overall trend in the graph but not the precise dollar amount.

Step-by-step procedures
Use step-by-step procedures to describe tasks that the reader must carry out in a specific order. Don't bury procedures in narrative form. Use step-by-step when there is a consistent linear pattern without a lot of decisions to make. If there are a lot of decisions required, consider using a decision tree instead. Here are some guidelines for writing step-by-step procedures:

• Use the imperative style, beginning each step with an action verb (for example, “Calculate the amount of tax payable….”).
  
• If the step is conditional upon something else, state the condition first (for example, “If you have expenses, complete the Expense Form and attach your receipts.”).
  
• Order steps in the sequence in which they must be carried out.
  
• Number each step. Don’t include more than one activity in a step.
  

Playscript procedures
Playscript is a simple variation of step-by-step procedures used where several people are involved. It specifies which person is responsible for each step by including the name or role in front of a numbered when the person responsible for that step changes.

Flow diagrams
Use a flow diagram to provide a graphic overview of the relationship between things, how processes work, or how documents move. Don’t try to illustrate every step in a complex procedure—this is better left to step-by-step procedures. Flow diagrams are also good for showing feedback loops and branches within procedures. Here are some tips on creating flow diagrams:

• Keep the number of shapes to a minimum. Stick with the standard shapes, and always include a legend explaining the meaning of each shape.
  
• Indicate the start point.
  
• Don’t cram a lot of text into the shapes—the purpose is to provide a graphic overview, not to give readers all the details

Decision trees
Decision trees are a form of flow diagram in which readers are routed according to their responses to questions. Use decision trees to provide a visual representation of conditional steps in a procedure, or to help readers decide which procedure to use. Each box of the decision tree can indicate a different procedure.
Here are some tips on creating decision trees:

• Use diamonds for questions and boxes for actions.
  
• Always indicate where the reader should start.
  
• Try to keep the text in the shapes to four or five words.
  
• Keep the shapes the same size.
  
• Don’t include more than one action in a box. If necessary, refer the reader to a step-by-step procedure.

 
Still not sure which presentation method you should choose? Check out Duncan's table of content presentation methods.

Did I forget any major content presentation methods for text-based web pages? If so, let me know in the comments!

28 Content Marketing Tips from the Content Marketing Masters

I went to a fantastic content marketing retreat today, put on by Langley New Media. The speakers were amazing -- knowledgeable, entertaining, and very human. There were so many great ideas and discussions, not just between speakers and participants, but also online in real-time.

I swear I'm the only person left of the planet who doesn't take technology to a conference. Just my pen and paper. And, for the most part, I'm so distracted by what the presenters are actually saying that I forget to take notes. But I did feel a bit left out of the Twitter party, so I thought I'd share my tidbit take-aways with you here. There were tons of great nuggets and this is only a small handful of them...

1. Determine your content goals, and then choose ONE.
2. Focus on a niche, and then get super niched.
3. Don't talk about yourself.
4. The sweet spot is the blend of informative and entertaining.
5. Know what people are thinking about today.
6. Know what people are thinking about when they're not getting paid.
7. Know what your competitors are doing in content marketing.
8. People don't care what you sell. They react to what you stand for.
9. Make sure the audience you're targeting is the market that's buying.
10. "Hide the pill" of important information inside the entertaining stuff.
11. Solve people's problems.
12. Your content should relate a quest or challenge. 
13. Tell stories about people, not products or services.
14. Talking heads are boring.
15. A story needs a beginning, a middle, a conflict, and then an end.
16. Content is a renewable asset. Ads are non-renewable assets. 
17. Connect with people through content.
18. Use a content calendar and identify daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual content.
19. People trust other people like themselves. They don't easily trust corporations or the media.
20. A good information architecture supports business strategy.
21. Taxonomy and content programming can help content to flow efficiently.
22. Niche print magazines are here to stay and have a place near and dear to people's hearts.
23. Do more listening than talking online.
24. Connect with the key online influencers in your market.
25. Distribute content through multiple channels, in multiple formats, in many conversations.
26. Lorem ipsum is shit.
27. You can't manage what you don't measure.
28. Make sure that what you measure is relevant to your key stakeholders.

