Great copywriters understand writing AND sales.
In a previous post, we introduced the concept that business writing is a specialist trade. Copywriting is nothing like the writing you did in high school or university. Unless you are a copywriter, it's not easy to make audiences enjoy reading your words. That's a fatal problem when you are hoping to make a sale from your website.
Education vs Business: What’s Different About Writing Online (Part 2)
Formal Education teaches you to write:
- Big words.
- Long, complex sentences.
- Abstract theory (e.g. drawing interpretation from simple dialogue in literature).
Talking to Customers: What You Have to Think about In Business Writing...
- People prefer short, simple words because a) we hate using the dictionary, and b) it embarrasses us when we don’t know a word.
- Typically, people skim-read online. So it’s hard to quickly digest long sentences. Keeping points short and simple means even skimmers get the gist.
- Plain talk. Outside of the world of academia and study, we have informal conversations. When you’re shopping for a service online (like 79% of Australia) jargon and complex theory are off-putting.
And we haven’t even begun to talk about learning styles… (Click back for a next week's post on Why It Pays To Understand Learning Styles.)
Related Articles:
1. Danger: Did You Write Your Website Content?
2. Is Your Website Worth More Than 3 Seconds?
3. Are You Proud Of Your Business Website?