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Copywriting for the Web
January 6, 2003
Conducted by Sally Kavanagh
Academy of Web Specialists
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Sally Kavanagh: What is the subject matter for your sites?
Pnidoc: One is a sales site for a series of stress management
product; others sell stress products for teachers and futures traders.
Sally Kavanagh: There must be plenty of potential with that one.
Pnidoc: Yes.
Sally Kavanagh: OK, would you like
to run through a few of the copywriting basics or would you like talk about a
specific topic?
Pnidoc: Basics never hurt if you don't mind.
Sally Kavanagh: In my view, the first thing to think about is
exactly who you are writing for - who is your target audience and then adopt
the most suitable style for that particular audience.
Sally
Kavanagh: In other words, you would write differently for futures traders
than you would on a site selling music to young people. It might seem obvious,
but it is very important.
Sally Kavanagh: Next - Think about
exactly what you want the site/page (or anything else for that matter) to
achieve and make a plan
Pnidoc: I think that I get lured into
overusing a style because I'm comfortable with it.
Sally Kavanagh:
You must be flexible and write for you audience and medium
Pnidoc: Yes.
Sally Kavanagh: For example you would write
advertising copy differently from a feature article, I mean you would use
different words and different sentence constructions.
Sally
Kavanagh: A plan is important because it allows you to structure what you
are writing and prevents waffle. It also helps to get the reader to where you
want them.
Pnidoc: Waffle?
Cindy T: I prefer
pancakes myself, but what is waffle?
Sally Kavanagh: OK, I
struggle with your jargon!! Padding, not keeping to the point.
Pnidoc: Got it.
Sally Kavanagh: A useful point - I
didn't write for my transatlantic audience!
Cindy T: going off
on a tangent...
Sally Kavanagh: Yes...
Sally
Kavanagh: Oh - I thought you were going to make a point. Yes you're right
Sally Kavanagh: With those two points in mind, writing for the
web it's a very direct medium, short attention span of audience and very
informal as a rule.
Sally Kavanagh: So keep it short, punchy,
very to the point and usually more personal than for most other media.
Sally Kavanagh: I read a very interesting bit about engaging your
audience recently - See what you think. This is anng paragraph:
"Listening to great programming on WBFO while sipping a big mug of coffee is a
daily ritual for many people…"
"How about you?…"
"I'm writing
to invite you to be part of the WBFO 200 pound coffee challenge."
End of
quote
Cindy T: Would work for the coffee drinkers, but
eliminates the rest of the population.
Sally Kavanagh: It's
interesting how its been constructed. The first sentence makes you feel part of
a group - joining others in drinking your coffee. But it does peak your
curiosity as to what the challenge is.
Sally Kavanagh: Yes
Cindy - But perhaps makes you want to join the group i.e. coffee drinkers
Cindy T: LOL! Not me, but maybe someone else would.
Sally Kavanagh: Don't you like coffee? Or are you one of those who just
won't join groups?
Cindy T: Not a coffee drinker.
Sally Kavanagh: I think it conveys a nice cozy image - even if you don't
drink coffee? But I take your point that any piece of text will be read
differently by different people.
Cindy T: You are right about
the cozy image.
Sally Kavanagh: And perhaps the non coffee
drinkers are not your target audience anyway. Heavens - I didn't realize that
sentence would be so contentious.
Sally Kavanagh: The second
sentence I think is good too. How about you? It engages the audience, its also
short and snappy, which is usually informal and finally, it uses the first
person to make the invitation, again it engages the audience and is friendly
and informal.
Sally Kavanagh: Any one care to comment - do you
think its a good intro?
Cindy T: Yes.
Pnidoc:
Agreed.
Cindy T: It gets your attention and interest and
asks for action to be taken.
Sally Kavanagh: What Cindy says
reflects perfectly AIDA, do you all know about AIDA?
Sally
Kavanagh: Attention, Interest, Decision, Action.
Sally
Kavanagh: It relates primarily to writing advertising copy, but I think it
works very well for web copy as well. It automatically gives you a structure to
work within
Sally Kavanagh: Starting with getting your
audience's attention - sometimes its best to start with the conclusion. For
example, if you were writing a page about the use (or not) of frames, it would
be better to start something like: Frames - don't use them!
