CopyDiva

Yesterday, I coined a new term that I hope will make it into Webster’s . As is the case whenever you’ve got a technology, new terms come into play.

Twitterspam doesn’t quite cover what I mean, so, my new term is:

Micro-verbose: (adjective): 1. Tweeting repeatedly over a short period of time. 2. Tweeting sentence after sentence to complete a thought that’s much better suited for a blog post, Facebook note, or other social updating service that has no character limit; 3. Tweeting play-by-plays of sports matches, particularly soccer and hockey matches, to the sheer annoyance of the people who follow you.

Just last week, a fellow writer asked my advice on whether she should take a class to learn HTML, if that would make her more marketable. Myself, I haven’t ever taken a class, but have picked up some basic HTML coding as necessary. Now though, I think there may not be a real need for making text changes or updates.

I just learned about Texty, which calls itself Simple Content Management and Syndication. Basically, using Texty, all you need to do is create a page using its basic WYSIWYG editor, which looks practically the same as the one I am using right now to create this post with Wordpress’ WYSIWYG. Add graphics, change fonts, etc, make it look how you need it to. Then, Texty creates a snippet of code you place into your page’s source code. That’s it - the page you get is the page you wrote in Texty. Plus, anytime you want to change the text, just edit it at Texty and it automatically updates the page.

This has to be one of the most basic, handy and incredibly useful Web 2.0 ideas I have seen lately. I, for one, intend to use it often.

Copywriting, like other creative arts, can sometimes be a difficult task to accomplish. For most people — those who don’t like writing, or those who just don’t have to write for more than basic business needs — copywriting, or any kind of marketing or sales support writing — is an exercise in self-torture. They would rather clean toilets all day to avoid working on the task.

Well, I feel for ya, but that isn’t the trouble I have. My biggest issue is allowing myself the concentrated thinking time to do the writing. Sure, sometimes I need to bang something out quickly, and I can do that because I have that ability to “just get it done.” Or, what I am working on — an article, press release — doesn’t really take too much of that thinking time to put together.

But, when I need to really think about a message, and how a potential customer might read it, it takes time. I need to get out of that place where I’ve got meetings, I’m answering emails, calling people. All those interruptions make that focus place hard to maintain.

The good thing is, once I discipline myself to take that time, the actual writing comes rather quickly. It’s the unplugging that’s harder to do.

Many companies spend big bucks to flesh out their brand personality, hoping to infuse the final results across the board in all of their communications. But, does that really happen? Many times, brand personality gets lost when translated into online content — web content, blog posts, online help and customer support communications — because it is just so hard for the wide group of people charged with writing these communications to try and write with one voice.

What’s a corporation to do? On the one hand, it’s good to present consistent-sounding communications to people — it makes them feel more comfortable, reduces their anxiety when dealing with you. On the flip side, I admit that “corporate-speak” is kind of creepy and reinforces anxiety from a site visitor, customer, prospect, angry customer, etc, that really no human beings work there.

My opinion: when there are too many rules about what you can say, and how you can say it, you really sound like you’re saying nothing. I see this all the time when companies have extensive style guides (think more than 4-5 pages for writing style guides) and rules about what’s allowed. Unless someone is a really fantastic copywriter, you’re left with the icky corporate-speak that reduces readability and makes your company sound fake.

Most people find writing to be torture activity (go ahead, ask your colleagues that are not writers). Introducing too many rules just makes people freeze up and lose their will to make a coherent sentence.

How to sound real, not fake
Remember, online content of all kinds needs personality in order to make it compelling enough to read. Reading on-screen is tiring and people are willing to read less and less. So, save the corporate-speak for the board room and use real language to talk to your customers, prospects and other readers.

Some general rules to follow when writing anything you want someone outside your company to read:

1. Speak the language of your audience: Use words they understand and are comfortable with.
2. Use a tone that instills confidence and familiarity: Even more important than #1, the more your tone fits, the more likely the reader will connect with it. For example, a communication to customers about security would most likely have a more formal or respectful tone than, say, a customer support communication, where a friendly tone might work better to reduce anxiety.
3. Toss most style guide rules aside (for now): Follow rules for spelling, trademark use, stuff like that. Leave the rest behind, take a deep breadth and try to understand how a reader might feel before reading your communication — happy? confused? frustrated? interested? Work your tone to fit. After your get the tone right, go back and see if you can manage to squeeze in any of the style guide requirements.

