Compelling Content – Part 2

Brainstorming: Your ideal reader or customer

A two-part series from freelance copywriter Kath Burke. In part one, Kath explained how you can understand why people buy you. Part two explores how to use brainstorming as an exercise in focusing on the content that really matters before you put pen to paper.

Great writing is a bit like redecorating. It’s all in the preparation. To make your writing more engaging and tight, you need to have a clear picture in your mind of your ideal reader.When you walk into WH Smith’s, hundreds of magazines and newspapers jostle for your attention. Slight changes to their target reader’s age range and values can cause big differences on the front cover, words used in headlines, slants taken for articles, the length of stories and tone of voice.The same logic works for your website. The more you can get inside the head of your ideal reader, the clearer, more succinct and empathetic your web copy will be.

It’s worth running a mini-brainstorm. You could invite in some people who know your business well, including, if possible, a loyal and trusted customer. You might ask to borrow their brains for 1-2 hours over a nice bottle of wine and a few nibbles. You’ll feel exhilarated once you’ve thrashed through some of these questions.

You can do some group exercises focusing on your ideal web visitor (I’m assuming they’re also your ideal offline customer), what they want, how you want to come across to them, and what extra content or tweaks would help your web visitors buy your services more easily.

Brainstorm: who is your dream reader?

And I mean who, exactly? The more you can step inside your reader’s shoes, the better you can tell your story the best way for your reader.

If you find it hard conjuring up your ideal reader or customer, then turn it on its head. Who would be your worst nightmare? Maybe think about problem projects and clients you’ve had before. And you can reverse these attributes to discover your ideal reader.

If you have more than one favourite customer, then what do they all have in common? You can use educated guesswork and past experience to build up a pen portrait for them. And if your site must appeal to several groups of distinct audiences, you can repeat this brainstorming exercise for each group.

Here are some questions to get you started:

• Roughly what age range is your ideal customer?
• What’s their life like? E.g. home life, work, leisure? What matters to them?
• Where might they get their weekly shop – are they Aldi goers? Waitrose? Or farmers’ markets? What type of car might they drive? This tells you something about their values and preoccupations.
• If they are visiting your site on business, what’s their likely job title and employer (rough size in terms of turnover or headcount)?
• Where are they based?
• How did they get to your site?
• What do they want from the website visit?
• What problem do they want to solve, or aspiration do they want to satisfy?
• What questions are in their mind when they visit your site?
• What mood are they likely to be in when they visit? E.g. stressed, bored, excited?
• How much do they know about your business area?
• What ballpark budget do they have to spend on your services?

Plan how you talk to this reader

• Who is your target audience?
• Why do they come to your site?
• What key messages do you want to get across?
• What tone of voice you want to speak to them in? eg professional versus friendly, serious versus light hearted.
• How do you want them to feel on your site?
• How technical the language should be – how familiar are they with your industry jargon?
• How content should be organised (your site map)
• What topics to include on your navigation bar(s) and how to label these.
• Ideas for search engine phrases (what people type in to Google to find your site)

Plan each page of content

Great web copy comes in page-sized packages of facts that you can read independently of each other. When sketching out each page, it’s worth writing a short brief for it:

• What questions in the reader’s mind should you answer?
• What tasks do you want them to complete – what action do you want them to take as a result of reading the page?
• What concerns or misconceptions should you address?
• What key message do you want to get across?
• What other related information do you want to link to?
• Where you will get missing facts from to write up the page?
• How will you check your facts?

Now you’re ready to write

Phew! After all this prep work, you’re ready to start writing. Gene Fowler once said: “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” Luckily if you’ve done this prep work, you should find the words come a whole lot easier. Happy scribbling.

By Kath Burke freelance copywriter and content consultant

Read part 1: Create compelling content your clients will crave >>

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Related:

• Winning New Business Kath Burke on How to Build a credible Website
• Marketing Al Welsh on Personal Branding for freelancers Leif Kendall on Marketing yourself as a freelancer or contractor

photos nickgraywfu and tantek