It’s important to note that the web requires a specific writing style. Unlike a brochure, magazine, flyer or newspaper, the audience has a different expectation.

Below are some easy to steps to ensure your website is communicating with both clarity and creativity.

First step: Realize the importance of being brief.

Be brief. Reading text on a monitor can strain users eyes and can be unpleasant. The user can tire easily. For example, on the web, the user knows with a quick click they can find what they’re looking for on another website. By quickly stating your point and providing convenient links to more detailed information, your user stays with you.

Rundown: When your point is buried, no one bothers to dig. Be brief and provide easy-to-find links for more information.

Second step: Realize your audience.

Speak in the same vocabulary as your target audience. If you’re a financial site targeting private investors, do not use words, terms, acronyms that only an economic expert would understand.

Rundown: Talk to your audience in a way that does not insult with simplicity or offend with complexity.

Third Step: Realize the role of format.

The way words are arranged is vital to their effectiveness. Good tactics: Subheads, bullets, headlines, clear icons, definitions, lists, graphs, two sentence paragraphs (blurbs), semi-colons, colons, bold, italics. Each of these creates chunks of information and allows the user to locate their target quickly and easily.

Rundown: Use the right format to make your message readable and understandable.

Fourth Step: Realize how to be exciting and brief.

The web is not a passive medium. In fact, the web is an interactive medium. Strong content offers a two way communication, evoking both a reaction and an action from the user. To engage users, web writing requires a direct device.

Convey simple marketing tactics to the user. Rather than stating the obvious about your product, try to engage the user with the benefits of your product… How will this make my customers life easier, what is in this for them.

Rundown: Use a direct, conversational writing style to begin and maintain a connection with your user. Offer the benefit, not just the product.

For more information about copy writing for the web or other marketing practices contact virtuosodesign today.