In Gerry McGovern’s most recent edition of his excellent New Thinking e-mail newsletter, he covers a bit of interesting territory regarding web content. Are the words people use to search the same words they want to see when they land on your website? Here’s what Gerry has to say about it: “The words that people search with may not always be the words they would like to read when they arrive at a webpage. Search needs to be understood as a particular type of mental behaviour. Once the customer arrives at a webpage, a whole new set of words may kick in. One set of words to bring customers to your website-another set to get them to complete a task.”

The example he uses is a search for cheap hotels. Now, if you were to do a search for cheap hotels, or even discount hotels, it doesn’t mean you want a crappy hotel. You just don’t want to pay more than you have to. So, searching for a cheap hotel doesn’t mean you want to land on a website that has a headline something like “Here’s a cheap hotel!”

This search vs. web words difference isn’t universal, but it is a good exercise to think about what you want a site visitor to do once you get them to your site:

• make sure they see the keywords or phrases that let them know they are in the right place
• help them complete a task by making it easy to find what they want, whether it’s watch a demo, download a white paper, get customer support, etc
• use the right words to make them comfortable as you guide them to complete a task

What does it take to show customers, partners, investors and competitors that your company fits in, gets it and is a force to reckon with? For marketers, one among many is the way your company talks about itself. Do you understand the marketplace? Do you use the right terminology? Are you solving customer pain points?

All this is fine, but where you lose me is when you start talking in junk words because you can’t think of anything else to say. I find this particularly troublesome on overview pages where companies often find it difficult to think of something to say. What happens (as on this page from IBM) is it isn’t readable. Its just a long verbose mess of big words strung together in the hope of getting someone to click somewhere else. Ack! This is where the use of junk words comes in — when there is nothing really to say, these marketers resort to junk words to fill up a page and sound important. The end result is it sounds forced and boring. Remember, web site visitors aren’t going to stick around and read your junk words, so don’t bother. If you don’t have anything to say, don’t say it.

I don’t necessarily mean to pick on IBM — the same junk words can be found in so many other places on the web, they were just the first site I went to today. Go to Oracle, Sun, HP, Mercury, pretty much most any firm that sells into the IT space and you will find some of my all time favorite marketing junk words:

• enable: Used universally by all the above and many others, this has to be the weakest verb in use. Whenever I hear it, I think of the spouse of an alcoholic. Why IT firms think that being an enabler is a good thing is beyond me — too many negative associations. Besides, there are so many better verbs out there!
• solutions: Used when you can’t do a good enough job being clear about what it is you’re selling. This word wore out its welcome in the late 90’s.
• best of breed: This pains me. I mean, what, is this a replacement for the useless word quality? To me this reeks of “I don’t know how to differentiate myself from my competition, so I will just say I am the greatest and hope it sticks.”

Whenever I work with new clients that use these words, I quietly rush to get rid of them and move to explain their benefits in friendly plain language that people will read without the glaze over effect. It forces people to really be clear in how they stack up to their competition.
So what are your favorite junk words? There are many others that could go here, but I hate to beat on something for too long, so here I am stepping down from the soapbox…Your turn to step up.

Have you heard of Wordie.org? This latest social networking tool has potential for serious word nerds and snobs — you know, copywriters, technical writers, documentation managers, editors and the like — but will it resonate with people looking to connect? So far, no one has commented on any of my word lists, but then again, I haven’t bothered to do that for anyone else. Then again, I used to subscribe to an editor’s list, and there was so much passionate activity on that list I had to cancel my subscription — people do care about words and word usage. Somebody, please comment on any of my word lists!

One of the pitfalls in high-tech marketing is that more often than not, the language used to speak with potential customers, journalists and investors is nothing more than, well, bad. Too technical, full of jargon, hard to read. Many high-tech marketers assume that customers looking for a technology solution want technical terms tossed around. In my experience, this is almost always a bad assumption.

Let’s put it this way: if I can’t understand why I need or want you (your product, service, application, etc), then I don’t need you. Period.

But, should all materials read at a 4th grade level? If you’re writing a best-selling book or magazine, definitely. For marketing and other writing, it really depends on your industry and the pre-existing knowledge of the reader. Example: One of my clients sells a sophisticated business intelligence service to Wall Street investors. Do these traders care how the technology works? No. In fact, that will just confuse them. They just want to know how it helps them improve investment strategy. If this service was sold to engineers experienced in artificial intelligence, the approach would be different.

