Hello all.
Do you feel like you are fighting an uphill battle sometimes? I do. Recently, I was talking to a client. I went through all the things they needed to consider when making their website content. I thought it had gone well. But, the next time I met with them and asked about the writing, she told me that she had ignored my advice and just sat down and wrote it. Apparently my advice was too complicated and time-consuming, and I could see her point.
Writing for the web is harder than people think, and that is why you should hire a professional. Unfortunately, that rarely happens, so we end up with poor copy.
Ask for less
Of course, wishing things were different achieves nothing. So what are we to do?
Well, I am beginning to realize that I need to ask less from my clients. We are in danger of overwhelming them in our attempt to improve the quality of their websites. Instead, I am starting to focus on just two things.
First, I encourage them to at least start from a different perspective. Instead of asking themselves “what do I want to say,” I am encouraging them to ask “what do users want to know?”
Mostly, people want answers to their questions. So, if I can get my clients thinking about what the questions might be and write their copy as answers, it will at least be relevant!
Second, I ask them to do the following:
- Run all of their content through the Hemingway App. This will fix all their grammar and spelling.
- Take advantage of the great AI tools in the app to improve clarity and scannability.
- Use the app to adjust the tone of the content to suit the audience.
This will never replace a good copywriter. But, it is, at least, something to ensure the copy works online. It does this by making the copy easy to skim and read.
Surprisingly good results
It’s kind of depressing that we are at this point where people underinvest in the most crucial part of any website. But, if we can get clients and stakeholders to do these two very basic things, it will be something. And to be honest with you, these two steps do result in surprisingly good content.
That said, if you want to help improve your copy or the content your stakeholders provide, reply to this email. To be honest, I could use an interesting new project, as internal processes are slowing down a lot of my current work. It doesn’t have to be anything big. You can learn more about the help I can provide here.
Sorry to end with a blatant ad. I get bored easily ;-)
