Second And Park — Web Copy That Works by Tiffani Jones

You need UX and Content Strategy help. But you’re so broke, you can’t afford to pay attention.

Let’s say you’re funded by the gubmit, and the gubmint’s broke because it spent all its money on oil spills. Or maybe you’re funded by the Man, but the Man’s so busy crushing it, he can’t be bothered to study up on his UI/UE/UX/CS/IA.

That won’t be a problem for you.

Use this Extremely Cheap CS Guide to impress your boss and gain results. Without spending a single K.

The Extremely Cheap CS Guide

• Use Your Brains. There are many wonderful things like content templates, content strategy how-to’s, and content strategy wisdom nuggets in the world. You can read and learn those. Or, before you start writing, you can just sit down and let your brain engine do some thinking for you. “What are my goals? What message am I trying to get across? Who’ll write all this stuff?” she’ll ask.
• Shorten Everything. That means everything: the number of pages on your site. The amount of text on each page. The number of sentences in each paragraph. The number of words in each sentence. Make it little. Make it less. In your municipality, aggressive Completists are thrown in jail.
• Action First. On your website, brochures, tweets and everywhere in between: action is the reason for the season. Be your users’ benevolent steward. Usher them around. Your motto is “Keep them moving; make them happy.”
• Be Direct. You’re done with the wind-up. No more circuitous intros. Does your company build boats out of toothpicks? Then you say so, friend! WE BUILD BOATS OUT OF TOOTHPICKS! Any audio, video or market-speak standing in the way of your proud declaration will be swiftly removed. When it comes to flim flam, your policy is Zero Tolerance.
• Be Human. You might work for the gubmit, but there’s no need to adopt his language! Are you tweeting? Tweet like a (hu) man. Blogging? Blog like you talk. Writing copy for your website? See #1. Hail Orwell.
• Think About The People. You are a gubbner who gubberns for and with The People. That’s why everything you publish on the internet—your website, your social media bytes and your pop-o-matic mailers—is made with the people in mind. Since the people in the southern part of your world think differn’t than the people in the northern part, you always take time to consider and write for their special needs.

And there it is. Content Strategy for Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!