The High Value of Simple Content

By JO MARSICANO

This week I saw an outstanding website and felt inspired to feature it here. In the interest of full disclosure, the site owner is a professional associate.

Alison Brown Cerier’s site is fantastic because she takes her compelling brand promise and turns it into simple web content.

The site has enough but not too much information to communicate Cerier’s brand. Her home page is a quick, creative read on what she delivers, with an eye-catching site ID. Her other tabs quickly flesh out her credentials, specific deliverables, and contact info.

Cerier makes it simple for me to understand the compelling service she offers.

Why simple works best
In his book Killer Content, Gerry McGovern puts all content into one of two categories: filler or killer. Cerier’s website is all killer, no filler.

Why is simple content the best? Because that’s what web customers need. They’re impatient. They need to know who you are, what you do, and why they should care…and they need to know fast.

I recently wrote the web content for a small exterminator business whose new business came almost totally by telephone. So the website’s job was to compel people to call. Not click on a bunch of extra links. Not read a bunch of extra text. But call.

So I wrote web copy that clearly communicated the exterminator’s work and credentials, a little info about price, and how fast he came to your home. Then I placed the phone number prominently at the top of each page. Simple.

Simple content is not simplistic. It gives just enough information to communicate the point, and gives the customer an easy way to take action.

That’s what Cerier has done with her site. She uses visuals and navigation to support the content – not the other way around.

Simple content.

A refreshing—and effective—way to do a website.

How simple is your content?

Upcoming post: Let's get addicted to the “delete” key

The Easy Rules of Good Web Writing

by JO MARSICANO

Good web writing is like other good writing: its value should be unmistakable. You have to decide what to say, to whom, and why.

Writing instructor Mervin Block says, “Write to express, not to impress.” Above all, writing should express an idea, motivate an action, communicate a value. It should support your business goals or organizational objectives. It should entice the web user to read and take action.

A tip: Mervin Block’s instructions for writing broadcast news are an excellent primer for web writing. The two writing styles are very alike because they focus on short, clear writing. I recommend his book, Writing Broadcast News: Shorter, Sharper, Stronger to enhance your web writing.

A numeric formula
In her class, Writing for the Web, Barbara Mednick teaches easy-to-remember rules for good web writing.

Length

• Sentences - 20 words or less
• Paragraphs - 5 sentences or less
• Screens - 3 paragraphs or less
  

I find the screen limit for paragraphs to be more difficult to follow than the other guidelines. But it’s still a good reminder to avoid excessive text on a page.

Format

• Use subheads and bullets generously
• Use bolded headlines generously
  

I use these additional guidelines

• Bullets kept to one line
• Simple language
• When in doubt, leave it out

An example of good web writing
The news media page for the Minnesota State colleges and Universities System follows the rules of meaning, brevity, and clarity. Notice the numerous bold headlines and short sentences. Notice the page length – enough info without too much scrolling.

These guidelines are simple but they require practice. If your text is dense you have to re-write. You have to be a diplomat when you re-write or re-format someone else’s work. You have to align the format with the content.

But it’s worth the extra effort to produce effective web copy.

How good is your web writing?

Upcoming post: The high value of simple content

A website I like and why

by JO MARSICANO

Delta Airlines is the world’s biggest airline, with tens of thousands of employees and a reach of 64 countries.

Its website could have made us suffer with endless text about its history, mission, and values. It could’ve weighed us down with flashy animation on the homepage.

It does none of this.

Instead, it keeps the site deceptively simple, keeping upper most in mind exactly what the customer wants to find and quickly.

The site is refreshingly free of what I would call “corporate ego.” Instead, it brands itself clearly with a large site ID at the upper left but keeps the focus of the home page on just a few large navigation panels.

Once you click on one of those panels (‘book a flight,’ ‘flight status,’ etc.) you can get quick and easy info. The site offers lots of other useful information by clicking on one of the top navigation bars – for example for baggage. The navigation to the baggage information is simple, and the baggage pages are well done. They use ample sub heads and bullets, allowing the customer to easily get the info they need.