And then go on
to explain, what they are, why they are used, why to avoid them, pros and cons
etc.
Shermanhu: LOL - Nothing like getting to the point, huh?
Appeals to me - does this appeal to all topics and audiences, or to be used
sparingly?
Sally Kavanagh: Most topics, most (online)
audiences.
Sally Kavanagh: With web audiences, you can assume
that very few will read to the end of the page, so the information should
appear in order of importance, rather than a perhaps more logical order.
Sally Kavanagh: Web audiences have a short attention span, so
there is a need for brevity. So I think its better to keep pages short rather
than long and use links to other short pages for different but related topics.
Sally Kavanagh: Not always true but I think its better to use
this idea and have longer pages only when you decide its necessary.
Shermanhu: Sally, when does it make it absolutely necessary?
Sally Kavanagh: When you want to provide a lot of technical info for a
product. The first couple of paragraphs will sell (or not) the product. But
some people will then want all the technical info - or sometimes just the
reassurance that it is available.
Shermanhu: True.
Sally Kavanagh: Sometimes its better to put the technical stuff on a
separate page, sometimes not, it can be useful text to use for positioning. A
good rule of thumb is how much would you read on that page.
Shermanhu: I think technical can always be used on another page, the
sales page could be used for the intro sales message, plus other credibility
statements and testimonials and benefits.
Sally Kavanagh: I
agree but what happens if you have a site with a lot of related products. For
example: I look after a site selling picture framing tools. I need the
technical info on each products and I don't necessarily want to double the
number of pages.
Shermanhu: True, in that situation, one could
keep the tech info on the same.
Sally Kavanagh: Copywriting is
totally subjective - what sells to one person will make another go straight to
the nearest competitor. My aim is always to decide what I am trying to do - not
let it happen by default.
Sally Kavanagh: Going back to long
sales letters - I find more than the first page totally redundant. Does anyone
else agree?
Sally Kavanagh: I am on the mailing list for
Nightingale Conant self improvement tapes and keep on it just because they send
out sales letters that are such perfect examples of long sales letters.
Sally Kavanagh: But however much I read I never get any more
info than they were prepared to give in the first couple of paragraphs.
Sally Kavanagh: Time is about up - any comments?
Shermanhu: I believe there are two camps - the direct marketers who like
their long sales copy, and the other camp who like to get to the point. Provide
value to the audience, also understanding their audience is intelligent and
time will tell which camp's ideals prevail.
Sally Kavanagh: Do
you know of any research, Sherman, that shows which is more effective?
Shermanhu: I lean towards "effective brevity".
Sally
Kavanagh: Me too.
Shermanhu: I know the direct marketers
have some research like that, including why pop-ups work and their stats, I'll
see if there's any concrete research around. I used to get complaints from
clients who would read an 18 pager.
Pnidoc: Can you point us in
the direction of a good example? Of brevity that is...
Sally
Kavanagh: Like all marketing it must depend on the particular market - I
like to stay with technical stuff, ideally B2B engineering etc.
Shermanhu: And still did not know what they were buying or the cost of
it - so I understand from a customer's and marketer's point of view to provide
what a customer needs. Maybe with the typical biz op crowd, that works.
Sally Kavanagh: 18 pagers would infuriate me - the waste of
paper would be enough to decide me against the company that sent it
Shermanhu: I don't think its a cookie cutter, it varies with audiences,
like how one would write for a technical, entrepreneurial or artsy crowd. Or
different demographics, age ranges, personalities.
Sally Kavanagh:
Exactly - write for the audience and the medium.
Shermanhu:
True.
Sally Kavanagh: Pnidoc - next time I see a good brief
page, I'll make a note. I keep Jakob Nielsens home page as myr. He always
comes straight to the point - and with no fancy design work to get in the way.
Sally Kavanagh: www.useit.com
Shermanhu: Also
look at www.nickusborne.com
Sally Kavanagh: I think my coffee
example came from Nick.
Shermanhu: He writes a good book on
copywriting, "Net Words".
Sally Kavanagh: I'll look out for it.
Sally Kavanagh: Anyway - my tea awaits me. Thank you all for
coming, and have a very happy and prosperous new year. See you all again soon I
hope.
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