There’s a prolific villain on the loose that must be stopped.  It’s a complex shape shifter and not easy to track to the untrained eye.  The villain, my good people of the Internet, is bad web copy, and it’s infecting the Web, leaving traces on websites, blogs, social networks — everywhere! Your website may have already been infected, and the damage immeasurable.

I, Opticon, have taken it upon myself, as part of my duties of making the Web a better place, to teach you how to spot bad content on your website and prevent further infection.  So grow some virtual cajones and listen up!  You may learn your web copy has been hit, and it’s not gonna feel good.

The Long-Winded Attack

The Objective

The villain has infected your web copy with lengthy, irrelevant information to drive customers away out of sheer boredom, comparable to a virtual sleeper hold that drains website visitors, and your bottom line, like a blood-thirsty leech.

The Side Effects

Unnecessarily long-winded web copy that doesn’t deliver relevant information not only makes the visitor’s eyes glaze over like tiny honey crullers, but it also makes you look like you’ve lost your focus and faith in your business.  Your copy has been puffed up with a bunch of fancy, idealistic words that cloud your brand message rather than describing exactly why your business is the best choice.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This copy outlines the company’s vision and mission well if their vision includes boring people to death.   Rather than providing clear and concise information on the company’s mission to provide quality software products for businesses, the bad copy villain makes it sound like they’re trying to change the universe, with lengthy, vague, idealistic language.  If you’re going to make such claims you better be precise about how you intend to make the world a better place, or people will be less than impressed when they find out you’re only trying to sell them computer software.

The best thing about this example is the quote at the end, which must the villain’s cruel joke.

“Life is too short to settle for anything less than excellence.”
Doug Deane, President and Founder

I couldn’t agree more; life is too short to bore people stiff with painfully long copy!

The Scattered Attack

The Objective

The villain’s objective with the scattered copy attack is to confuse website visitors so much that they get frustrated and frantically hit the back button.  Tactics include headlines that don’t directly relate to content, and copy sprinkled with information that defies all logic.

The Side Effects

Scattered web copy that doesn’t stick to a clear, logical outline frustrates the reader and implies inferior thinking skills on your part.  People visiting your site will likely conclude that you do business inefficiently, like your thought process, and go off on tangents that waste time and money.  They’re certainly not going to feel confident about investing in your products or services if there’s no clear explanation of what you do.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This web page is a perfect example of one that’s been compromised by scattered copy.  The headline implies that the content is going to tell us how to get a low cost payday loan, but then it goes off on a lengthy tangent about what a payday loan is, then why payday loans are good, while not remaining focused on why I should choose Maycash over other payday loan companies.  The ideal messaging is present, but it’s hidden within a scattered attack of extraneous, poorly organized, distracting information.

The Vague Attack

The Objective

We’ve all heard of the concept of ‘thinking outside the box’ and all the wonderful innovations that supposedly occur ‘outside the box’.  The bad copy villain capitalizes on this popular saying by contaminating copy with content that’s so far outside the box it’s indecipherable.

The Side Effects

It’s true; people were once romanced by this enigmatic concept, thinking that if they didn’t get it, maybe it was just too advanced for their comprehension. “Wow! I don’t get it. They must be smart — really smart!”  Unfortunately, it’s been overused and has become recognized as a mask for inadequacy, prompting people to direct their eyes to competitors that outline concrete results.  The villain, in this case, has made your business look dishonest, or like a space cadet who can’t connect the dots.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This is a literal example of how vague the box can be.  This copy doesn’t give the visitor any indication of what kind of innovative things Stratix is doing with their document management services.  And I don’t know about you, but document management ‘outside the box’ doesn’t sound sexy to me at all.  It sounds ridiculous.  I prefer to keep my documents ‘in the box’, thank you very much.  Then I don’t lose anything.

Bad Spelling and Grammar Attack

The Objective

The bad content villain wants to make you look completely incompetent by littering your copy with spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.  Sometimes, for an extra evil touch, he’ll even copy and paste the exact same errors throughout your website!  What a jerk.  My sidekick, The Deleter, would love to sink his teeth into this one.