The site makes it easy for me as a potential flyer to get the top priority information I’m looking for. Then if I need to, I can get other necessary info to complete my business with the company.

The Delta site has successfully blocked attempts to become full of itself. Instead, it has disciplined its content to be useful and easy to find. This website has dropped the corporate ego and has stayed laser-focused on the needs of its customers.

Touché.

Upcoming post: Good web writing

Empathizing with web users

by JO MARSICANO

At a recent networking night for web content strategists, one professional made this remark, “We’re really in the business of empathizing.” The emotional core of that remark struck me.

Websites are supposed to be empathic? Yes. After all, what are we doing when we work so carefully to focus on the “user experience?” Sure, we have to focus on our products. But we establish and maintain online relationships through the use of empathy. Without this key ingredient, websites come across as cold and calculating.

Take this site for I Love Buttons. It confuses the user. It lacks warmth in its look and feel. It does not lead the user into an easy-to-follow process for selecting and purchasing the product. It lacks empathy for the person coming to the site. If I were searching for online buttons, I would spend very little time on this site. It’s almost like the company threw as much cold content as possible onto the home page and hoped people would respond.

Compare it to this site for Just Buttons. The feeling is dramatically different. The site makes the product very clear by using a large headline. The user can follow the page to easily get more information. It has a calm color scheme and intuitive navigation. It has plenty of white space. It lets us find what we need quickly, with an appealing look and feel. The site is saying, “Come inside and make yourself comfortable.” I want to buy products from companies that make me feel at ease.

A dictionary definition of empathy is, “understanding and entering into another's feelings.” We “put ourselves in the customer’s shoes.”

Of course, empathy alone doesn’t drive business goals. But think of yourself as a customer and ask yourself what you would rather have—a garish promotion or a warm invitation?

Emotionally inviting, empathic websites are simply a better way to do business.

Upcoming post: A website I really like, and why

Web Photos with Emotional Content

by JO MARSICANO

Most websites use stock photos—visually appealing but emotionally flat. They lack any real warmth. These photos are pervasive but how effective are they? Every piece of content should earn its way onto your site. Most stock photos make it appear as if they’re serving a function but I doubt their real value.

Kocina Branding and Marketing’s “Developing your Brand Playbook” workshop says we have to do more than sell our features and benefits. We must sell our product on desire. Part of that desire is the visual imagery associated with the brand. We appeal to our web users more effectively by delivering images that let us feel something.

The website of People Incorporated is a fine example. Its images convey emotional energy, communicating warmth for the brand itself. They convey emotional content. People have authentic smiles, and sparkles in their eyes that are real.

Cost and legal considerations can come into play. If you can’t hire a photographer, buy a digital camera for a few hundred bucks and get permission from subjects. Well lit, focused photos without distracting backgrounds work well. I converted all the web stock photos to authentic photos at my last job using this method. It improved the organization’s appeal because the photos were now friendly. Emotionally rich photos also last longer because we don’t tire of them so easily.

Stock photos are everywhere on the web, but they convey no emotional message. Why not make your photos stand out with sensory images that invite us to feel something?

Upcoming post: Content strategists - in the business of empathy

The Art of Doing Less on Websites

by JO MARSICANO

In her essay, The Art of Doing Less, communications consultant Lynn Fraser uses a great term to describe our information overload: data smog. She also distinguishes information from communication.

The best websites I’ve seen have less content on their sites, not more. They are so sure of their brand, so confident of what to communicate, that they do so without apology.

Google is a good example. It begins with a sparse home page. There’s hardly anything there and there doesn’t need to be. People just need to search. When I click further in, say, to Google's Advertising Programs, or their “about” section, it’s still fairly minimal. Just enough structure and content to quickly get you what you want.

It can be tricky, this “less is more” mentality. Organizations demand, and web professionals provide, hyper-dense website content. But do our analytics support all this volume? Do our users really expect it? Or are we just afraid to reduce all the noise for fear of not being heard at all? One utility’s site displays 19 (yes, 19) separate clickable sections on its home page alone.