My apologies to the presenters for not capturing all of their key ideas. But I've listed their names below, and Twitter handles where I could, so please check them out to learn more about their particular focus in content marketing... they're a crazy-smart bunch of people!
 
Joe Pulizzie  @JuntaJoe
Russell Sparkman @fusionspark
Terri Nopp
Jack Penland
Hanson Hosein @hrhmedia
Eleanor Fye @eleanorfye
Kevin Lund
T.A. McCann @tamccann
Bill Flitter @bflitter
Drew Davis @TPLDrew
Matt Heinz @heinzmarketing

Customer-Centric Content: 10 Do's & 10 Do Not's.

It's no secret that if you want to engage your customers, you need customer-centric content. Business people, writers, and marketers are all getting on board with this. But what does customer-centric content look like? And, right now, I'm not talking about the medium or the delivery channel or the content provider. Sure, social media makes it easier to have a conversation with your customers, and customer-generated content is inherently customer-centric... but what about the copy that your company writes? With our ingrained habits of talking about ourselves, our company, and our key benefits, we're not always as good at writing from the customer's perspectives as we'd like.

Here are some tips to keep you focused.

Do Not:

1. Write about how wonderful your company is. It's not credible coming from you.
2. Use a gazillion wonderfully exciting adjectives to describe how unique and revolutionary your amazing new products and services are.
3. Use many words at all.
4. Focus on what you sell.
5. Be too stuffy and serious.
6. Expect your customers to come to your website...just because.
7. Expect to get it right the first time.
8. Interrupt your customers with irrelevant content when they're trying to do something.
9. Try to say more than one thing at one time.
10. Assume your customers are just like you.

Do:

1. Demonstrate that you know who your customers are, without telling them. 
2. Demonstrate how wonderful your company is, without talking about it.
3. Write as if you're a person, wanting to build a relationship with your customers.
4. Reflect your customers motivations, emotions, and life-context in your writing. 
5. Provide content that is relevant to both your customers, and your business. 
6. Be generous in sharing your knowledge in your area of expertise.
7. Get customer feedback, rewrite, revise, repeat.
8. Make products and service details easy to find and make the buying process easy.
9. Publish your content where your customers hang out. 
10. Focus on your industry expertise and customer needs.

Any other good ideas? Let me know.

Stakeholder interviews for quality content: Why, who, and how

Stakeholder interviews aren't very sexy. They're not new, or controversial, or unique to content strategy. They don't lend themselves to interesting diagrams or sketches. Both writers and clients often overlook them entirely. I'm not sure why. I think they just don't get it. They just don't see how powerful and useful stakeholder interviews can be. They must have tried it once, found it lacking, and gave up on it. If you're one of "them", I suggest you try again.

After all, how can we speak for our clients, if we don't speak to them? Here are some tips to make it easy for you.

Why do stakeholder interviews?

To build relationships and establish credibility. What better way to reach out and establish a conversation with the people who can make or break your project and those who know the most about it? You get to know them, they get to know you, and information is much more likely to flow your way after that. If you're walking in cold as a new project team member, stakeholder interviews (done right) are a fantastic way to establish yourself as someone who can listen, contribute, and add value.

To identify patterns. Whether you're trying to determine content requirements, business objectives, customer needs, or anything else, you have to look for patterns. And the best way to identify patterns is to ask each similar type of stakeholder a similar set of questions. Of course, you're going to ask on-the-fly follow up and probing questions, but when your core set of questions are consistent throughout your interviews, you'll find that patterns emerge. These patterns point you in the right direction.

To find discrepancies. Identifying differences of opinion early in the project is critical. If key stakeholders disagree it's better to bring that to light before any development is done. Sometimes discrepancies are OK (like different business units having different objectives) and can be dealt with in various ways. Other times, you really need to facilitate a commonly accepted approach, whether or not everyone is in agreement. For example, neither you nor the project will be successful if there is no widespread acceptance of who the target market is or how to communicate with them. Discrepancies can also indicate an abundance of subjective opinion and lack of real knowledge. You want to base your content strategy and content decisions on sound research and knowledge.

