Write killer content for print and web

Write killer contentfor print and web

Monash UniversitySchool of Rural Health MilduraTuesday 25 November 2014

PRE-READING

| 2 Write killer content - pre-reading

Table of contentsStart with one word: preparation 3

Getting to know you 4

Mapping it out 6

Stop press! We’re writing news stories 7

Cut, cut: writing for the web 10

Reading 1 13

Reading 2 15

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Write killer content - pre-reading 3 |

Start with one word: preparation

Questions to ask What you might answer

What am I doing? I’m drafting a:• media release about a research

project that needs volunteer participants

• news item for external newsletter about new students starting

• web page about a new program

Why am I doing this? (What do I want to achieve?)

I need to:• recruit 20 participants for the

research project• keep the local community engaged

with our medical education program• provide backup information to

support internal advertising about the program

Who am I talking to? • Practising allied health professionals in the Loddon Mallee region

• Local businesses, council and state government representatives, health practitioners

• Prospective undergraduate allied health students

How will this be published

• Industry e-newsletters• Printed newsletter sent by post• Institution’s web site

Where will it be used/read by my audience?

• Computer at work or mobile device elsewhere, possibly in a snatched moment from other tasks

• In the tea room over lunch or during scheduled catch-up reading time

• Computer at home or mobile device during focussed (but possibly short) research session

When is it needed? • Two days from now• By the end of the calendar quarter• Within two weeks to coincide with

launch of the program

The secret to successful communications of any type is quite simple: preparation, preparation, preparation.

Time spent on preparation before you start writing (or filming or designing) is time saved during production.

Writing things down is good discipline in the planning stage; don’t skimp on it.

Introducing the 5Ws and 1HSix little words will be your best friends throughout the process. You start with them to help map out a whole project and bring them in again to help write your content.

• Who• What• When• Where• Why• How

What am I doing?

Take them slightly out of order and start with what appears to be a question with an obvious answer: what am I doing?

You should be able to answer this in less than 25 words. If you can’t your project isn’t defined well enough. Write it down and be very specific. It will help you stay focussed.

The other five words will help you flesh out the rest of the project.


Getting to know you

Primary and secondary

You might, in fact, have more than one audience:

• Your primary audience is the main group you want to talk to (for example information about an undergraduate course offering).

• Your secondary audience includes people who have an interest in the communication, even though it is not directly targeted at them (for example parents of school leavers considering the course).

You should take both audiences into account when you plan and write your communication, although the needs of your primary audience should take precedence.

Building a profileWhat do you know about your audience? You might be surprised how much you do already know. Use question prompts like those on the following page to build a profile of your audience. Write it down, write it down.

The answers to all these questions will determine how your communication should be structured and published.

Filling the gaps

How do you fill gaps in your knowledge about an audience especially if your budget doesn’t allow you to run focus groups or pay for marketing research? Often gaps arise around what motivates or interests a particular audience or how they think about a particular subject.

• Find someone who fits your target audience’s profile and ask them.

• Ask someone who works with someone who fits your target audience’s profile, is related to them or used to be a member of that target group.

• Read (critically) other material targeted at that audience. You may have to determine how well it targets your audience, but it should give you a feel for your audience.

You’ve identified the people you want to talk to while you were outlining your project. Understanding them is crucial to successful communication, so you’ll need to spend some time getting to know them.


How do they describe or think about the subject?

What words do they use?

What do they need or want to know?

Think about:

• how you bridge the gap between the stated purpose of your communication and your audience’s current level of knowledge

Don’t tell them more than they need to know. (If you plan to provide information beyond what’s needed, put it in an appendix so your readers can refer to it if they feel the need.)

What relationship do you have or want to develop with your audience?

It might be:

• arms-length and formal• collaborative but business-like• warm and friendly

What sort of language is appropriate?

This is determined partly by the answer to the question about your relationship with the readers. Appropriate language might be:

• formal• more relaxed• colloquial• plain English

How will they use the communication?

They might:

• read it beginning to end (e.g. briefing paper)

• scan it to gain a general impression (e.g. detailed report with executive summary)

• search for specific information • use it as a frequent reference • read it only once

Who are they? You can define your audience using a range of attributes, although they won’t all be relevant to each project (and there will certainly be others not listed):

• internal or external to your organisation

• job role• occupation• demographic – age, income

level, single or married/de facto, dependants, retired or working

• location (metro/regional/rural/remote)

• educational and cultural background

• skill level• language competency (is

English their first language?)• disabilities/health issues

What is their interest in the subject? What motivates them to engage with this?

Your communication is:

• vital information• something about which they

need know little• useful when required• just another piece of

information overload

What do they know already?

• This is completely new – you will need to explain each concept and process fully.

• They have a general understanding – you need to explain more advanced concepts and processes, but can assume they know the basics.

• They have a good understanding – you need only explain what’s new or changed.

