Print vs online copy: the gap is narrowing
The boundaries between print and online copy are blurring.
Five years ago, when writing for the web, content producers would be encouraged to include plenty of white space, lots of bullets, and small 'chunks' of content. The perceived wisdom was that nobody wanted to read large articles online; to do this, they'd acquire the print version.
Well, the adoption of smartphone/tablet technology has changed all that. These days, people are used to reading newspaper style editorials on a smartphone during a commute, for example. This was unthinkable only a few years ago.
Smartphone adoption has changed reading habits, with content primarily written for print consumption now being read online.
Whether online or in print, cut to the chase!
Don't save your carefully crafted prose for the end of your piece: place all your main points at the start (ie “above the fold”). This could be a killer headline, or an executive summary.
Place "at a glance" or summary boxes near the start of the piece so that readers can glean the essential information without reading the entire piece. Your 'call to action' doesn't necessarily need to be at the end of the piece - although this often provides a neat closing line.
Use only as much exposition as is required; this is business-to-business communications, and there isn’t enough time to provide anything apart the minimal amount of background information that’s needed for your piece to make sense. If you want to develop a story or a relationship, put it in a blog.
Avoid large blocks of text. As a rule, you've got more leeway with print media, but again look to keep the page active with smart design, or by using callouts, side bars, and summary boxes. Break up those text behemoths into smaller paragraphs. Highlighting specific areas and pulling out bullet points can also help to keep user attention, and will make your site easier to scan.
Harsh truth: some people will do no more than scan your lovingly crafted work.
Limit your use of italics, bold, and caps. Too much formatting will make your page hard to read and send readers away. If you shout all the time, people won't listen to anything you say.
When to use video, and what to do
- Use it to breathe life into tired/clichéd stories.
- Use to convey human emotion.
- Use it to take the audience where they can't usually go.
- Use it when it's essential that people tell their own story in their own words. Quotations are great. Quotations in videos are even better.
- Map out your storyboard, identifying footage, voiceovers, etc.
- You don't need a professional setup to create decent video. Good content will trump modest production values..
- ..but bad audio kills video. People will tolerate your DIY production values, but only if they can hear what you're saying.
The best thing about recent advances in video recording technology is that handheld devices are small and cheap enough to take anywhere. This is also the worst thing about it; that is, just because it's now easy to make a video, it doesn't necessary follow that it's the right thing to do. Don't make a video just because you can; make one when there's a genuine benefit from adopting the medium.