The Side Effects

This is pretty straightforward.  Bad spelling, grammar and punctuation makes you seem either: a) like you’re not overly bright; or b) that you cut corners and don’t bother getting your marketing materials proofread.  This will probably lead potential customers to think you’re also incompetent in business, and remove themselves from your prospects altogether.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This site endured a particularly cruel hit by the bad content villain.  In fact, it’s so bad it looks like it’s been abandoned altogether (I think it’s safe to say IE 6 is no longer the “most common ‘borwser’ on the Internet”).  If you look closely, you’ll see the same typos repeated throughout the site. Perhaps the company went out of business after failing to qualify their name. It’s a real shame.

Help Fight the Evil!

By learning how to recognize these bad copy attacks on your own web content, you’re one step closer to building unstoppable web branding, and fending off the damaging effects of bad copy.

Stay tuned for more of my tips for making the Web a better place.

— Opticon, Defender of Good Web Copy

Follow The Deleter and I @Opticon_.

Group brainstorming is inefficient and smothers creativity, suggests a recent study conducted at Texas A&M University. This might come as a shock to copywriters, designers, developers, and other creative types, who long for and religiously take part in caffeine-powered idea-generating sessions.

The study, published in the April 2010 issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology, suggests that group brainstorming exercises can lead to fixation on only one idea or option, blocking out other ideas and possibilities, and eventually leading to a conformity of ideas.

“Fixation to other people’s ideas can occur unconsciously and lead to you suggesting ideas that mimic your brainstorming partners,” explains lead researcher Nicholas Kohn. “Thus, you potentially become less creative.”

The study comprised several experiments in which researchers asked students — both in groups and individually — to produce new ideas on how to improve the university. The findings: students working in groups generated fewer ideas than their solitary peers.

Plus, when researchers inspected the ideas, it was determined the groups put forth and considered fewer suggestions. This is because participants involved in group brainstorming sessions conform their thinking to others’ initial ideas, thus ‘trapping’ their minds.

In another study, Kohn gave engineering students blueprints of a basic vehicle, and asked them to design a “different” vehicle that served the same function — to move from point A to B. Despite the emphasis to produce a different blueprint, the students became fixated on the original and came up with nearly the same design.

So What Does the Study Suggest?

The study concluded if you’re looking for unique solutions, or want to come up with many ideas, having people first work on their own could produce stronger results. So it might be beneficial to have copywriters, designers, developers and others share their respective ideas after they’ve had adequate time to work independently.

Once the individuals form their ideas (check out this idea generation drill), then it’s probably highly beneficial to introduce them to a group setting. The reason? Fixation helps people identify and refine good ideas.

Still determined to conduct team brainstorming sessions? If so, the researchers state members of the group need to be aware of the fixation phenomenon, and take steps to prevent conformity. They state this will lead to a “more vibrant, fresh discussion and a wider range” of possible solutions.

It’s worth noting group brainstorming is not all about ideas. There’s also the social aspect, which can be fun and bring co-workers together and improve team performance. For that reason, our web copywriters will continue to apply the classic team brainstorming technique (not to mention the company-sponsored lattes).

Brainstorming Rules

Brainstorming gained popularity partly thanks to U.S. advertising executive Alex Osborn, who promoted the practice in his 1953 book Applied Imagination. Famously quoted as saying, “It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one,” Osborne suggested a relaxed, supportive environment would help collective minds reach creative capacity.

Osborn put forth four basic rules in brainstorming, to reduce social inhibitions, fuel idea generation, and boost overall creativity:

No Criticism
Criticism is reserved for the process’ evaluation stage to allow participants to comfortably generate different ideas.

Welcome Unusual Ideas
Unusual ideas are encouraged as it’s typically easier to tone down a “wild idea” than dress up a dull idea.

Quantity Wanted
The more ideas generated, the greater the odds of producing a radical and effective solution.

Combine and Improve Ideas
Not only are a variety of ideas desired, but also ways to combine them to make them better.

Looking for inspiration? Check out Breaking Barriers on the Web.

