The jargon balance
Hmm. The corporate world is full of abbreviations and acronyms. Buzzwords abound in every industry, mystifying and exciting in equal measure.
It’s a tightrope, and one slip means the loss of potential clients.
Like the rest of this cruel and complicated world, writing and communicating isn’t just black and white. Pepper your prose with jargon and you might alienate the people in need of your expertise. And while ‘jargon-free’ is a selling point, you do have to demonstrate that you’re skilled with the tools of your trade. Want visitors to your site? Your SEO copywriter* needs to draw together a clever combination of industry keywords and plain language key phrases to give you good search engine visibility.
There’s a simple way of getting the jargon balance right.
- Firstly and most importantly, consider carefully the message you want to communicate; the target readership and its level of understanding; and the image you want to convey.
- Secondly use a professional copywriter. Copywriters specialise in crafting custom communications to draw, intrigue and of course explain.
- Finally, work closely together to ensure that any ambiguities are cleared up, your knowledge is beyond doubt and your approach neither patronising nor superior.
Throughout this process bear in mind that every piece of writing you produce, whether advertising copy, email marketing, or even a niche newsletter, should fit your established brand. People beyond your target audience may well be reading, and therefore judging. That can have an impact on recruitment, press perception, sales and more beyond. Walk that tightrope with precision, and take no chances. Above all, write for real people.
*An SEO copywriter is one who specialises in writing search engine optimised text, which in combination with other SEO techniques will boost the website in question up the search rankings for selected words and phrases.
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In: advertising, brand, copywriting, corporate communications, internet marketing, marketing, public relations, search engine optimisation (SEO) · Tagged with: abbreviations, acronyms, brand, buzzwords, copywriting, corporate communications, direct marketing, internet marketing, jargon, jargon-free, public relations, search engine optimisation (SEO), SEO copywriting
Direct marketing – long copy v short copy
From time to time, as a freelance copywriter, you take a look at the websites and portfolios of other freelance writers. It’s part research, part curiosity, and ends up either ego-boosting or ego-bashing. You’re never quite sure which until you get there.
Sometimes you’re prompted by an article. I was notified of a Q&A session on LinkedIn concerning direct marketing. The question solicited opinion on how effective long copy is against short copy. Opinion, by and large, rejected long copy on a personal level but acknowledged that the received wisdom is that it ‘works’. All the statistics I’ve seen imply that this is true.
I personally, while more than capable of writing at length, don’t like reams of sales or marketing material. Just the sight of a page where I can see I’ll have to scroll indefinitely is enough to hit the tiny X at the top right of the page.
What’s more, most of the proponents of long copy in direct marketing appear that I’ve come across seem to be American. Perhaps in my eyes even the British practitioners’ websites take on that US image.
So, long copy is a turn-off for me, but I’m intrigued to know what others think. Forget the received wisdom – I’m looking at personal responses here – does long copy direct marketing get you buying, or do you break out in hives and move on?
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In: advertising, copywriting, internet marketing, marketing · Tagged with: advertising, copywriting, direct marketing, internet marketing, long copy, marketing, short copy
