Does your web copywriting alienate or embrace your target audiences? Tapping into the science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) might provide you some insight and direction on what words to use in your marketing messages.
Bad Typography Kills Good Web Content
“Something looks funny with the web copy…it looks really bad.” That was a part of the message we recently received form a client who was reviewing a design mock-up for his soon-to-be-launched website. “We really like the copy,” they had said just a few days earlier. So they liked what it stated, just not how it looked. The culprit: typography.
Nation Shudders at Large Block of Uninterrupted Text
Hysteria continues to grow since a news source reported Americans are collectively becoming paralyzed due to documents comprising “solid blocks of uninterrupted text.”
Save the Words
Want to save a word from oblivion? Oxford Dictionary lets you adopt old or lost words to help keep them alive. The organization states that 90% of everything we write is communicated by only 7,000 words, and each year hundreds of words are being dropped from the English language.
Web Copy: Long or Short?
Recently, 52 Weeks of UX posted an article that challenged a commonly held opinion regarding web content — that it should be as concise and simple as possible in order to appeal to the average web user, whose attention span online doesn’t often creep past a few seconds. The popular theory goes, that if you don’t deliver the pertinent facts quickly, your website visitors will get frustrated and go elsewhere to find the information they desire.
In response to the point that web copy should be brief, the article’s author, Joshua Porter, stated: “There are several problems with this assumption, however. First, people do actually read on the Web…scanning is simply the first step in the process. Second, short text can be just as poorly written as long text (and often is). Third, people actually seek out and enjoy reading longer texts.“
Here are the author’s points supporting this statement, and our take:
5 Headlines You’re Tired of Seeing in Your Feed
As a fellow web marketing professional — whether you’re a web copywriter, web designer, web developer, or a business owner interested in learning about the best way to market your business online — I’m sure you follow a plethora of like-minded people on Twitter.
You’ve probably also noticed a pattern in the kind of headlines that enter your feed, some at a more irritating frequency than others. These headlines purposely target high pressure points, and get incessantly regurgitated as a result.
Here’s how to recognize these repeat offenders and why you’d be better off to spend your clicks elsewhere.
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How to Find the Right Tone for Your Web Copy
Most web copywriters argue that web copy should be more direct and conversational than most print materials; but how can you adopt this tone without compromising your brand identity? With a few rules and techniques you can set a tone that is appropriate for the web while respecting your brand.
From Pen to Pixel: The Evolution of Communication
How long has language been around? For 50,000 years, language has aided human intellectual evolution and social advancements. Now the emergence of social media puts idea sharing, information exchange and our collective progress into hyper drive.
For generations, information and ideas have been shared through theater, schools and media. Books, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV sped the distribution and reach of language to the masses. The advent of the Internet hurled language onto an information super highway. With social media fully embedded in the mainstream, humans are now able to instantaneously tap into, and influence, the ideological pulse of the planet. So is this a good thing?
Opticon Sells Himself Online
Between scouring the Internet for bad content and stunt doubling for Optimus Prime, I don’t get much time to chat with the ladies in real time, so what’s a web marketing superhero to do? Megan Fox isn’t taking my calls, so it’s time to try online dating. What can I write in my dating profile so I can be sure to maximize my ROI?
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