• They do/do not understand common industry/sector jargon. What terms will you need to define or avoid?


Mapping it out

The planning process

List the topics to be covered

Use terms familiar to your audience. You can often use these topic notes as subheadings in the final communication.

Is this order going to be logical to your audience?

When it’s only an outline it’s easy to change the order. It’s also easy to see if you’re duplicating information and regroup it.

Have you anticipated all the questions they’re likely to ask?

Check against the profile you built of them.

Have you included compulsory information?

Compulsory corporate information might include contact details (names, phone numbers, email addresses, websites, social media links), ABN or CRICOS* number.

* Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students

Mapping/planning tools

Write it down. You need to be able to see the whole project in one glance. Use any tool you feel comfortable with, for example:

• pencilled notes on scrap paper (so you can erase and rewrite)

• sticky notes• mind maps (hand drawn or online)• whiteboard• outline mode in MS Word

When you’re happy with your plan start writing!

You know what you need to do. You know who you’re talking to. Now you’re ready to start writing, right? Not quite. Now you need to plan the content of your project.


Stop press! We’re writing news stories

The format of a news story is a great discipline for writing all kinds of content. If your headline and introduction don’t grab a reader, they won’t stay to read the rest of your news item - or brochure, opinion piece, letter to the editor or website.

Angling for attention: what is news? Is your story “news”? That depends on where it’s being published. If it’s for a media release you want to be sure it fits a journalist’s idea of what’s interesting. Find the angle in your story that draws out one of the characteristics of “news”.

News can be roughly divided into the following criteria, many of which overlap:

• Immediacy (anything that’s new)• Consequence (the more people an event affects,

the greater its news value)• Conflict and controversy• Drama• Location or proximity (the closer an event, the

more important it becomes)• Unusual and bizarre• Topicality (cutting edge technology, theory or

fashion)• Human interest• Prominence (generally, a person’s

newsworthiness is decided by the number of people he or she represents, the power or influence they have and their position in society)

• Good news• Usefulness (information useful to the public,

business or other groups in the community)

Source: Denton, P 2000, How to write and pitch your Press Release, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, pp 5-15

The upside down approach to writing your storyThe inverted pyramid is the basic structure of any news story including media releases. The most important information is right up the front, the least important right at the end.

This format allows editors to chop a story from the bottom to fit the available space without losing anything important.

Now that we all skim and scan rather than read in-depth, it serves to grab the attention of time poor readers.


Writing your headline and introduction

Remember the 5Ws and 1H? Now they make another appearance to help you write a news story.

Your headline and introduction should give a reader the whole story in less than 35 words:

• 10 words (max) for your headline• 10 – 25 words (max) for your introduction

Between the headline and introduction you need to cover who, what, when, where, why and how: the essence of your story.

Make your headline work: include a verb

A journalist doesn’t write headlines; that’s the sub-editor’s job. But if you’re writing a media release or news story, you will need to write the headline.

The headline should capture the angle of your story. Always include a verb. It turns your headline into an action-packed mini story of its own. You might actually find it easier to write the headline last.

In 25 words or less: the introduction

Get your introduction right and you’ll have the attention of your reader.

Reading 1 explains how to write your introduction.

Writing the rest

Remember we mapped out our story before we started writing? That’s where you assign a logical order to the items you want to cover; in this case the most to least important details. But how do you actually string them together?

Build bridges

Word bridges are linking devices that help your story transition from one sentence or paragraph or idea to the next. A bridge may be as simple as a conjunction. More often, a repeated word or concept forms the bridge.

Add chocolate chips to your story

People are always interesting and so is what they have to say. A journalism tutor once described quotes as “chocolate chips” and recommended to students that good quotes be sprinkled through a story to keep it interesting.

Ban acronyms

Unless they’re in common use (for example, GP and ANZAC) or the full name is very long, avoid using acronyms – even if you spell them out the first time. It’s still too hard for a reader to remember what they mean. Spelling out a term or name won’t detract from your story if it makes it easier to read.

Not explaining your organisation

Many organisations (especially tertiary education institutions) have complex organisational structures. Don’t try to explain where people fit into the organisation unless it is really important to the story; it usually isn’t.

If you feel an explanation is necessary attach background information to your media release or put it last in your news story.


Developer’s bid to take over children’s park near Ikea Richmond could set precedent, residents warn

Richmond residents fear a property developer’s bid to temporarily take over a children’s playground and cut down trees to build a multi-level apartment block could set a precedent for Melbourne.

Developer Salta is building a six-level apartment block on the corner of Victoria and Burnley streets, opposite Ikea and Victoria Gardens shopping centre.

To access the island site, builder Hamilton Marino wants to occupy a third of the Williams Reserve, a 3000-square-metre park on Victoria Street.

The builder would take over a children’s playground and cut down trees under the plan, not yet signed off by Yarra Council.

In return for occupying the park for a year - to help it build 60 luxurious apartments, many overlooking the reserve - it would leave the parkland in an improved state.

