Writers work in the strangest of places and conditions. That includes content writers.
Case in point…
We were trapped in the Reno airport trying to get to Lake Tahoe in the middle of a blinding snowstorm. After they rolled down the iron gates on every single shop, we were left only with sketchy Wifi to entertain us for the remainder of the night.
Fortunately, one of our special projects clients had hired us to audit a site and give them some honest feedback.
Their bounce rate (how quickly someone jumps on and then off their site) was through the roof, and they couldn’t understand why.
It’s a website designed for a tech product they are trying to sell to senior living providers and the families of older adults.
So in the middle of a snowy Saturday night, when we should have been sipping chocolate martinis at Six Peaks Grille, I was working.
The client’s website was spectacularly beautiful. Seriously. No snark here. The colors were gorgeous. Great photography. Easy navigation.
And it was full of absolute garbage language.
Ugh.
What is Garbage Language?
We’ve always referred to that kind of copy as full of senior living jargon, but an article I read in Vulture during the middle of the night in that ridiculously cold airport used the term garbage language. And it’s a descriptor that works.
The site was absolutely unintelligible to the average bear on the block. Even tech folks like ours were scratching their heads when I shot it over to them.
While some of it may be unavoidable, and can be further explained by linking important phrases to an onsite glossary of terms, most of it just needs a writer who can decode the copy. Explain it in terms regular folks can understand.
In our humble opinion, it takes a writer who understands the jargon and can find ways to explain it to non-industry folks.
And then you need editors who can chop it up and make it even easier to understand.
Because families deserve answers. Easy to understand solutions to the struggles they are facing.
Sure, your blog can be diverse and creative. It’s your opportunity to develop content that connects with seniors and families at all stages of their search.
But the rest of your website needs to ask and answer questions. Offer solutions.
Copy should be written and presented in a way that people outside our industry can actually understand.
If you find yourself trapped in an airport any time soon, or even if you don’t, make time to pull up your company’s website.
Take an objective look at it. Ask a friend or family member to do the same.
Is it useful? Trustworthy? Easy to read? Boring? Poorly written? Self-serving?
It might be helpful to bring in a focus group to hash through each and every page of the site.
Drop us a note if you need a top-notch team of copywriters and editors. We’ll be happy to set up a time to talk…
Until next time,
Shelley