Accelerate the understanding of a commercial or technical text: how to stop being afraid to write simply

We learned to read in silence relatively recently. Previously, there was no other logical way to read, except strictly aloud. The actual reading process is like listening to two voices: one pronounces the words of the text, the second translates them for us into a language we understand.

When you write a text, you are a social engineer who tries to convey his point of view as accurately and precisely as possible. You solve the problem of data transmission without distortion. The easiest way to do this is to avoid translation through the reader’s internal translation.
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This has a direct bearing on commercial and technical texts. Minimal distortions in the transmission of information mean a large conversion. Greater coverage. Greater force of appeal. Greater practical clarity.

So now I will tell you the basic things that you can do right here and now on your sites.

1. Information density

One of the main criteria of how valuable your textual material is is the density of information presented with the simplicity of this presentation.

Speaking about the description of the goods on the site, it is important to quickly form the basic parameters. Here are examples of the most "dense" gear: "The smallest professional film camera in the world", "Full-frame camera for extreme conditions", "Electric kettle for houses with old wiring", "Board game in which you have to perform funny tasks or drink."

Seal example:


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Imagine another situation. You sell something to a large company (B2B segment), for example, your expensive software. Most likely, you have a sea of ​​useful functions that can be described for an hour, two, three and more. But in practice, when you send your proposal to the customer, the following will occur:

• He will read it and try to understand what all this has to do with his company.
• Find the most important places and translate them into your language.
• Then he will go to the manager and tell you his translation, which will include well if 10% of your information.
• The manager will translate into your language and make a decision.

At each stage losses are possible. Therefore, your task is to immediately ensure that the words that your subordinate tells his supervisor about you become exactly what you immediately put into his head. Speaking even simpler - you already give the wording of step 3 or 4 on the first.

Accordingly, the simpler and closer to the practice you explain, the better.

Example:

1. A newcomer reads the instruction: “Opening a valve can cause a sharp drop in pressure in the outlet system and be life threatening. It is forbidden to unscrew the valve while the unit is running. " Even if the novice reads the instructions and signs for them, it will not be entirely effective, since there is no reference to the practice and to him. Therefore, consider the situation 2.
2. The master explains to the novice: “If you open it, it will bruise!”. This is completely concrete and illustrative. Notice how the density of the information has increased. Semantic shades of the last word can determine the degree of danger: “bruise” is it itself, that is very dangerous, “to you * censored *” - extremely dangerous, and “bruised” - administrative punishment will follow, but this is not as critical as the previous versions .

So, we have just learned how to squeeze information to the main point and put all the details out of the brackets. To quickly understand what and where in the text it is necessary to work this way - first the main thing, then the details. For every detail, exactly the same recursive work is done - first the main thing, then the detail.

Here it is necessary to break into the results. In 2009, we had an average time on the site around 3:20, in 2011 - from 5 minutes to 6:40, depending on the season, now - from 19:20 to 21:10. On average - 19 and a half over the last year. Bounce less than 20%, the conversion from the season to 6%. These are the correct descriptions, the correct simple video feed, the right pictures, simple language and lots of useful information inside. By the way, SEO has given a huge plus - the behavioral factors are simply insane. Here are more details about how we went to this.

2. Filing format: short transactions

Reading is difficult. Moreover, the further we go into the bright interactive future, the harder the ordinary person is given the task of reading and writing. Once again: it hurts to read, and on every new word you lose readers. And always lost, just now - a little faster.

Americans faced this problem before us and came up with the optimal format - comics. There are big pictures and short texts. Everything is clear and understandable, and you can even put "War and Peace" in a magazine of average thickness. The nuances of the meaning will be made into pictures, not into the text - this simplifies the perception and makes it more adapted to clip thinking. Here is my favorite example from the description of the “Wizard of the Emerald City”, where you need to tell about the fields:



So, the optimal structure is short paragraphs, headings with translation for each one and disclosure of one thesis within a paragraph. Plus pictures. Think of headlines as tweets, and paragraphs as posts, and you, in general, can’t go wrong.

3. Always put yourself in the reader's place.

Again, an example from my recent lecture. I ask a person from the audience to tell what he is doing for the project. He starts:
- This will be the service that manages the content ...
Attempt number two:
- This is an aggregator of information on the desired topic.

