Use only words that matter!

Back in the day, ad agencies in our town sent rookies to learn their chops at one of the big catalog houses. That’s where my first copy chief gave me the best advice that any writer, in any medium, could ever have: “Use only words that matter!”

Ruthless editing skills are as vital for effective web copywriting as they were in that old catalog; indeed, more so. Readers don’t haul up to the hearth with our pages across their knees (on the plus side, our work doesn’t end up in the out-houses of the nation, either).

You have mere seconds to arrest reader’s interest, and you can lose it the moment the content disengages. Visitors’ eye glaze over when they encounter a sentence such as this real-life pearl (clues omitted to protect the guilty):

“The family owners, management and staff of (John Doe and Sons, Inc) take great pride in their 60-year history of experienced, friendly and reliable service and supply to three generations of the farming and agricultural community in (region).”

C’mon… people don’t talk like that! And companies shouldn’t. Say that mouthful out loud. Thirty-nine words in one interminable sentence, chewing up precious content real estate—and not a whiff of connection with the reader. So, what are they really trying to say?

Render out the fat, flab and plain unnecessary: “We’re friendly… reliable… been part of the community a very long time.” Write tight and make connection. Why not…

“We served your Dad and Granddad. How can we serve you?”

There are many effective ways to transform that ball-of-string sentence, preferably with a search term, but the example serves.

Use only words that matter. The words in the quoted sentence matter only to the company. They drip dust and stuffiness. Extract the pickle, guys! You sound like a funeral home.

The alternative sentence is highly interactive and relaxed. Eleven words, one line, loaded with a potent little brew of subliminals: Longevity… credibility… experience… trust… tradition… family… interested in me.

Write tight. Writing only words that matter is a liberating discipline. It forces/frees the web writer to work from the target audience back and comply with readers’ desire for meaty gobbets of relevant information, and their strong preference for interactive content voice.

It allows us to triage the information hopper, and assign need-to-know/need-to-say levels of importance.

And, not the least of benefits, the words-that-matter mantra comes in handy when dealing with content owners who think web copy should read like their 1957 Annual Report.