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A friend of mine was referred to hospital recently for a fairly minor operation and it prompted me to visit the hospital’s website. Searching for information on how the hospital was performing, I came across this copy:
“The Trust is focused on continuing its progress against this strategy and delivering the service developments identified in its operating plan. The Trust developed four strategic priorities, aligned to the strategy, of which each have specific strategic objectives and lead to the delivery of our vision.”
It frustrated me that I couldn’t immediately find the information I was looking for, written in plain English. As a result, I left the website feeling mildly irritated and none the wiser on whether my friend was being treated in the best hospital in the area. It did however reinforce the importance of crafting creative website copy that is straightforward, jargon-free and makes sense.
Avoid writing gobbledygook
While it is vital for a website to convey a professional image, it is just as important to avoid the dreaded corporate gobbledygook. Within B2B marketing we have a plethora of over-used and abused jargon terms, while within the life science industry we have an armoury of acronyms which can mean different things dependent upon the area you work within. It can be extremely irritating to visit a website and have to read the content two or three times before managing to decipher what it is trying to say. The key is to keep it simple.
Image: Flickr/Nicola/Microsoft Type Cover 2/CC BY 2.0
Creating meaningful messaging
There are four basic questions you need to be able to answer positively when developing the copy on your web pages:
- Will people know what I do within seconds?
- Will they understand what page they’re on and what it’s about?
- Will they know what to do next?
- Why should they buy/subscribe/download from this site?
All of this can be achieved through
- Creating clear headlines and sub-headlines
- Writing simple, clear copy
- Including call-to-actions and next steps
- Testing your copy against your target audience.
As consumers, we are all tired of marketing clichés and over-complicated and often meaningless website copy. We don’t want to be lied to or misled, we simply want to get to the point quickly. If your copywriting is clear, you will find people are far more likely to place their trust in you.
You can find out more about crafting creative website content by downloading our FREE eBook on turning your website into a marketing and sales machine.