For the end user, these two explanations have no practical meaning at all. More precisely, he must translate them into his language with losses. This is what can happen:
- I'm a metallurgist. When I drink coffee in the morning, I have a fresh newspaper on heavy metallurgy.
- I am afraid to miss something from the novelties of my field. I put the application - and I know for sure, I won’t miss anything.
- I have nothing to read on the subway, and I want all the articles on this topic to be collected here.

You have probably noticed that the translation into the reader’s language requires knowing something about him. Or, at least, have a point of differentiation to draw a situation from his life. Simply put, we will need to make three different messages for three different segments of our audience - that's about as above.

This is the complexity of a simple language - it requires a serious knowledge of who you write and how this person lives. In the simple case, you can get off with official phrases from a press release that no one will understand. But there will be no fear that you have not embraced anyone.

This fear of being too specific is the main enemy of working content. If you do not know what you are selling and to whom, and you are trying to cover the janitor and the plant manager in one message - a surprise is waiting for you. In the corporate segment, people are simply really afraid to write openly, specifically and succinctly. Because it is not accepted.

And yes, in simple language it is difficult to lie and it is difficult for them to build illusions. Maximum information density means maximum specifics and abundance of details. Not "now you have to pay for fast Internet is even more convenient," but "we automatically deduct 200 rubles from your balance each time you have a monthly quota of traffic."

4. Structure

Let's analyze the structure of the text for a specific purpose on the example of the description of the goods in the store. From the point of view of the writer, the task is to sell this product (or even just to describe it - or even easier, to please the customer). On the other hand, this task is far from optimal for the store. It is important for the store not to sell this particular product, but to sell one of the goods. Obviously, this strategy is more effective: it didn’t work out with this, well, it will work with another. Hence the following structure:

- This is this.
The title of the product and the main "translation" of its destination. For example, "This is a strategy about pirates."
- Points of differentiation
The most important properties of the product, expressed through the situation. In our case - "The best strategic game in Russia in 2012 and 2013" and "Come from Moscow State University", "Team" and "Develops the intellect." A portrait of the game is immediately taking shape among others.
- A little about the product (details, illustrations)
We tell about the fact that it is a little more detailed. In our case, we show pictures of the components and describe the gameplay briefly and succinctly, with simplifications.
- For what
Specific problems that the product solves and examples of use. For example - to give to a friend, to play in the family, to keep the child away from the computer, and so on. In terms of games, this is not so much a “problem” as an understanding of which particular situations - for example, so that a person knows whether to take the game for his birthday.
- Who better to buy
We describe the reader we are targeting. Want to develop the child's intelligence? Well, here is the game.
- Exact composition and performance characteristics
After any description remains innuendo. I do not know anything better to remove it, than the exact description of the composition and some details for each component. Feeling - as if we, together with the reader, unpacked the box and saw what for. To bring the composition of the goods without explaining its key features is an unaffordable luxury.
- What does it mean
Once again, the main conclusions, binding to reality. An optional item, but it is often convenient to summarize long descriptions.
- Photos from the buyer
We need social proof. The best option is a photo in use. This is, once again, an explanation of what it is, how big it is, how it looks in the real world, and social proof that other people use it. Here they are.
- FAQ and objections
Often there are difficult questions about the product or service, it is best to put them in the FAQ, not waiting until the client leaves, not having received an answer.
- Review
This is the experience of real use of the goods, most often - short and emotional. We do simply - we lift one of the comments in the description.

5. Transactional letters

One of the most interesting types of fast transfer of information is transactional letters in the spirit of “your order is issued”. The optimal structure - the first sentence or topic convey the most important thing. For example: "Your order was sent by RF mail." Further details - "This morning he went to you, should arrive in 10-12 days according to our calculations." Later - useful advice: "You can follow the package right here by entering this number."

Proper reporting of information in transactional letters due to their familiarity and format limitations often requires special steps. We, for example, had a problem with the letter “your order is completed” - if it was made out at 3 at night, the person waited for a call back within 10 minutes as usual in the afternoon. Naturally, they called him around 11 am, when the change of operators went to the call center (why not at 9 - because the operators understand that the person who went to bed at 3 at night will probably not be very happy with the call at 9:00).

