Ain’t it pretty? All those words I love, like “creative” and “writing” and “web”, jump out at me. It’s pretty easy, by skim-reading this Wordle, to guess what I do, isn’t it? And it’s also easy to see where I need to build on topics, in a bid to drive more traffic from certain keywords.

Web content managers can use the same trick to check whether their content is on target in terms of keyword frequency.

PS. Thanks to copywriting compadre Glenn Murray for his great post – SEO Copywriting is Dead! Here’s Proof… – which introduced my to the wonderful world of Wordles.

That’s sometimes how my brain feels when I’m tackling a new piece of creative copywriting. Moments of brilliance; then nothing.

Otherwise known as writer’s block, I guess. So what are my top five tactics for overcoming this most pernicious writing ailment?

1. Step outside the job. Say I’m working on an eDM for a financial institution and am stuck for a hook. Instead of sitting there staring at a blank screen for half an hour, I’ll be productive with my time and flick through a recent issue of Money, or trawl a couple of news sites, to further brush up on the topic.

2. Jump into something easier. Often, the hardest part of a piece is the heading/subject line/opening para. Generally, I leave this until last. By tackling the meatier sections first, I become so immersed in the topic I’m writing about that it’s relatively easy to come back and nail the opener.

3. Talk to myself. Sounds crazy, but I can often work my way through the problem by having a conversation with myself about the topic. “So, Bec, why do you need this financial product?” “Well, Bec, I’ve been thinking about my future a lot more lately, wondering how on earth I’m going to save enough for a deposit on a house…” And so it goes on. It might stem from my multimedia/scriptwriting days when I always had to read my work back to myself to ensure it sounded OK when spoken.

4. Re-read my notes. I will close my laptop and pull out my briefing notes, armed with a highlighter and a pen. I’ll go over these and pull out all the key points, and jot down some words/phrases which support these key points. It’s a good chance to go back to an old-fashioned brainstorm.

5. Admit defeat. I always acknowledge when I’m really stuck, and will leave the job for the rest of the day and complete another (less creative) job instead. There’s no point in trying to force creativity when it’s just not there.

Of course, there’s always coffee. That seems to get the creative juices flowing nicely.

So what are your tactics to beat writer’s block?

The business owner or marketing manager knows how they want to sound, but don’t know how to make that sound. They might say, “We want to sound like Virgin.” Or, “We want to sound cool, clever, and creative.”

But one person’s cool and clever is another person’s condescending and dumb.

The first thing I do when helping a business find its voice is to have conversations. With the CEO/business owner, with the sales team, with the receptionist. I get a handle on the culture of the company.

I then start playing around with the language which emerges and apply it to a piece of communications – a brochure, web page or letter. It will soon become evident to my client whether the writing is too conversational, or too dry.

This process of trial and error is invaluable. Because language is a subjective thing – and what a client thinks they’ve asked for may be different to what I’ve heard.

Once we’ve agreed on the tone, it’s easy to refine the communications guidelines and make them unique to the business. You can stipulate all manner of things relating to the voice, language and writing:

• Tone
• Keywords or buzzwords
• Use of bullet points or lists
• Openings and closings
• Punctuation
• Length of sentences and paragraphs

The list goes on. By investing a bit of time in developing a communications guide, you will not only “find your voice” but have the confidence to use it time and again.

How did your business find its voice? I’d love to hear from you.

I’ve finally moved my site over to WordPress, following a number of years using an excruciating CMS which wasn’t very search-friendly. The decision was a no-brainer:

• WordPress gives my site greater search engine visibility
• It’s cheap
• It’s clean and simple to use.

Of course, it takes a while to get the hang of it. And I was incredibly lucky to have Jack on hand to answer my questions (OK, he basically set the whole thing up for me).

But now that it’s up and running, I’m away. Watch this space for new additions – it’s so easy to use that I’ll want to spend all my time in here updating and refining my site.

So what does writing for the web involve?

Sell the proposition: keep it short

It’s about capturing the attention of your audience in the few seconds they spend scanning your page.

Every word on your site must earn its place. Convincing clients that less is best is one of the more difficult tasks I face as a web copywriter. When a client agrees to a fee for copywriting, the idea that they’re only paying for about 200 words per web page (which doesn’t look like much on paper, believe me) is often hard to grasp.

But when you consider that those 200 words are carefully selected and crafted to capture the reader’s very short attention span, you get an idea of how hard it can be.

Consider this. 79% of web users ’scan’ pages, and only 16% read them word for word (Jakob Nielsen).

A web user wants to find the information they need as quickly as possible. If they have to wade through dense paragraphs of information to find what they’re looking for, chances are you’ll lose them before you’ve finished your first marketing punchline.

When you’re writing for the web, remember these pointers:

• Start the page with the conclusion
• Improve scannability: use bolding and bulleted lists
• Avoid creative copywriting: keep it simple
• Headings and sub-headings as statements of fact

The ‘brevity’ mantra doesn’t always apply

Consider this article. You’ve drilled down to this page from the home page – or scored a direct hit from Google – and you’re here because you want to learn more about how to write well on the web. You might be printing the article out to file in your ‘useful business tools’ folder (I can only hope). In short, you want more than just a few sound bytes of information.

I hope this article has been useful to you, and welcome your feedback.

Where possible, you should get a fresh set of eyes to review your work. Because when it comes to business communication, you can’t afford to make mistakes.

Who to use? It may be a colleague, or someone removed from your organisation. As long as they have a firm grasp of your communication objectives and your corporate style and brand, then your editor will certainly add value to the project.

Editing websites

Web masters and online marketers responsible for large websites – I’m talking about sites with multiple content owners and deep layers of pages – need to think more carefully about editing web content.

Too often, I see websites with inconsistent or repetitive content. It’s because there are so many people involved with different sections of the site – and these people don’t have time to check out what other people are doing.

If you assign one person to review all web content before it is published to the site, then you will start to see the following improvements:

• Consistency of tone and language
• Reduced word count (web editors are adept at saying things with less words)
• Stronger brand message
• Logical links between IA and content

Depending on the number of new pages your organisation publishes, you may need an editor for a couple of hours or one day per week.

Self-editing has its place

You will certainly make the editor’s job easier if you review your work first. Ask yourself, “Am I telling the reader what I want them to know?”

Once you are sure that your document addresses all of your communications objectives, and you’re satisfied with the amount of information provided, you can hand it over to the editor.

And if, for whatever reason, you can’t use an editor, then make sure you proofread it at least three times – each time checking for a different item (eg grammar, punctuation, active voice).

I am the first to admit that, on occasion, I have thought myself capable of editing my own copy. Mistakes inevitably creep through. As do the web crimes of passive voice and sloppy sentences. But only sometimes, I hope.

I hope this article has been useful to you, and welcome your feedback.