Sometimes you have a lot of information to get across in your marketing communications, but quite rightly want to avoid long copy that runs the risk of boring readers. The answer could be to ‘chunk’ your copy into lots of small sections, each of them easy to read for people in a hurry.
If you are creating a product brochure or product page on a website for example, you will probably have lots of information to cover. There’s a temptation to just have a few bullet points if you are worried about using long copy. But when you chunk your content that worry can pretty much go away.
Here are just a few possible chunks of content to consider for each product:
Summary. It might take you an hour or more of careful editing, but if you can brilliantly summarise the product/service in 50-100 words you are off to a great start.
Product description. The core product description in itself can be chunked into categories, such as main features, key benefits and so on.
What our customers say. Do you have some good reviews? Great, so make sure you use them to maximum value.
In the news. I’ve seen many companies get great media coverage for a product, only to forget to mention this on the actual product page on their website.
Meaningful data. Product dimensions needn’t be small print. If you list sizes or capacities try also to say what that means to customers. Tell me the PC you are selling has a 250GB hard drive and I scratch my head; tell me it can hold a million photos or 80,000 mp3 files and I get it.
‘How to’ content. Can you get your brochure or website to give some valuable information? If you are selling leather jackets how about a quick guide to keeping them in top condition for longer? Why not include tips for safe cycling next to details of a bicycle you are selling? If you are promoting a particular type of legal service can you include a quick guide to the most important legislation?
The personal touch. You can attribute just about any chunk of content to named individuals in your organisation. Names and photos of individuals can create a personal feel and help to build relationships with readers.
Make it easy for your readers.
Remember that people read by scanning pages. If you include 1,000 words in a single item at least use lots of subheadings to break up the text. Better still, arrange it in separate but related chunks and the readability will increase dramatically.
Another advantage of having chunks of various types of information is that you create an incentive for people to look inside the brochure or website. The front cover or home page can advertise the fact that there are user reviews, free mini-guides and so on.
So with all your chunks of content written, what next?
I like to spend some time creating dummy designs, rearranging the chunks again and again until I get something that makes best use of the available space. I do this in Word, and then ask the graphic or web designers to take my favourite dummy design further using their tools and skills.
To see this technique in action just take a look at Amazon. They are a great content chunkers: they typically include descriptions, lists of features, specifications, reviews and so on. Often there are hundreds or even thousands of words related to a product but through excellent chunking it’s all accessible and user-friendly.
If you become an expert chunker, you too can present all the required content, but in a way that looks anything but overwhelming or tedious.