Sharpen Your Digital Writing Skills
How to convert existing content into something that people will click on, view, download and share.
Recently I held a number of corporate writing workshops for groups of people who worked in sales, marketing, operations and PR.
Specifically we focused on the art of writing for online or digital purposes; they wanted to ensure their content was optimised for digital consumption.
Our challenge was converting existing content into something that people would click on, view, download and share. Equally new content had to be written and formatted in line with how people are reading online. It’s completely different to how we’d read a newspaper or a book. We’re scanning the content, searching for what’s personally relevant to us or what can help us achieve the task we’re pursuing. A very different mindset to reading a book.
Here’s a summary of Ten Tips for writing effectively for online purposes:
- Write with your target audience in mind and adapt tone of voice and content to suit them
- Create attention-grabbing headlines by using persuasive, inviting and action-led language
- Integrate keywords sensibly into the text and tag appropriately (for SEO purposes)
- Make an impact in the opening sentences: front load your content so that it grabs the reader from the outset
- Keep it short and succinct-don’t lose readers with over-long text. Bite-sized chunks work well (known as ‘chunking’ the information)
- Short sentences and short paragraphs work best online –people are in ‘scan’ mode. Use sub-headings and bullets to make key messages obvious
- Use of Plain English is crucial -are you using the most clear language, (with no jargon) to express yourself? Are you writing the way you speak?
- Good quality images and graphics make the content stand out
- Integrate with other content you want them to read or view (“..if you liked this, check out this..”)
- Use social media plug-ins to make your content easily shareable
If you’d like to take part in a similar writing workshop, or learn more about creating quality content for your business, get in touch via www.lorrainegriffin.ie
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