To unearth that golden nugget. It doesn't matter how prepared the project lead is, and how many stacks of documents they've given you outlining project research and requirements, there is ALWAYS a gold nugget still locked away in a stakeholder's brain. Maybe it's an interesting insight, or a great piece of research, or some examples that demonstrate what can't be articulated through words. Sometimes you just need to get the facts straight, or validate your assumptions. Stakeholders are powerhouses of knowledge, and there's always something new to find out through talking to them directly.

Who do you interview? The people who..

Hold the purse strings. We gotta keep them happy. They also tend to know a lot of useful stuff. Think department Directors, VPs, etc.

Influence the people who hold the purse strings. These people are a giant step closer to the actual project. They've usually fought to get the project budget from the person above and are highly invested in it. You better get input from these people, because if you head off in a direction they don't understand they'll stop you in your tracks. These are often business managers.

Have customer knowledge. These are your customer stand-ins and advocates. They work directly with customers and understand their motivations and pain points. They often have a practical perspective and can provide insights that help you to see past a mountain of wish-lists and identify the few, critical, customer must-haves. These may be call-centre staff, sales people, or service providers.

Have technical knowledge. It's all fine and well to create a brilliant content strategy, but if the client doesn't have the technical resources to make it happen, then it will die before it's born. Do your homework: talk to the IT guys.

Have subject matter knowledge. As a writer, you know a lot of stuff. Especially about writing. But odds are, there are people in the company who know a lot more about what you're writing about than you do. You need to combine your writing wizardry with their knowledge. These people could be anyone. They may have an official title (like "Subject Matter Expert"), or they could be any old employee who has specialized knowledge.

How do you interview?

Get as close as possible. Face-to-face is best. By phone is OK if necessary, and sometimes preferable. For example, I'll often choose to do stakeholder interviews over the phone prior to an out-of-town, on-site project kick off to begin establishing relationships and so I can have something to contribute when we all meet. Then when I arrive on site, they already feel like they know me. But for the most part, interview in person when possible. Don't use surveys of any sort.

Be respectful of time. There's no right or wrong time frame. It depends entirely on the purpose of the interview and who you're interviewing. But as a basic guideline, ask for half the time you think you'd really need and stick to it. If you frame your questions well, and stay on track, you won't need all the time you think you do anyway. And you can always follow up later if necessary. Most of my stakeholder interviews run about 20-45 minutes, depending on the purpose. Subject matter interviews may need longer, but for anything requiring more than 1 hour it's better to break it up over multiple sessions. Or turn it into a half day session and call it a workshop!

Carefully craft your questions. This is critical. Developing really effective interview questions is both art and science. Read up on how to design good interview questions for your objectives. Focus your questions on three or four main topics and make sure that every question counts. Edit out the weak questions and eliminate redundancy unless it's part of your interviewing strategy. Always test-drive your interview questions on a real person first. Bonus points if that test person has a similar knowledge base as your actual stakeholders.

Take good notes. Consider having someone else take notes for you so you can focus on the interview. Make notes of any potential quotes that you could use if you're delivering a stakeholder interview report. Quotes that reflect common themes are a great way to personalize the data you collect.

Content strategy tip: Show, don't tell.

If you're like most business people (and many writers), the concept of "show, don't tell" is hard to integrate. When I talk to clients about demonstrating their corporate characteristics, and living their brand, and acting on their mission statements, I always get very enthusiastic head nods, and "Yes!" exclamations. Everyone's excited and on-board. And then they say, "And on the home page, we need to say something like 'We care about each and every customer as if they were our children, and you can trust us to provide the best service in the industry, bar none! You have our word on that, and our word is our bond!'" Hmmm... they missed my point.

Please, for your own sake, stop trying to tell your customers what to believe. They don't like it, and they don't trust it. That kind of copy is not only useless, it's potentially damaging. People just don't believe what they're told anymore--they believe what they experience. You still need to develop key messages for your website, but instead of conveying these messages through your copy, you need to convey them through experience.

Let's look at the client's message above and see how we can turn web copy into web experiences.

