1. Great Language Feels Good,
Works Good Too
PG Bartlett
12 July 2013

2. My Groundhog Day Surprise…
“We need a new voice”

3. Why?
 Buyers rely on content for 70%-100% of their process
 “We sound the same as our competitors”
– Stuffy, boastful windbags
 “Even our fans criticize our #$%@& content”

4. So what?
“Our language is hurting our business”

5. What they did
Hired consultant (thewriter.com) to help them:
 Define their voice
 Develop before-after examples
 And train their people

6. Results so far
…

7. How would you measure results?
 Impact on language: metrics?
 Impact on activity:
– Web traffic
– Support calls
 Impact on business:
– Revenue?
– Satisfaction?
 Something else?

8. Third-party research
All: +124%
Concise: + 58%
Scanable: +47%
Objective: +27%
“Users detest marketese”
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/

9. Language Matters!
 We knew it
 Our contacts at our customers knew it
 And maybe we can get executives to know it too

10. We Decided to Humanize Our Own Content
Our action plan:
 Define our voice
 Rewrite our website
 Modify our software

11. Define Our Voice

12. Start with the end: audiences & goals
People who
love
language
Their
bosses
• Connect
• Motivate
• Educate
• Follow our example
• Language matters to their business
• How we can help
• Follow our example

13. Our new voice
But what good is it if you can’t find it?

14. Taboos
 Buzzword-laden
 Jargon-filled
 Complicated
 Boastful
 Equivocal
 Impersonal
 Long-winded
 Irrelevant
 Unapproachable (walls of text)

15. What makes a web page good?
 Scanable text
 Highlighted keywords
 Meaningful sub-heads (not “clever”)
 Bulleted lists
 One idea per paragraph
 Start with conclusion
 Half the words
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/

16. Scanning – NOT Reading
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/

17. Rewrite Our Website

18. acrolinx.com: Before & After
www.acrolinx.com

19. Does Great Grammar = Great Language?

20. http://www.wimp.com/frylanguage/

21. Change Our Software

22. Measuring Dimensions of Voice

23. Trend or blip?

24. Content Marketing
Every key measurement depends on good content.

25. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34080/Why-Marketers-Need-to-Rise-Above-the-Deluge-of-Crappy-Content.aspx

26. What Happens When Volume of Crap Soars?
Better language will matter more than ever

27. So what did I learn?
 Executives may start realizing language’s power
 In deluge of crappy content, language matters more than
ever
 Content strategy includes:
– “Right voice”

28. What problems remain?
 Assessing scale of problem
 Internal alignment
 Voice definition
 Remain distinctive
 Localization
 Measurements

29. PG.Bartlett@acrolinx.com