With more than 350 million copies of his stories sold, it’s hard to deny that Stephen King knows the secret to writing that sells.  In his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, he discusses the beginnings of his career, his ups and downs, and his advice to other writers hoping to make a living by selling their work.

Even though King’s writes fiction, his tips easily apply to copywriting, since they encourage being clear and concise with your storytelling techniques. When you write copy, you’re also telling a story – the story of how the business you’re writing about can solve the problems of its potential customers.

Here are some of King’s main pieces of advice for writers that especially apply to good copywriting.

‘Get to the Point’

King urges aspiring writers to value their reader’s time by reducing the amount of ‘noise’ in a story.  In other words – kill the filler.  He classifies this noise as long intros, unnecessary anecdotes, and excessive babbling that can get in the way of telling a story.

Applying this tip to copywriting should be a no-brainer.  When you spend too much time setting up a point, you can lose the attention of someone who doesn’t have time to cut through the filler to find the real message you’re sending – that the business you’re writing about is the best choice.

Getting to the point is even more crucial in web copywriting, since the typical attention span of someone looking for information online is a mere few seconds – much tinier than someone who’s reserved an afternoon to get into a good book.

In this bridal site example, you can see how the fluffy language gets in the way of clearly delivering the main message.  Scanning the existing copy to distill the most important points produced this:

Best For Bride offers a wide selection of elegant, high-quality dresses and accessories for weddings and special occasions, with options for purchase or rental.  Whatever your price range, body type, or event, you can shop online, or visit our stores in Toronto, Etobicoke or Barrie to find everything you need, including:

• Traditional, modern, or one-of-a-kind bridal gowns
• Bridesmaid dresses
• Mother of the bride/mother of the groom dresses
• Cocktail dresses
• Prom dresses
• Clearance and discount dresses
• Accessories including veils, tiaras, gloves, shawls, and jewelry

Plus, we’ll help you select the fabric, colour, and style to ensure you find the perfect dress for your special day.

If you compare the above copy to the current Best for Bride About Us page, you’ll see that all of the unnecessary filler has been killed. From almost 1,600 words, down to just 111. Much better, right?

‘Be Relatable and Honest’

When Stephen King writes, he tries to create the most honest, believable characters possible, by writing them with both good and bad qualities. He also uses uncomplicated language, opting for a more conversational style with easy-to-understand vocabulary, rather than fancy words.

Being honest, and being clear are both important qualities of good copywriting.  Advertising copy, and advertising in general, often gets a bad rap for promising happiness in the form of products.  When writing your copy, only offer the truth about what you are selling, without making promises you can’t keep.  You don’t have to expose the bad as King does with his characters, but you can be honest about the benefits of your product.

Using relatable language is also important, because you want your copy to be understandable to the average reader.  This doesn’t mean that you have to ‘dumb it down’ necessarily, but you should avoid obscure language that sends them flipping through a dictionary, or abandoning your copy altogether.

King believes that using the first words that come to mind is a good method.  This might not always work in the case of copywriting, but straining your mind to find words that make you sound smart will only make your copy sound forced and unnatural, not to mention hard to understand.

When you edit your copy, ask yourself if there’s a simpler way to get your idea across, and exchange obscure words for more common ones.  A good way to do this is by reading your copy out loud.  If it sounds unnatural to you, it will read that way, too.

‘Write the Draft. Then Let It Rest’

Editing is a crucial part of the writing process, and King’s tip in this regard is to write your first draft, and then let it rest for a while before editing.  The reasoning behind this is that when you are writing about the same topic for extended periods of time, you tend to get into a stale mindset.  If you let your first draft rest while you exercise your mind in other ways, you can come back to your text with a fresh perspective, almost becoming your own second set of eyes.

King put away his first drafts for several weeks, which may not be realistic for your deadline, but there is no rule on how long your draft should rest.  Even a few hours can be enough to recharge your fine-tuning skills.

‘Cut Down Your Text’

After you’ve let your draft sit, King suggests coming back and removing even more unnecessary filler text.  You might be surprised how much more you can remove, while still getting across the same message.  He refers to this process as ‘killing your darlings’ or, in other words, getting rid of those parts of the story that you couldn’t let go the first time.

