Once upon a time, a very long time ago, the first desktop publishing software appeared, and was greeted with cries of rapturous joy. Everyone thought that now, at last, they could do all that expensive design work themselves.
So they did. And pretty atrocious it was, too.
‘Ooh, look! We’ve got thirty different fonts! Isn’t that great? How many can we get onto one page…?’
‘Oooh, look! We can put in our own pictures! Wonderful! But – erm – why do they all look so fuzzy? And why is this one all stretched out?’
‘Ooooh, look! We’ve got 256 colours! Why don’t we try them all?’
From memory (yes, sorry, I’m that old) I think this lasted about three years. Then a few people – the sensible ones – began to realise there were some good reasons to use a designer. Mainly because designers have some idea how to put a page together properly…
Now it’s starting all over again – but this time it’s about content. And that’s trickier…
‘But of course I know how to write!’
Well – yes, you do, if your idea of ‘writing’ involves putting words together into a sentence. Most of us can manage that, at least on a good day. The problems come when you try to write a whole series of sentences designed to do a very specific job of work. Because I can tell you – from experience – that it isn’t easy.
Take, for example, a user manual. A few years ago I was asked to write one of these for a sophisticated surveillance camera with some very powerful software. I was even told what I needed to write about, and in what order.
Easy? No. Not really.
Why? Because I needed to be sure that users would understand every word – especially the bits to do with health and safety. I needed to be sure they would see, at once, what the various software routines would do, how they could get to them, and what they would be able to use them for.
And I needed to keep within the word count. And with the range of options the team had made available, even the quick start manual could have been pretty chunky…
Everyone needs help
Then there’s the small matter of perspective – something I covered in an earlier article on this blog.
As a business owner, you’re probably the worst person to write content about your own business. Why? Because you don’t have the right perspective. If you’re anything like most of the business owners I meet, you are down at the coalface, about three inches away from the action. Which means you don’t have either the time or the inclination to stand back and see your enterprise as others see it.
And no one is immune – not even professional copywriters like me.
About a year ago I was struggling to put together an early version of my website. Struggling because I really wasn’t sure what to write, and everything I did write seemed to miss the mark. It took an independent observer – in this case the highly professional Kim Morrison – to spot what my problem was and help me to see it for myself. With Kim’s help I was able to take those critical steps back from the coalface to see everything I was doing through the eyes of my clients. And then write about it properly…
So don’t be fooled by some fresh-faced young software engineers who tell you that ‘content is dead’. It’s not – except in some of the content-free newsletters I sometimes receive (which go straight in the bin) or those written by people who are still three inches from the coalface. Those sometimes get a friendly email offering professional help.
Well, it’s worth a try – especially when everyone else is just putting them in the bin…