Writing for the Web and Email Welcome! We will begin at 10:02 a.m. Pacific. You won t hear any sound until then. Download a PDF of the Slides Here: kivilm.com/lwvc The Voices You re Hearing President Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com Barbara Barker Communications Director LWVC Who Else is Here Today Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 1
GoToWebinar Attendee View You will see the slides here. How to Participate Today You can open and close your control panel. View, change and test your audio. Submit text questions anytime and respond to questions I pose. (No one else can see your chat.) More Goodies Recording Links in 48 Hours Two More Live Webinars Kivilm.com/lwvc Flickr: clevercupcakes Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 2
How much online writing do you do now for your local League? The Differences Matter How People Read on Paper Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 3
How People Read Online Sources: Useit.com, Poynter Institute and Stanford University Low Literacy Visitors They do actually read, rather than scan What do you do when you receive your League newsletter? Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 4
What Happens to Your E-Newsletter? 11% read it thoroughly 57% skim it 22% never read it 10% save it for later Source: useit.com Three Characteristics of Good Online Writing It s Personal It s a Fast Read It s Relevant It s Personal Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 5
A. Let Readers Drive Content There is no such thing as the general public! Who s Reading This Thing? Who Are These People? Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 6
What Do Website Visitors Want? Think about who they are, what they care about, what they value What Do Website Visitors Want? Answers Calendars FAQs Reviews or recommendations How-to or step-by-step articles FAQs First-person accounts: How I... Success stories What Do Website Visitors Want? Actions Register for services or events Donate Surveys/Polls Order forms Sign-up for email newsletter Quizzes Share stories Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 7
Biggest Benefit of Letting Visitors Act and Connect? It starts a relationship! Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 8
B. Write with a Friendly Tone Who s Writing This Thing? We are pleased, we are thrilled, we are excited... Is there a real person in there? Flickr: cmorran123 C. Add More Them, Less You Websites and email newsletters should reflect more of the reader than the writer Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 9
Why Would Someone Go to a Meals on Wheels Website? Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 10
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It s Personal Let readers drive the content. Write with a friendly tone. Add more them, less you. It s a Fast Read A. Chunk Your Text Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 14
Find a Happy Balance Balance level of detail and number of choices. Too little info = more clicking = annoyed Too much = not scannable = leave Edit Ruthlessly Get right to the point. Rule of thumb: Cut print text in half How Long? Headlines and subheads: 4-8 words Sentences: No more than 20 words Paragraphs: No more than 5 sentences Total word count: No more than 500-700 words In between subheads: No more than 200-300 words Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 15
B. Make Your Chunks Scannable 80% of web users scan pages Easy-to-Scan Formats Bullet Bullet Bullet Consistent Formatting Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 16
Google Heat Map for Advertisers What Questions Would You Have About Adopting a Pet? Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 17
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How Can We Make the Adoption Page More Scannable? Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 19
C. Write Strong Microcontent Headlines, Subheads, Page Titles, Subject Lines, Link Text, First Words in Lists Good Subject Lines for Newsletters Describe the Candy, Not the Wrapper What s in It for Me? Be Careful about Calls to Action Keep it Short! Write Good Headlines, Etc. Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 20
It s a Fast Read Chunk your text. Make your chunks scannable. Write strong microcontent. It s Relevant A. Highlight Your Keywords Remember your top answers and actions when working your keywords into your content. Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 21
Where to Put Keywords In the microcontent At beginning of headlines In first and last lines of paragraphs Use bold or itals (not underline unless linking) B. Write for Search Engines Too Do you and Google agree on what your keywords are? Flickr: b d solis https://adwords.google.com/select/ KeywordToolExternal Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 22
C. Link Smartly Internal Links External Links Links Can Increase or Decrease Your Credibility It s Relevant Write for search engines too. Highlight your keywords. Link smartly. Questions? Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 23
Super Fast Survey How Did This Webinar Measure Up? Look for a survey window to pop up when you exit the webinar. Let s keep in touch! Email: kivi@ecoscribe.com Office: (336) 499-5816 Twitter: kivilm Facebook.com/nonprofitmarketingguide LinkedIn: Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com 24