Great Language Feels Good,
Works Good Too
PG Bartlett
12 July 2013
My Groundhog Day Surprise…
“We need a new voice”
Why?
Buyers rely on content for 70%-100% of their process
“We sound the same as our competitors”
– Stuffy, boastful windbags
“Even our fans criticize our #$%@& content”
So what?
“Our language is hurting our business”
What they did
Hired consultant (thewriter.com) to help them:
Define their voice
Develop before-after examples
And train their people
Results so far
…
How would you measure results?
Impact on language: metrics?
Impact on activity:
– Web traffic
– Support calls
Impact on business:
– Revenue?
– Satisfaction?
Something else?
Third-party research
All: +124%
Concise: + 58%
Scanable: +47%
Objective: +27%
“Users detest marketese”
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/
Language Matters!
We knew it
Our contacts at our customers knew it
And maybe we can get executives to know it too
We Decided to Humanize Our Own Content
Our action plan:
Define our voice
Rewrite our website
Modify our software
Define Our Voice
Start with the end: audiences & goals
People who
love
language
Their
bosses
• Connect
• Motivate
• Educate
• Follow our example
• Language matters to their business
• How we can help
• Follow our example
Our new voice
But what good is it if you can’t find it?
Taboos
Buzzword-laden
Jargon-filled
Complicated
Boastful
Equivocal
Impersonal
Long-winded
Irrelevant
Unapproachable (walls of text)
What makes a web page good?
Scanable text
Highlighted keywords
Meaningful sub-heads (not “clever”)
Bulleted lists
One idea per paragraph
Start with conclusion
Half the words
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/
Scanning – NOT Reading
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/
Rewrite Our Website
Does Great Grammar = Great Language?
Change Our Software
Measuring Dimensions of Voice
Trend or blip?
Content Marketing
Every key measurement depends on good content.
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34080/Why-Marketers-Need-to-Rise-Above-the-Deluge-of-Crappy-Content.aspx
What Happens When Volume of Crap Soars?
Better language will matter more than ever
So what did I learn?
Executives may start realizing language’s power
In deluge of crappy content, language matters more than
ever
Content strategy includes:
– “Right voice”
What problems remain?
Assessing scale of problem
Internal alignment
Voice definition
Remain distinctive
Localization
Measurements
