One of the advantages I enjoyed in my career editing books about the amazing Adirondack Mountains in Northern New York State...I'm not an outdoorsman!
That's right, wearing my publishing company hat, Nicholas K. Burns Publishing, I edited/rewrote, published, and marketed New York State Regional books on Adirondack nature, how-to, and history. The odd thing is, I don't hunt, fish, hike, or build things.
(The family does love our two weeks at Fourth Lake above Old Forge, NY in the summer, though. Of course, my outdoor fun amounts to reading books lakeside and firing down freezing cold Utica Club beers.)
You Can Write Instructions that Drive Action on Your Website
When you're writing instructions for your Web pages, what you consider too obvious to point out can end up a road block to your website visitors. I ran into this all the time with my authors. And my ignorance made for better books.
For example, I remember questioning one of my authors about birds in an art/nature book we were working on and she said, "People already know that." What I felt she was really saying was, "Anyone who knows about Northeastern ornithology knows the answer to that!" She was thinking more of her colleagues in biology and academia, who would easily know the answer.
And that's the point, our target market wasn't just experts in "ornithology" (the scientific study of birds). In fact, that would be a very small segment of our marketplace...our target was children and parents!
I wanted the text to be as child friendly as we could get it. I ended up selling over 6,500 copies of Drawing Adirondack Wildlife, a wonderful book teaching kids and adults how to easily draw the animals of the Adirondack region.
The same was true of another of my best sellers, Building an Adirondack Guideboat, by two very talented artisans and boat builders, John Michne and Michael Olivette. This is a full length how-to on one of the most difficult wooden boats to build in the world. Talk about conveying instructions from experts to amateurs.
I questioned the authors on every procedure I didn't understand and rewrote the sentences. I just checked Amazon and the first review on the book's listing page declares in the headline, "Great book with clear, 'how-to' detail." Now that's a review that makes this editor very happy!
How to Make it Easy for Your Web Visitors to Understand What to Do
Editing those manuscripts taught me a helpful way to look at writing instructions, even when they're short Click Here, Complete This Form, or Order Form pages on your website. (Actually, you'd be well off to keep this rule in mind with every Web page you write.)
You won't be there to help when your visitor wants to hand you her money but has a question on how to complete the form.
Yes, your website visitor could call if it's during business hours, but they'll most likely click away. And failing to get a conversion when you're that close to a sale is a major internet marketing blunder.
Here's what you can do...get someone to write the instructions who isn't familiar with them. Or, if the person writing the instructions on your site is intimately familiar with the process, have him pretend he doesn't know as he writes. Then get him to do some usability testing on these key action pages with people who have never been to your site before.
Get feedback from people who don't know how to use your website and watch for the places they stumble or get confused. Those are the spots where you'll need to clarify your writing.
So, pretending you don't know much makes it easier to write clear, simple instructions online. Make it easy for your customers, not for you and your colleagues.
Until next time,
Nick
PS Building an Adirondack Guideboat is in stock here at my office in Utica, NY. If you'd like a copy, give me a call or get in touch here. The book is $29.95 plus shipping. Mention this blog post and I'll get it to you FREE SHIPPING...USA only. And, it's always available on Amazon.com.
