Improve your web writing skills

Editorial Skills for Charities
Workshop
26 January 2012

www.charitycomms.org.uk

Improve your web writing skills

Editorial skills for charities workshop

Content © Anna McLoughlin :
2 www.inkspiller.co.uk www.inkspiller.co.uk

Hello.

I’m Anna McLoughlin
@AnnaInkspiller on Twitter

3 www.inkspiller.co.uk

What will we cover?
What people want from your website
How to make web content easy to read and use
Who you’re writing for
How to write in a meaningful way for them
How to move them to take action

You will leave with:

A web copywriting blueprint for your website
A web content framework for effective web writing


People want content
They want to read as little as possible … and no more

Image from: www.trafficcoleman.com

They don’t read more because….

They are busy
They want answers
It’s not relevant
They want to do something
They want to grab and go!


Good web writing is a conversation

“Think of your web content as a focussed conversation,
started by a busy person”

- Ginny Redish ‘Letting Go of the Words’


Your side of the conversation…
Good web writing answers people’s questions:

- “How do I donate ?”

- “Where do I find out about getting some support?”

- “May I volunteer for you?”

- “Can you tell me more about what you do?”


Good web writing lets them grab & go


Where to start?

“Writing is a lot easier if you have something to
say”
- Sholem Asch


Blueprint

The ‘Web Copywriting Blueprint’ is a set of golden questions

It never fails to help work out what to say and how to say it

Take this away and brainstorm the questions with colleagues

Find your Blueprint at:http://tinyurl.com/6rmne6z


The Blueprint covers

Stage 1: What you want to achieve

Stage 2: Talk to the right people

Stage 3: Talk about the right things, in the right way

Stage 4: For the right result


Stage 1: What you want to achieve

What does your website do for you at the moment?

e.g. Help raise funds, raise awareness, provide support.

What would you like people to do on your site?

e.g. Donate


Stage 2: It’s all about the audience


Stage 2: Talking to the right people
Who are your audience?
Are they male or female?
How old are they?
What kind of work do they do?
What is their expertise and experience?
What other sites do they visit?
What are their hobbies?
What are their values?
What motivates them?


Gather information

Read emails; what are they asking?
Talk to marketing
Talk to Customer Service
Conduct a survey
Watch and listen in physical locations
Interview people
Do usability testing


Use information to create personas

Persona developed at Be Good, Be Social.
Photo credit: juliebee.co.uk

Put a face and name to your persona

Personas of people seeking aid information
Source: www.aidinfolabs.org


Stage 2: What do they want?

When gathering information, pay attention to the words
your audience use:

Why are they coming to you?
What are their questions?
What are their problems?
What key tasks do they have in mind?


How easy are your key tasks?
In a study of 60 non-profit sites, the Nielsen Norman Group found:

“Giving money on charity websites is 7% harder than
spending money on e-commerce sites. The top priority
for non-profits is to write clearer content.”
- Jakob Nielsen, 2011

• It took 7% more time to complete a donation than in a separate
ecommerce study


Research findings
Nielsen asked people to complete key tasks:
Key Task Result
Choosing which charity to donate to Poor: Not enough information to
determine value or
trustworthiness
Making a first time donation 7% worse than best practice

Making a repeat donation Average rating of 5.7 out of 7
Non-monetary contributions Rated poor

Volunteering Rated good: straightforward
information provided


Communicate value
The top priority is transparency about what a charity does,
the impact and why it’s important:

“Non-profits must clearly communicate their value
proposition if they want to attract volunteers and
online donations.”
- Jakob Nielsen, 2011

• Report available to buy at:
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/donations/


Taglines

It should be clear what your charity does at first glance

A strong tagline is priceless, e.g. “A Dog is for Life”.

For inspiration, browse the ‘Non Profit Tagline Database’
report at: http://gettingattention.org/


What do you do?


Can you help me?


Emotional connections
Do they have a personal connection to your charity?

How are they likely to be feeling?

Anxious?
Frustrated?
Skeptical?

“Web content for people who are angry, frustrated, anxious or stressed
has to be particularly clear and simple”
-Ginny Reddish


Sensitive to children’s feelings


Stage 3: Golden questions

What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?

Why hasn’t this been solved before?

What is different now we’ve come along?

How do we know?