What's the first message in their home page copy? "We care about each and every customer as if they were our children..." OK, fair enough. But, instead of telling them, how can we show that you care about them? First you have to care enough to really know and understand them. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Get to know your customers well. Parents don't care for their children simply by telling them they care. They look after them and guide them. How can you look after your customers? How can you guide them? (Hint: It's NOT by telling them that you have the perfect product for them!) When customers come to your site and find information that's useful and pleasantly surprising--information that fits into the context of their lives and makes them feel understood--then they know you care.

Next message? "...and you can trust us...". Can they? What inspires your customers to trust you? It certainly isn't you telling them to. But maybe it's your credentials, or your professional reputation, or how long you've been in business. Maybe it's because you're local, or maybe it's because you're global. It may be because you have testimonials or reviews or recommendations from other customers just like them. Or they may trust that if you've already sold 20 billion products to 20 billion happy customers, then they're likely to be a happy customer too. Again, it's all about knowing what inspires your customers to trust, and then showing them that you're trustworthy.

And: "...the best service in the industry..". Says who? Other than you, I mean. If you can back up that statement by showing that reputable organizations, publications, or awards have recognized you as being the best, then do it. If not, don't say it.

And finally: "You have our word on that, and our word is our bond!' Really? What guarantees or warranties do you offer? What's your return policy? What experiences have other customers had that demonstrate you sticking to your word? Make these things obvious on your site rather than your verbose promise. (And ditch the exclamation marks. Nobody trusts exclamation marks.)

If all of these messages are demonstrated through the content on your site, you don't need to say them. Your customers will see it, believe it, and say it for you.

So here's my challenge: Take a look at your corporate mission statement and key customer messages, and think about ways that you can demonstrate them through your web content. Then share your ideas with us in a comment below. And a call-out to all the other content strategists and web writers out there: What other messages and values have you demonstrated online, and how?

Where does "tone & voice" fit into your content strategy?

Frequently, a new client will ask me to set the “tone and voice” of their web content. And way too frequently, they don’t have a clue what tone and voice really is. They just know that they’re supposed to have one that works. So to all you business people out there who know you need an effective tone and voice, but don’t really know what that means, where it fits in your content strategy, and how to go about it... this one’s for you!

Tone and voice: What the heck is it?

The easiest way to understand your web copy’s tone and voice is to compare it with your mother.

The voice of your mother (and your web copy) is always recognizable. She has a clear point of view, a distinctive personality, and language idiosyncrasies that make her unique. Her “voice” never changes. It always sounds the same. It’s always recognizable as your mother.

Your mother’s tone, on the other hand, is changeable. She may use a completely different tone when baking cookies with her 5 year old grandson as she does when berating you for driving too fast. She may use a different tone of voice depending on the mood she’s in: angry, happy, confused, scared, or sad. She may use a different tone of voice depending on who she’s speaking to: her colleagues, her friends, her husband, or her children. She may also use a different tone of voice depending on the type of information she’s sharing: she’ll communicate serious information differently than she would tell a joke.

So, the voice remains consistent and recognizable, while the tone may change depending on the audience, the mood, and the message being communicated.

Where does tone and voice fit into your content strategy?

It’s an important piece of the much larger puzzle that makes up your overall content strategy. Yes, tone and voice is really important, but simply defining your tone and voice isn’t enough to get you where you need to go. If you’re looking at your web content seriously, you need to consider the other critical content elements: Are your content processes effective and efficient? Have you got good people with appropriate skill-sets caring for your content? Have you got a suitable content budget and can you demonstrate your content ROI? Does your content contribute to a positive customer experience? Is your content getting your business where it needs to go? Can you (and do you) test the effectiveness of your content? Have you got a clear plan for managing, developing, and publishing content over the next year? How can your content give you a competitive advantage?

Just as your mother by herself does not create a cohesive family, a strong tone and voice by itself does not create great content. Your web content needs to be effective and strategic, and an appropriate tone and voice is only one of the tools you use to get it there.

How do you develop an effective tone and voice?

First, think about voice. You need to have a voice that your core audience will relate to and trust. To do this, you need to really understand your customers. Who are they? How do they speak? Who do they trust, and why? What are they interested in? What do they want or expect from you? What gets them through their day?

An effective voice is not just about writing style. It’s just as much, or more, about what you have to say. What’s your key message? What’s your point of view? What kind of a communicator are you? How much information do you share, and when? How do you respond to customer feedback? What channels do you communicate through? All of these things impact your corporate “voice”, and this voice should personify your brand. 

