HELPING YOUR READERS MAKE CHOICES

from: Excess Voice Newsletter #036

Even before the Web, helping people make choices has always been at the heart of a copywriter's job. True, our priority was not always to persuade people to make a choice that was right for them...we were and are often bound by leading people towards making choices that are best for our clients.

And the same is true online. We still earn our keep by driving choices.

But on the Web, we have a whole new level of choices to help with. We have to help people find what they want. We have to write links that take people to the right place. We have to write short text that gives people just enough information to help them decide on which page to visit next.

In other words, our skill at driving choices has become integral to the issues of site architecture, design and usability.

If people can't find the right information on the right page fast enough, we lose them.

The interesting thing about this new level of driving choices is that it should always be user-centric. That is to say we should serve the needs of the visitor alone.

All too often, organizations impose their own, organization-centric desires on the structure, layout and messages on their sites. And all too often, this imposition gets in the way of the user finding what she or he wants.

We need to concede to the client's wishes when it comes to persuading someone to buy one of their products or service. Yes, it's part of our job to encourage a prospect to choose Brand X.

But when it comes to the text on sites that helps people find what they want, we should fight for the customer. Text that helps people find the best page to suit their needs should be written from an entirely customer-centric perspective. Our clients may be our masters while we are selling, but our customers are our masters when it comes to helping them find that sales page.

So fight. Really. Because all too often the text on sites that should be focused on helping new visitors is hijacked by organizations that want every line on a site to serve their own needs first.

And that leads to poor usability and reduced conversion rates.

Nick Usborne is an advocate of good writing on the Web and author of Net Words, the definitive text on copywriting online. He is a writer, consultant and speaker. And publisher of the Excess Voice newsletter for online copywriters.