You only get one chance to hook your fingers into a reader’s eye sockets and hold on. And do you know what doesn’t do that? Complicated, boring, confusing writing. So how do you write something simple, interesting and straightforward? Glad you asked.
You only get one chance to hook your fingers into a reader’s eye sockets and hold on. And do you know what doesn’t do that? Complicated, boring, confusing writing. So how do you write something simple and interesting?
Glad you asked. Read on.
Planning is a vital, and sometimes missed step. An outline helps you organise your thoughts and make sure you say everything you need. That’ll make your first draft easier to get out and your finished piece more interesting. Tick, tick.
Readers, like you, skim. You probably read the headline and then bounced straight down to here. Hi. Glad you joined us. You can only rely on someone reading headlines and subheads – make sure they’re working hard.
Headlines should be meaningful and specific. They should lead with a keyword too. This signposts to your readers (and Google) that the information they want is in your blog - good for SEO copywriting and good for readers. And cleverness? Sorry, none of that. Cleverness gets in the way of clarity, and your message will be confusing. Here's more how you can create content to capture skim readers online.
Modern web design is focused on little bits of information, so people can find and dive in where they want. Adding bullet points to your blog is an easy way to break up the design and catch people’s attention. Make sure your bullets:
Decide who you’re talking to and imagine them as a real person – create a persona for your audience. That way, when you write your blog, you’ll understand what they’ll find useful, relevant and entertaining. That’ll help you work out a bunch of other things, like the tone, language complexity and grammar.
Shorter sentences are easier to read – you’re not asking people to hold too much information in their heads. But don’t write a blog full of short sentences, either. It won’t flow. People will switch off. That’s not what you want. See what I mean? Instead, establish a nice rhythm by mixing medium-length sentences (around 20 words) with punchier ones.
After your headlines and subheads, your most important information should appear in the first sentence. Start with your main idea, then follow up with more detail. You can even use the SEE system to craft paragraphs – statement, example, explanation. It’s an oldie but a goodie, and it’ll make your writing more concise.
Avoid jargon – even people who understand it won’t enjoy reading it. If there’s a simpler, more common word, use it. Then, read everything aloud – if a sentence is hard to say, it’ll be hard to read. Use modern sentence structure (even if it’s technically incorrect). Using a readability analyser, like Readable.com, will give you a feel for how simply you’re writing. As a bonus? Simple writing makes you look smarter.
Transition words give your reader direction and make your writing flow. They also indicate to your reader what to expect – use ‘firstly’ or ‘furthermore’ if you’re writing Jane Austen fan fiction, or ‘for a start’ or ‘also’ if you’re looking for something a bit more modern.
Ask yourself this question: if your brand was a person, who would that person be? Create a real personality, then put that hat on. Act the brand. You’ll write how that person would write, making your blog more genuine and compelling.
There’s nothing worse than publishing your perfectly written blog, only to find… it’s filled with mistakes. So get someone else to proofread it. If you know what’s supposed to be on the page, your brain will skim over what’s actually there. If you don’t have a friendly grammar freak nearby, use Word’s Read Aloud function. Go to Review> Read Aloud and a very cheerful computer voice will read out your text as you follow along. This slows you down and makes hidden errors jump off the page.
To make your blog compelling, you have to get people to read it. And that’s easy to do – remove the barriers, make your language simple and get to know your readers. Your blog will thank you for it.
If you need a bit more help, we're always ready to jump in – drop us a line at info@wfb.co.nz
The lead copywriter and creative director at Words for Breakfast. She spends much of her time working with the copy writing team across a variety of projects.