Stage 3: Talking in the right way
Avoid the “we we” effect; don’t talk about yourself, talk
about your cause

Don’t make yourself the reason to give, e.g. “Help empower
them” rather than “Help us change this”

Show why what you’re doing is important or relevant to
your audience

Demonstrate outcomes, e.g. “20 homeless people now
have jobs” rather than “we trained 20 homeless people”.

Stage 4: Strong “calls to action”


What we’ve covered so far…

Now you should have a clearer idea:

Who you are talking to
What they need from you
How to talk about your charity in a meaningful way for
them
What you want to achieve


Finding your voice

Remember it’s a conversation:

So, who are you?
What are your values?


Tone of voice exercise

Try contrasting values:

“Professional, not academic.”
“Confident, not arrogant.”
“Clever, not cutesy.”
“Savvy, not hipster.”
“Expert, not preachy.”

Exercise from Kristina Halvorson’s “Content Strategy for the Web”


This, not this
Less Like More Like

Contact us Get in touch!

Our content offers many unexpected benefits More than good web writing. Way more.

Our writers have a myriad of creative skills and Our writers aren’t just well-trained. They’re
substantial technical expertise seriously talented.

We have an enthusiasm and passion for content Everyone here loves content. A lot.
that shows in all we do.

Adapted from Kristina Halvorson’s “Content Strategy for the Web”

Create a word bank

Created at wordle.net


Use the word bank to write


A simple content framework

Give your content the best possible chance of being read

Find your content framework at:
http://tinyurl.com/6sj4w2p


How people scan web pages
People read in a rough ‘F’ shape

38 Eye tracking research from useit.com
www.inkspiller.co.uk

Help them read your content
Using the ‘Inverted Pyramid’ style will help people read and use your
content

Image from http://www.internetmarketinginc.com/


Headlines are critical
Focus on what’s important to your audience

CareLogger: 32.2% increase in sign-ups just by changing the headline
Source: Abtests.com


Be clear and concise


Explain the offer


Appeal to emotions


Arouse curiosity


Use subheadings, lists & links
Before After
Get Seen, Get Heard with MTV and Want to Play a Stadium & Help End Poverty?
Oxjam!
- It all starts at Oxjam & on MTV this
Wanna be the next Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Hot October!
Chip? Want stardom, to play to adoring fans and
the chance to make a difference? Now you can Film yourself playing at an Oxjam event this
(but you better move quick). October and you could win the chance to play
alongside the UK’s biggest bands at a major
Film yourself playing an Oxjam event in fundraiser next year.
October and you could be one of four new acts
playing alongside Britain’s biggest bands at a What next: Oxjam Timeline
major fundraising gig next year. It’s a real
chance to change lives, including your own! Now: Register at MTV Flux and Oxjam
Oct: Go, play and film your gig
October is going to be jampacked with music Oct: Upload your video to MTV Flux
madness. Dec: Top videos play on MTV
Jan: Viewers pick the finalists
See the Oxjam Timeline Apr: Winners get to play at Help Make Poverty
History

Testimonials and stories

WikiJob: Adding testimonials increased sales by 34%
Source: abtests.com

Use stories
People want to help people


Calls to action
Make calls to action about the audience, not you.
e.g. “Fight for good” not “We need your donation”.

Campaign Monitor:26.6% more people responded to ‘Give us your best ideas!” Source: abtests.com


“On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28%
of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.”
- Jakob Nielsen

Reduce your word count by half
Can you reduce it in half again?
People will get more information with less content


Perfecting your copy

Use the checklist on the Framework
Let it sit overnight
If it bothers you; cut it
Read aloud
Get someone else to read it
Don’t rely on spell check alone
Read from the bottom of the document to the top


To conclude
Good web writing is like a conversation
Understand who you are talking to and their questions
Provide what they want to know in a way that’s relevant
Establish a tone of voice
Structure your copy so they can ‘grab and go’
Write in an inverted pyramid style
Edit ruthlessly

Take-away tools:
Blueprint: http://tinyurl.com/6rmne6z
Web Content Framework: http://tinyurl.com/6sj4w2p


Thanks for your time

Feel free to ask questions:
Anna McLoughlin
anna@inkspiller.co.uk
Twitter: @AnnaInkspiller


Improve your web writing skills

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