But locals are furious, saying the developer wants to take over the park so it can permanently relocate the children’s playground and barbecue area to better suit the cafe in the base of its apartment development.

The residents have demanded the council refuse the request, arguing it is simple to build the apartments without taking over the park - even if it is more costly for the builder.

Tim Woodruff, a local doctor who lives nearby, said the plan would see a public park temporarily sacrificed for the financial benefit of a developer.

“It’s an offer to effectively create this incredible precedent of private developers using public land for their building purposes,” he said.

Residents first learnt of the plan to occupy the park in a property article that reported Salta’s plan to give the reserve “a $400,000 upgrade”.

Roberto Colanzi is a Yarra councillor who recently completed a site inspection to better understand why the builder wanted to take over the park for a year.

“None of us want to surrender any part of the park at all,” he said, but the topography of the site made the plan at least hearing out.

Builder Hamilton Marino did not return calls about the plan. The council will decide next month if it can go ahead.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/developers-bid-to-take-over-childrens-park-near-ikea-richmond-could-set-precedent-residents-warn-20140925-10lj4x.html#ixzz3EIHBAE2d

Luxury flats may close kid’s park

Inner-city residents fear bid to take over children’s playground will set dangerous precedent.

Here’s how it’s done

Here’s an example from The Age (online). The summary on the home page has a six-word headline (containing a verb), with a 14-word introduction. Twenty words give you a pretty good idea what the story’s about, yet they’re intriguing enough to make you want to find out what’s going on.

When you get to the full story, the editors figure they’ve got your attention, so headline and intro are longer than recommended. But between the two, you now have the full story.

The rest of the article fleshes it out. Notice the word bridges.


Cut, cut: writing for the web

Focus on a specific needWhen you’re planning your content ask yourself:

• What must this page help a reader do? • What particular problem must it help them solve?• What do they want or need? Why?

You have only seconds to catch readers’ attention if they land on your web page. They will be looking for something specific. Think very carefully about what they are likely to be looking for and plan your content to meet that need.

Key wordsReaders are quite likely to land anywhere on your site from a link in a search engine rather than come in through your home page. And they’ll get there by looking for particular words.

When you think about who your audience is at the planning stage, think in terms of what words they are likely to use about your subject. List those key words and make sure you incorporate them in your content – and early in your content.

Different audiences may be looking for the same information and thinking about it in slightly different ways. Take the time to describe them all and list their key words.

OrientationLanding on a page anywhere but the home page can be disorienting. Readers want to know where they are and what this page is about.

Your site’s banner design is probably out of your control. But make sure the page title and page heading allow readers to orient themselves quickly.

Structure for a web pageUse the inverted pyramid approach; put the most important information at the start and the least important information at the end. Ideally, your first one or two sentences should summarise what the page is all about. This is especially important for readers using mobile devices as they can’t see much of the page.

“Chunk” your information – one section should deal with only one topic, one paragraph with one idea.

How useful is this page?Your page heading and first sentence should summarise what a reader can expect to find. Next, headings and sub-headings help your reader see the page’s structure.

Bulleted lists, hyperlinks and highlighted content can also help a reader assess the content’s value quickly.

Be careful not to overuse them. Too much text in bulleted lists detracts from their effectiveness. The same applies to headings and sub-headings.

Cut the word count“Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.”– Krug’s Third Law of Usability

You need to be brutal when writing for the web. Think like a poet: squeeze as much information from as few words as possible.

It can be helpful to write a first draft to get your ideas down, then go back and edit later.

Reading 2 discusses how to write succinctly

There are only two rules for writing web content:

• Say it in as few words as possible.• Use words your audience is likely to use.


AIDA

AIDA is often used to write advertising copy. It can also be a helpful prompt to structure web and print content whose purpose is to get a reader to take action (as much of it is.)

A attention - leads to ... I interest (in the product or service) - leads to...D desire (to get hold of the offer) - leads to ...A action (to either make the purchase or follow

an instruction to take the next step)

Source: Gabay, J 1996, Copywriting for creative advertising, Teach Yourself Books, Hodder Healine Plc, London.

In order to grab someone’s attention, you need a good idea about what interests and motivates them, and what they think about a subject: all available in your audience profile.


Reading 1

Perry R 1997, ‘Writing the news intro’, in Oakham M (ed.) ‘Don’t bury the lead’, Deakin University Press, Geelong, pp. 41-47.

Source: R. Perry 'Writing the news intro' in M. Oakham (ed) Don't Bury the Lead, Deakin University Press, Geelong, 1997


Reading 2

Krug S 2006, ‘Omit needless words: the art of not writing for the web’, in Don’t make me think: A common sense approach to web usability, 2nd edn, New Riders Publishing, Berkley, California, pp. 44-49.

Source: S. Krug, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd ed, New Riders Publishing, Berkley, 2006

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