A web writer is different than a copywriter

It’s 2013, we all live in Web World.  We are light years away from Don Draper and Peggy Olson. Peggy was a copywriter in Mad Men. Her talent: seduce the 1960’s housewife to buy products wrapped in dreams. She wrote copy to persuade, hence the term copywriter.

In Web World, writing is more complicated.  Sometimes we write to inform, sometimes to persuade. Unlike Peggy we don’t have one audience, we have several: customers, suppliers, job seekers and sometimes venture capitalists. And the stories we tell on websites are often non-linear.

A web writer’s assignments are more varied than ads and sales collaterals. They can include: write home page copy, create internal links, describe a sales process, write instructions, tell a story in a tweet, engage customers on a Facebook page. The list goes on.

Don Draper and Peggy Olson weren’t focused on user experience. But in Web World, it’s the only thing that matters. Web writers can contribute by enhancing the readability of their work.

You can enhance readability by making your text clear and easy to scan.  Write headlines so readers know what to expect.  Make your content relevant with ample white space around the text so your message gets noticed and read.  All this makes for a more pleasant read.

As Web World marches into the future, the role of the web writer will continue to evolve.

Like this post?  Share it.  Written by Don Seidenberg.