E-marketing: Writing for Digital

The way you write really can improve your website!

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Online copy should provide information to visitors, engage with them, convince them to take action, and stick to the brand. Quality content is king because there is so much information on the the internet.

Because the internet is full of information, it's important that your website gives people what they're looking for. Today, you will learn how to write for your audience, types of web copy, and why SEO is significant.

Key Terms and Concepts

Above the fold The content that appears on a screen without a user having to scroll.
Audience The group of people at which a marketing communication is targeted.
Call to action (CTA) A phrase written to motivate the reader to take action.
Feature A prominent aspect of a product that is beneficial to users.
Keyword stuffing The process of putting too many keywords into the meta data of the website or using many irrelevant keywords. Search engines can penalize websites for doing this.
Meta data Information that can be entered about a web page and the elements on it in order to provide context and relevant information to search engines.
Persona A character created to define a group of readers in order to speak to them as though they were a unqiue reader.
Search engine optimization (SEO) The process of improving website rankings on search engine results pages.

Writing For Your Audience

Ask Yourself

Who is my audience? What actions do I want them to take? What do they need to feel confident taking action?

Demographic

Are you writing for males, females, a mixture? How old are they? What are their demographics?

Persona

A profile a writer creates that embodies the characteristics of their target audience. You can have more than one.

Types of Web Copy

HTML Formatting

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it is the foundation of documents on the web. So, you might be wondering what HTML has to do with writing for digital? All your basic HTML tags, like bold, italic, underline, list, paragraph, line break, links and headings (h1-h5) are important for a well organized website, but they also help search engines indentify content on the page, which will help you get more traffic to your website.

SEO Copywriting

Search Engines

When writing for digital, you're not only speaking to your audience, but the search engines they use to find you.

Keywords

Keywords and key phrases should fit seamlessly into your writing. No more than three key phrases is ideal.

Placement

Include key words/phrases in page title, url, meta description, meta keywords, headings, links, and images (alt text/title).

Best Practices

Communicate

Your copy should be creative, beautiful,
and thought provoking. In order to communicate
your message effectively, content should be:

  • Clear and concise
  • Easy to read
  • Well written
  • Well structured

Make It Easy

On the web, readers tend to scan text
rather than read every word.
Make sure you use:

  • Simple headings
  • Bulleted and numbered lists
  • Short paragraphs
  • Descriptive links
  • Buzzwords