Scanning, spreading and shifting behaviors: copywriting for your reader

When we write something, we want people to read it.

When my clients pay me to write something, they want people to read it. Usually, a very specifically targeted group of people.

But really, we want more. We want them to think about something, to know something they didn't know before, to change their behavior. We want them to DO something with that information. Often, we also want them to buy something we're selling.

Sometimes we spell this out for them in a call to action. Sometimes we don't. But we always have a motive.

Rajesh Setty over at Lateral Action has written a nice concise blog post, complete with an equally concise diagram for the visual folks, that outlines nine ways readers will respond to online content: from skipping it altogether to quickly scanning it, saving it if it's useful, spreading it to others, and possibly subscribing to get more of it. It's a thoughtful look at what actually happens when you put your content out there (though I might put shifting behavior at the end of this list), and I'm not just saying that because I'm a fan of Raj's alliteration. Here's that link again so you can read all of the 9 S actions.

What I got from this is that our online world isn't different from our offline world, no matter how much we want to pretend that everything has changed.

Once upon a time, I wrote and managed subscription newsletters for principals, C-levels and marketing directors, and the 9 S diagram applied then, too. When readers "get" your content, when it's relevant to them and interesting enough to grab their attention, they become more engaged with the author, the web site, the business. They send you feedback. They call you. They share it with colleagues and friends. They subscribe. They're more likely to buy what you're selling.

In marketing and PR, this is the message. In newsletter and white paper writing, it's the topic and the presentation. In blogging, it's what you're writing about and how you're writing about it. In Twitter, it's the content of your tweets.

You get the picture.

The thing is, people move faster online. Instead of tossing your newsletter on the desk of a colleague versus in the trash, readers are emailing your blog post, or link to it, or spreading it out among their social media channels. But only if it's relevant and gets their attention in the first place.

Tall order? Sometimes.

How many times do we sit down to write web copy or blog posts or tweets (or offline print marketing) and wonder how clever we can be or what the competition is doing instead of how we can creatively communicate something of actual interest? How often are we worried instead about whether we should be blogging three times a week or sending newsletters or whether we're getting left behind on social media? Or how can we establish expertise and visibility for ourselves? All good questions, sure. But they often answer themselves.

Writing starts with the reader.

For example, in a recent content brainstorming session with a B2B client, we put all that aside for a bit and spent time stepping out of our expert opinions and our marketing and technical/professional agendas and into the clients' shoes. It was part marketing exercise, part Council of Jedi Knights.

A handful of the questions we asked:

• Who are these folks and what are their job titles?
• What's making their job so hard to do right now?
• Who do they answer to and what for?
• When they call you, what is it they ask first?
• What worries of theirs can you take off their plates?
• What topics do they need information on right now?
• Who are the Joneses they're trying to keep up with?
• What are their reading and learning preferences?

What came out of this? Not just a calendar of good content ideas and some solid writing, but a genuine caring about making a difference for clients/readers through useful content. New ways to share that knowledge. And so far, some great conversations with clients as we begin to include them in the process.

Tell me what you're doing.