Next, think about tone. For each different type of information, you need to define an appropriate tone. Do you want to use the same tone for your security guarantees, marketing copy, advertising copy, and customer service FAQs? Probably not. You should identify an appropriate tone to use for each type of content, based on its purpose and your customers’ goals and expectations.  

Finally, think about people and processes.  This is the glue that holds it all together! Now you need to determine the actual writing mechanics, phrasing, and vocabulary that create the desired tone and voice. Develop content prototypes and, if possible, test them with real customers. Make sure that your customers’ perceptions are aligned with your perceptions of the tone and voice, and that it’s effective. Create a writer’s style guide that documents writing and word choices. Keep it up-to-date, and ensure that it’s used by all content developers for all content. If you have multiple writers, assign an editor to ensure that your content has one consistent corporate voice, rather than a chorus of different voices. Make sure that your writers are comfortable using a style guide, and that you have sound content development processes that support quality content. 

So, just make sure that you know your company as well as you know your own mother. And before any word is written, ask yourself what your company would say.

How useful is your content?

Previously, I wrote about how you can ensure that your web content is readable. But it doesn't matter how readable it is if it's not useful. Here are four easy ways to make sure that your content is useful to your customers:

1. Create customer profiles and personas.
   
   Who are your customers? Exactly? Create 3 or 4 primary customer profiles and personas that define who they are, what their needs are, and what they want to accomplish on your site. What are their personal or business motivations? What do they most value? What helps them to make a final decision? Think about the type of content that may be useful to them that they don't even know they need. Use facts and data (to create profiles) and then weave those into engaging characters (or personas) to help you accurately focus your content.
    
   
2. Make it easy for your customers to do something useful.
   
   Your customers may want to contact you by e-mail, by phone, or by online chat. They may want to subscribe to your blogposts, leave a comment, or provide a product or service review. They may want to order your product or services online, refer you to a friend, or compare your products. Discover what they want to do on your site, and make it easy for them. (Tip: Customers don't often know what they want until they experience it!)
    
3. Help your customers to learn something useful.
   
   Most prospective customers will come to your site to learn more about your business or products and services. They may also want to learn about your customer service and support policies. Be generous and transparent in your information. Gone are the days when you could provide a morsel of vague information and expect customers to contact you to learn more. They'll just move on to another site that gives them the information they're looking for. Existing customers will come to your website for customer service and support, to purchase additional products or services, and, if you provide truly useful content, to learn more about something relevant to your business and their lives. That type of content (also known as content marketing) often takes the form of blogs or newsletters, and not only keeps your customers coming back, but is often widely shared among prospective customers.
    
4. Provide content that encourages customers to make a decision. 
   
   Most prospective customers won't make a purchasing decision until they have sufficient information about the product or service, and trust in your company. Why should they buy from you, instead of your competitor? Have other people just like them been happy with your product or service? Why should they buy Product A instead of Product B? Which of your products or services is best for them right now? What happens if they're not happy with their purchase? Again, be generous and transparent in your information. Prices, taxes, fees, additional charges, and return policies should be clear, unless you have a good reason not to publish that information. Testimonials, customer reviews, and customer comments help to instill trust. If your product or service offerings are extensive or confusing, help your customers to determine which is best for them.

How readable is your content?

Content readability is a basic writing fundamental that’s often overlooked when writers or researchers evaluate online content. I’m not sure why. It seems to have gotten a bit lost in all the complexities of content strategy and design. But your content isn’t worth spit if your audience can’t read it! Here’s a quick primer to help you understand the basics of readable online content.

What is readable content?

Content readability describes how easy or difficult it is to read and understand information. Readable content is familiar and invisible. You read it and don’t notice the words at all. You just end up with a strong sense of the message and the personality or brand behind the message. You don’t have to think, interpret, or decipher. You just sort of absorb the information, quickly and easily.

Why bother?

In case you need a few reasons beyond, “It’s the right thing to do”, check these out:

• The average North American adult reads at a grade 8 level.
• Consumers will not read web content that is difficult for them to understand.
• There are an increasing number of regulations and laws to ensure that public-facing legal, medical, and government information is easy to read.
• It’s becoming competitively critical to speak clearly and directly to your customers. If you snooze on this one, you’ll lose.