I suspect organizations struggle with excess volume for the same reason they do everything else. They have too much to do and not enough time to do it. So instead of really planning for how to optimize a smaller volume of content, we throw it all on the site and hope it works. I’ve done it myself and understand the temptation.

It takes courage to say “no” to more content. I’m currently encouraging a website client to live within some volume boundaries, both for brand promotion and better site governance. But to achieve sustainable content limits, we must have a content strategy. That way, we can more easily run proposed content through an already-determined filter before posting it. The filter will require the content to jump through some hoops before it’s posted. Does it support our goals? Does it communicate real value to the user?

Most organizations only do one thing. Law schools educate lawyers. Freight companies move goods. Bowling alleys provide recreation. All their organizational tactics (sales promotions, recruiting techniques, publicity, etc.) simply support the one essential purpose. Perhaps organizations that believe they do many things instead of just one are more likely to overload their website.

What is the one thing your organization does? Once you answer that, you can make all your website content serve that one purpose and more easily drop the excess weight. In so doing, you’ll be more likely to achieve the art of doing less.

Upcoming Post: Let’s switch from stock to emotionally rich photos

Converting the "old digital generation"

by JO MARSICANO

I had a surprising conversation with a communications director the other day. She told me that she knows of a very large company, with something like 60,000 employees, whose executive adamantly opposes social media. The company has its website and that’s it.

It was startling news. If you’re awake and living in this country, let alone running a big business, how can you not know about the growth, effectiveness, and excitement of social media? But there it is, the reluctance of the “older digital generation” to adopt what they might perceive as unnecessary and wasteful gimmicks.

The web is a baby in the span of human history, but it has grown at such speed that we now have two digital generations. The older digital generation uses websites, cell phones, and maybe laptops. The younger digital generation lives on texting, Twitter, and Foursquare. The digital generations are often divided by age but not always. The true dividing line is the willingness to adopt emerging tools. I know some people who are middle age but who use Facebook and Twitter like their lives depend on it, and who wouldn’t be caught dead without their Blackberry or iPhone.

I’m making the transition from the older digital generation to the new one. I love quality content and I place it above “tools.” But I realized that if I were going to be professionally relevant in the digital age, I better start becoming fluent in the digital economy.

I came from “legacy media,” having spent a good part of my career as a journalist when all media was one-way communication—outward. The most social you ever got was a phone call from a radio station listener or a letter to the editor. But as the executive director of a Twin Cities professional advancement group said just last year during a networking meeting, “If you’re not reinventing yourself, you’re not paying attention.”

What convinced me to start entering the new digital generation were a few simple things.

First, you don’t have to dive in head first. Think strategically about what your business needs are, where your audiences are, and how best to reach them. Think about which type of social media will do the best job for your organization. You don’t have to bite off everything at once (in fact it’s unsustainable to do so).

Second, rely on people who are totally into this stuff to explain it to you. In some recent networking meetings, people who are in the “new digital generation” told me some really useful information about TweetDeck and Tumblr. I can learn new tricks and so can you.

Third, iron-fisted reluctance is not a strategy. Standing back and refusing to open up your digital media to two-way conversations simply to avoid an uncomfortable change is no way to run an organization. No one says you have to adopt the latest and most popular tool as a replacement for good planning. But as a marketing and communications manager told me just this morning during a networking coffee, “As the medium changes, the strategy has to change.”

We still get to create good content but now we must now push it out through a variety of new channels because those channels have the capacity to reach the people we want to reach and communicate with them in a way that sticks.

A little discomfort goes with the territory. I never died setting up and using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or this blog, and neither will you. Yes, you’ll learn that there is, in fact, a lot of social media junk out there, forgettable within seconds of reading it. But there’s some really good stuff, too, and when you apply good strategy to social media tools, you get to contribute quality content to the web.

A lot of people in the older digital generation will find themselves, as I did, at a crossroads. Either start learning the new digital world or risk eroding your base of customers, supporters, and stakeholders. It really is that simple.

Which digital generation are you in? Need to start making the transition? Consider hiring a web consultant to help you with the task.

Upcoming post: The art of doing less on your website