Whether you’re writing copy for a website or a mail-out, the clarity of your writing has a direct impact on its overall effectiveness.

People tend to avoid reading when they feel overloaded.  They filter through difficult information and look for content that is easier to understand.  You can’t control the amount of information in the world, but you can make sure the information you provide is clear, simple, and easy to understand.

Here are some tips to help you maintain the reader’s attention.

Create An Outline

Don’t just start typing all willy-nilly and hope that something sensible comes out. Create an outline. Think about what you want to communicate, and how you want to communicate it. Convey your message in a logical way, with a beginning, middle, and end.

Make Clarity Your Primary Objective

You won’t have much luck persuading someone who can’t understand your point.  Simplify your message. Make your content easy to understand and get to the point.

Organize Your Information Visually

Readers get intimidated by long copy.  Don’t be afraid to use bullet-points to separate ideas and drive home important points.  Spacing your content allows the reader to feel like they’re making progress and prevents them from losing their place.

Use Real-Life Examples

People learn through association.  Link your ideas to real-life situations the reader can relate to.  This will help avoid confusion and increase the likelihood they remember your copy.

Use Emotion

Copy that makes an emotional connection is easier to understand and is more memorable.  People process emotional ideas more easily than intellectual ones. If you’re writing about a confusing topic, make people feel so they don’t have to think so hard.

Don’t Spoil A Good Idea

Too many great ideas have been ruined by the author’s attempt to be funny or ironic.  Things like style and tone come secondary to the message.  Effective writing doesn’t draw attention to itself with clever word-play and smartassery.  Clarity always comes before comedy.

Stay Focused

Persuasive writing is about quality over quantity.  The more you add, the less effective your message becomes.  Focus on one or two points at the most.  Create solid arguments for those points and drive them home.  When it comes to writing, less is more.

Repeat Your Objective Again At The End

People tend to remember what comes first and last.  Save your reader the head-ache and remind them of why they started reading in the first place.

From dusk until dawn, your readers are inundated with information.  You owe it to them to be as clear and concise as possible.  Don’t overload or clutter your content with useless jargon.  Respect your reader, and in return, they will respect you.

The Internet is a marketer’s dream-come-true. It allows them to track people’s purchasing habits and respond with targeted special offers aimed at consumers’ interests and trigger-points.

After years of bombarding consumers with advertising and pushy marketing campaigns, however, a new trend is developing. According to a Harvard Business School paper published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, consumers are using the Internet to research the marketers, rather than the other way around.

Today, consumers rely on sites like Amazon, Facebook, and eBay to research and share their opinions about products. With this virtual word-of-mouth promotion on the rise, an entirely new marketing philosophy is called for, one where the consumer controls the message.
Consequently, businesses that rely solely on advertising (a one-way relationship) are having a difficult time maintaining customer loyalty, while businesses using an integrated marketing approach (fostering a two-way relationship) are seeing an increase in business.

Could it be that old-school business practices are making a come-back? Consider this:

A happy customer tells on average two people about their experience,
while an unhappy customer tells approximately ten.

In the physical world, brands have developed strategies like, “customer satisfaction calls” and 1-800 lines to release tension and (hopefully) prevent unhappy customers from spreading unflattering communiqué. Online, however, a consumer’s pool of influence is much larger and significantly harder to manage should they go on a damaging rant.

To be successful in today’s climate, your marketing strategy needs to be mindful of the following:

1. Consumers increasingly form their perceptions based on peer reviews, and less on business propaganda
2. The perception of authenticity is valued more highly now than ever before
3. Establishing a brand-to-consumer relationship is crucial for generating customer loyalty (See The Three Cs of Twitter)

This new trend doesn’t negate the importance of marketing but instead speaks to the growing need for authenticity in the customer – business relationship.  Lumen believes that all marketing – no matter the scale – is most effective when it reflects the lives and interests of your future customers.  That’s why we create campaigns specifically designed to bring awareness through relationship, not inundation. 

Have questions about our process? Send us a message.