How do you know if your content is readable?

Integrate good content practices into your writing and editing cycles, and test your assumptions.

1.  Check your writing mechanics

There are some basic rules of readable content. Ask yourself these questions as you conduct your first round of editing:

• Do you mostly use an active voice? Use passive voice only when it serves a particular purpose.
• Do you use first and second person point-of-view whenever possible?
• Do you use consistent terminology? Don’t vary terms for variety sakes.
• Are your sentences short? Say, no more than twenty words per sentence?
• Are your paragraphs short? About 3 or 4 sentences per paragraph, max?
• Do you use serial commas?
• Do you use mostly simple sentence structures?
• Do you follow conventional rules of grammar (unless you have good reason not to)? 

2.  Check your information design

Since you’re editing for mechanics anyway, check this stuff too:

• Do you use lots of headings? Preferably short, descriptive ones.
• Are you presenting information in a way that makes it easier to scan? Maybe a bullet list, or a table, or an illustration, or a graph? Or something else. Just don’t automatically default to narrative text because you have no imagination.
• Is your page (or paragraph, or sentence) loaded with too much information?
• Does your information have a logical and natural flow that your audience will understand?
• Is there enough white space around and between the text?
• Is your type big enough so people don’t have to squint to read it? Typically, 10 pt for a general audience or 12 pt if your audience is over 45 or under 16 years old.
• Is your typeface legible? Sans serif fonts usually work well for online body text. 

3.  Use readability formulas

Readability formulas have their limitations, but they’re an effective way to identify possible problems early in the content creation cycle. They’re also a great way to show “before and after” improvement statistics. Here are two of the most common and easy-to-use readability formulas. You can set up Microsoft Word to run these formulas when you run your spelling check:

• Flesch Reading Ease: This formula takes into account the number of words in each sentence, and the number of syllables in each word. It gives you a score from 0-100, where 100 is extremely simple and 0 is extremely complex. The Plain Language Institute suggests that a score of 80 or higher is considered to be plain language. In web writing for a general consumer audience, we aim for 60 or above. This article scores 61.0 on the Flesch Reading Ease scale.
  
• Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: This formula takes Flesch Reading Ease results and translates them into North American school grade level equivalents. Remember that the average North American reads at a grade 8 level? That’s where your web writing should be, unless you have clear research about your audience that says otherwise. This article is written at a grade 7.6 level. 

4.  Most importantly, test with your audience!

Seriously, do not skip this step. You’ll be amazed at how effective this is in letting you know what’s really going on with your content. Find 6 or more people within your customer demographic to read through your web content. Ask them to find key information and then pay attention to how long it takes them and what they look at and read as they find their way to the target content. Then, ask them just a few questions to gauge their understanding of key concepts and get a feel for how they experienced the content. Nothing is better than putting real content and real customers together, and seeing what happens!

Now you know how to make your content readable, learn how to make your content useful!

40 web-writing lessons I learned from tech-writing

Most web writers come from different backgrounds. They may have trained in marketing, or journalism, or English literature, or a hundred other things. We each bring our unique experiences, passions, and skills to the way we communicate online. I consider myself very lucky to have a background in technical communications.

Here are some of the things that I learned as a tech-writer that help make me a really great web-writer.

1. Think in 3D. Consider access and departure points.
2. Consider how the information will be used.
3. Predict frustration points and eliminate them.
4. Write clearly.
5. Write consistently.
6. Use short sentences.
7. “Show”, rather than “tell”.
8. Provide context up front.
9. Use graphics and illustrations.
10. Follow rules and industry standards.
11. Break the rules when it helps you to communicate better.
12. Consider ways to help your audience find what they need.
13. Less is more. Except when it’s not enough. Learn the difference.
14. Embrace technology. You need it, so you need to understand it.
15. Know your audience.
16. Know your business drivers.
17. Have clear communication goals.
18. Make sure your goals focus on your audience.
19. Find ways to test your product’s success.
20. Be creative through the constraints.
21. Learn from other disciplines.
22. Break information into small chunks.
23. Think about different ways the chunks can fit together.
24. Layer information.
25. Use lists and tables.
26. Don’t vary word choices just to add variety.
27. Write descriptive headings.
28. Make sure the information hierarchy is visually obvious.
29. Design your information.
30. Learn how and when to use different information design techniques.
31. Write meaningful links.
32. Review and edit everything before it’s published.
33. If in doubt, write for a global audience.
34. Become best friends with your dictionary and style-guide.
35. Hone your project management skills.
36. Never sacrifice quality.
37. Deliver to deadline. Even if it’s not perfect.
38. Edit ruthlessly.
39. Polish your writing and editing skills. Never stop.
40. Find a great mentor, if you can. Thanks, Jerome!