Readability scores like Flesch-Kincaid, and the Fog Index help you determine readability, but are not a perfect science. These tools rely on artificial intelligence rules that don’t always apply. For example, one parameter of the Fog Index is the number of syllables per word — more syllables means more complicated. But, is that always right? Are the words “asparagus” and “integrated” really the same level of difficulty? They both have four syllables, but most people know what asparagus is.

The best way to improve readability in marketing, blogs, articles, even white papers:

1. Use the active voice: Write your sentences in the active voice instead of the passive voice. Active engages readers, passive drags down readability.

2. Use simpler language: Perfect example — instead of “utilize,” a 3-syllable word, try “use.” Opt for shorter simpler words wherever you can. Don’t try to impress with your large vocabulary.

3. Vary sentence length: Write the way people talk. Most people speak in phrases that vary in length, especially good public speakers. Write a mix of sentence lengths to keep the tempo lively.

4. Use the language of your audience: Writing for people who have specific technical knowledge? Use terms they understand, but sparingly. Too much jargon bores even the most technically-adept person.

5. Drop the word “solution” from your vocabulary: Unless you sell mixtures of chemicals, think of a better way to describe what it is you sell. This is the most abused word in high-tech marketing, and it’s my personal mission to eradicate that word from all of my client’s content and marketing. Join the good fight and get rid of it in yours too!

Back in the Web 1.0 days, dot-coms and big companies alike used endlessly ridiculous phrases (always ending in solutions, of course) to try and puff up their image and make it sound like they actually had something to sell. Some very funny person created an auto-generator of these sound-bites that I was happy to learn is still live. Have a little fun at the web economy bullshit generator and discover that, alas, many of these phrases are still in use…

This week in his Excess Voice newsletter, Nick Usborne’s article asked the question: what is trustworthy information online? Apparently, blogs and other social networks are moving down in credibility among consumers. In fact, according to a story in Brandweek, a new study by Jupiter Research reports that only 21% of consumers trust the product information found on social networks like blogs and forums. And, get this – they are twice as likely to trust the information they find on corporate web sites.

If you’re in charge of the content on your web site, use this to your advantage – don’t abuse the trust. Don’t hype. Give site visitors the real information they want.

The whole trust element I find personally interesting as it relates to the book reviews I post here. I wonder, and I posed this to Nick as well: would it be more valuable content for readers if book reviews were not all just glorious praise? What if I reviewed a business book that I ended up thinking wasn’t very useful? Should I post that on my site? Certainly, no one would buy it based on my review, so why post with an affiliate link to Amazon? ‘true that the books I review are just ones that I find helpful. Is there a place for a broader spectrum?

Although you may be under the impression that marketing’s job is to promote the company/product/service, I am here to tell you that, in fact, that’s not it. Marketing’s job is to be the audience advocate, to focus on the needs, wants, desires of customers and prospects, to get that essential information they’re looking for into their heads so they can perhaps make a decision to take the next step. In today’s world, people are just too darn cynical to ever be convinced by fluff language, product glamour shots or any of the staid tools used to convince business folks to consider your product or service.

Ok, so how can you be an audience advocate? Well, one of the ways I do this when I am formulating my writing is by resisting the constraints of formats, grammar, punctuation — the rules of writing. Instead, I stay right brain and save the left brain stuff for later. Truly the way to get the best ideas out is to let them flow unconstrained, without
judgement.

If you’ve ever been in a brainstorming meeting choked by nay-sayers, you understand what I mean. You know, those people who shut down tossed out ideas because they don’t quite seem to fit. I say, leave all the ideas up on the white board. Sure, they may go away later, but that one seemingly random thought could spur genius ideas from others in the room. If you cast it aside, you’re sure to shut down possible ideas or key points people have. Plus, it makes everyone else afraid to contribute ideas.

In the work I do, I spend a lot of time in conversation with product managers and marketing managers who sometimes get a bit hung up on HOW to say what they want to say. When this happens, its my job to be the audience advocate and assure them that, yes, I can figure out the wordsmithing part. What I need from them is their ideas, not their wordsmithing.

So remember to be the audience advovate. When it comes to creating sales support, marketing and especially web content, it’s so important to focus on what the customer wants to hear, not what you want to tell them. That’s your job as the advocate.