So, attempts to explain about the working day regularly fail. More precisely - not read completely. As a result, I rewrote the text of the letter, and it now begins like this: “Hi, I am a specially trained Mosigra robot accepting new orders” ... “in the morning I will definitely transfer your order to the operator”.

The fact is that customers thought that if they dropped a letter — too humane even for an answering machine — then there is someone on the other end. And when a specially trained robot greets you, it leaves no unnecessary illusions.

I remember how the developers thought that the letter about the error with the theme “Aaaa, bdyzh! Something went wrong with your order ”was the version for the test, and not for the production server. I managed to convince only the second time.

6. Storytelling

All thoughtful structure, all methods and ways to keep attention immediately go to the forest, as soon as you have a story. A simple life story, which is purely subjective about what and how. A good living history is always the strongest thing a copywriter can write, carefully collecting facts.

The best example from my practice is one grandfather building log houses. In 2008, he found out about the Internet and decided to “place a booklet there, you know.” They put my grandfather in the office and asked him to tell about how he builds a house. And they began to write to the recorder. He began, quite unexpectedly, with the subtleties of choosing a tree in the forest in the summer, how to celebrate it, to return in the winter (when there will be less juice) and other details. The story carefully alternated with obscenities, figurative expressions and jokes. “Evonny neighbor won won, you can not do in the paw, then. Sits now, dog, crevices caulk, ass freezes. ”

This story is the best thing that can happen to the text for the site. Because there is a specific grandfather who is responsible for every word. There are details on which it is clear what the specialist is saying, who still care. The text is radically different from other on other sites - there is about the history of architecture in Russia and other water. And here - practice, benefit and sale. You understand that even if more expensive - all the same, everything is on the conscience. And, of course, the liveliness of speech is very gratifying - the cultural code is very close to those who read. Information is transmitted without loss. And photos of each step, which were carefully prepared for the booklet.

7. Call to action

Most marketing formulas end up calling for a person to act. This is called either CTA (call to action), or is marked in the last letter of the fashionable AIDA (fixing attention, creating interest, forming desire, activating action). So, most of this theory was written in the days of TV shops and American mailing lists. And those who adopt this theory in Russia today are often mistaken. CTA “Call Us Now” does not work. No need to put a button to buy goods directly in the catalog. Almost no one ever buys a product without getting to know him more.

Therefore, very often the best call to action in the mailing list is to go to the site, because there are more details and photos. On the site - go to the call, because there they can answer all the questions and help determine the choice. In a B2B-commercial proposal - on the miscalculation of the test scheme, just to estimate the costs for your situation. And so on.

Simply put, you should know that in the end sells goods - for example, a call. And to sell at each stage not the product itself (which extremely lowers the conversion), but the next step towards its sale.

Summary

Just in case - again the main mistakes:

• Water in the text, sentences without meaning . The most frequent example is “High quality services”. It would be correct to show an example of this quality like: “Delivery without delay is already 2 years and 3 months”.
• Difficult language. If the text requires an internal translation - everything is bad. The easiest way to catch it is to go back to the beginning of the sentence and paragraph and reread it again. Yes, just like here.
• Too general segment . Trying to sell everything at once does not end with anything good. Sell ​​only to those who really need the product. The rest will catch up.
• No understanding of the audience . You need to explain to people that you understand their task and know how it looks from their side. Do not try to talk about the situation from your position.
• Do not hire to write the text of Mowgli - copywriters, brought up by SEOs and marketers. Seoshniki give a lot of water and keys, marketers - the fear to write simply and specifically.
• Getting started is like spam . I call such texts a "TV shop". Too categorical statements (“unique”, “only”, “No. 1 in the world”), superlatives and exclamation marks - all these are emotions that most often interfere with banality.
• And finally, the material does not turn the world . Your description should convey a new perspective on the situation or product to the reader. If it is not, it will not be remembered.

Everything. It was a brief summary of the beginning of my lecture in the workshop / IIDF about content marketing. If it's interesting, I'll post the second part about the selection of online communication channels and brand journalism.