Please add to this list, or create your own using your past experiences!

What Kind of Content Are You Serving?

What kind of content are you trying to serve to your customers?
And what does it say about you?

Hiring the Right Writer

You already know that it’s more effective and cost-efficient to hire a professional writer to develop your business copy than, say, getting the product manager or designer to do it. But how can you make sure that your content investment pays off? And why do so many professional writers do a lousy job of getting your message across?

Well, the good news is that bad writing is not necessarily the writer’s fault—it may very well be yours. That’s good because it means that great writing is within your control.

Many businesses hire writers because somebody tells them the writer is good or they read something the writer wrote, and liked it. This is a bad approach. There are way too many different types of writers, with different styles and skill-sets, writing for different audiences and business purposes. What’s divine in one instance is deadly in another.

Here are 6 steps to help you hire the write writer:

1. Don’t rely on their title

Writers use many different terms to describe their role: copywriter, web writer, technical writer, marketing writer, SEO writer, and content developer are a few of the most common. But these all mean different things to different people. The title is pretty much irrelevant. Ignore it.

2. Ask for writing samples that demonstrate familiarity with your project type

Just because somebody has written great marketing content on a website doesn’t mean that they have the skills to write user-interface text for your web application. An article writer who was trained in print media may not know how to effectively adapt their skills online, and an ad writer may make a mess of your e-newsletter.

The audience is also important. The skills needed to write for Mr. and Mrs. Everybody is very different than those needed to write for software developers, or the youth market, or research scientists. Is your writer experienced in speaking to your target audience in a natural and compelling way?

Look for strong writing samples that reflect a similar purpose, audience, and communication channel to your project.

3. Make sure they have sufficient subject matter knowledge or good research skills

Many businesses rely on writers to “create” rather than just “write” content. But writers need to get their information from somewhere. Be sure to hire a writer that has demonstrated a solid understanding of the subject, or has excellent research skills. Even if you’re providing all of the content, a writer who has research experience knows how to ask the right questions and can identify and strengthen weak areas in your content.

4. Choose somebody with the appropriate level of experience

If you have a good understanding of the writing requirements, only require one specific type of writing, and have a strong writer’s support system, then a junior writer may be appropriate. Look for a writer who is articulate and eager, has an adaptable writing style, and at least some experience in your specific type of project. It’s ok if this experience was gained through a school project or volunteer work. It’s essential that they know how to ask relevant questions and follow direction and the systems you have in place. I’ll talk about more how you can support your writers next week.

If you do not have a good support process in place, or if you need a writer to develop content for different purposes across multiple communication channels, then you need an experienced writer. Look for a writer who can clearly explain how their writing approach will be different in each context and the processes that they follow.

5. Choose a writer who can articulate and defend their writing choices

With every sentence we write, we make a series of choices. During the interview process, ask the writer to explain why they made the choices that they did, both in terms of language and information design. Listen to see if you think their points are valid in speaking about your business to your target audience. If the project is online, can they explain why their content is easy-to-use and easy-to-read? Can they explain why their content is compelling and effective?

6. Verify the quality of their writing

Get an expert’s opinion of the quality of the applicant’s writing. This is often easiest when you ask each shortlisted candidate to complete a brief writing assignment. This way, you can directly compare writing styles and techniques based on a writing sample relevant to your project. If you don’t have the necessary background to effectively evaluate the quality of the writing, hire a professional editor to provide feedback. For many people, mediocre writing may appear to be great. But the impact of mediocrity on your business can be huge.