This step involves closely examining every word and asking yourself whether it supports your main point.  If you can’t put your finger on why it should stick around, then it’s time to make the cut.  But be careful not to remove the vital parts of the story, however, lest you kill it altogether.

King received a tip in a rejection letter that he believes was a golden ticket: the second draft = the first draft – 10%.  Of course, this number won’t always apply to everyone all the time, but challenging yourself to reduce the amount of words you use to get a point across is killer advice for any writer.

Website visitors don’t buy products or services; they invest in what the products or services will do for them.


What’s a feature? A descriptive fact — what the product or service is or has.

What’s a benefit? What the product does.

In other words, a benefit is what the customer gains as a result of the feature. If done right, benefits provide compelling reasons the website visitor should purchase the product or service.

Plus, benefit-driven web copy tends to be more customer-centric than feature-driven web copy, which is usually company-centric. Customer-centric web copy speaks directly to a person’s needs and wants, and does a better job engaging individuals on an emotional level, which is key to turning visitors into customers.

Good copywriters know how to convert features into benefits. It’s not an easy feat. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons so much content on the Web focuses on features. Digging into and defining benefits is a challenging, time-consuming task that many copywriters are not able or willing to do.

For instance, in a Web Designer Depot article about self-centered web copy, we noted content promoting binoculars might focus on certain features, such as:

• Oversized lenses
• Rubber coating
• Ergonomic design

That can score points with website visitors in terms of credibility, but the web copy should include the benefits:

• Low-light performance
• Bright, crisp and clear images from dusk until dawn
• Durability to withstand harsh weather and conditions
• Easy handling

So ask yourself what benefits do your features provide customers. How do these features make the product or service more useful, helpful, enjoyable, attractive, affordable, etc. to the customer?

It’s worth the effort because features tell, benefits sell.

To write persuasive web copy, copywriters need to think like customers. It makes it easier to figure out what benefits and features the targeted audience cares about, and build key messages to motivate them to take desired actions.

Asking the right questions allows a copywriter to understand the customers’ needs and desires, and form a connection. The best sales people make an effort to understand their customers. Only then can they break down concerns and barriers, foster credibility and trust, say the right words, and ultimately make the sale.

Even if you don’t have resources for market research, you can still get to know your customer by:

Asking the right questions – For instance, it’s helpful to ask: What features and benefits are important to you? A copywriter should also be able to list the items according to priority to help plan the right messaging. Warranty might be more important than price, durability valued more than selection, and so on.

Putting yourself in customers’ shoes – How do you behave as a consumer? If you were considering the product or service, what would you look for, and how would you like to be communicated to? In fact, if a copywriter thinks like a consumer instead of a writer, there’s a tendency to have more respect for website visitors.

Tapping into social media – Consumers leave trails of details all over the Internet on popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, Del.icio.us, and Digg.  They are also commenting on articles featured in industry blogs and participating in niche market discussion forums. Make the most of social media.

By thinking like and getting to know the customer, copywriters increase the chances of engaging website visitors, and generating leads and sales.

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

Research has demonstrated that fear-arousing communications usually stimulate the audience to take action to reduce the threat. However, Author Robert Cialdini explained, “When the fear producing message describes danger but the audience is not told a clear, specific, effective means of reducing the danger, they may deal with the fear by ‘blocking out’ the message or denying it applies to them.”

As a result, they may be paralyzed into taking no action at all.

How to avoid this denial? Help people see behavioral means for ridding themselves of fear by including a clear, specific, easy-to-follow plan.

Marketing intelligence

Marketing intelligence comes from gathering information on business and competition. This intelligence helps businesses understand a market, so it can develop sound strategies and develop customer relationships.

You’ve gained valuable knowledge. You’ve got a high IQ. Fantastic! But what you do with it relies on practical intelligence.

In Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, Phychologist Robert Sternberg explains practical intelligence is: “Knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.”

That how is integral to any business. An organization might be brilliant. But if it says things the wrong way, that general intelligence might as well not even exist.

That’s why well-versed designers and copywriters are integral to any branding or marketing campaign. They get the how to say it.