Requesting Content from non-writers: GET SPECIFIC

A large software company that I do work for recently completed a major multi-product launch that required a great deal of new writing.

In previous projects of this scale, the Achilles Heel of the entire project has been the content. There are a lot of factors that can make this the weak link, particularly when the content is being written by the Subject Matter Experts in the company, rather than professional writers who understand the web. For example:

• Sometimes the content submitted is off-target for the goals of the web page (even when it's on-target for the corporate messaging).
  
  Some web pages are supposed to move traffic along to relevant information; some are supposed to deliver leads; some are designed to entice a business owner, and others are targeted at technical implementers.
• It's usually too Foggy by 10-15 points.
• It's usually too long for the web page. (Often 2-3 times as long as a human being can stand to read on a flickering web page.)
• It's usually devoid of SEO keywords and metadata.

For this project, I decided to leave nothing to chance. I was determined to arm the Subject Matter Experts with all of the necessary context to write content that we could actually use.

Step 1: Make a comp of the page with each content zone labeled.

I worked with the designer who was creating the templates for the new web pages. He took the comps and color-blocked each separate page zone, and labeled them A, B, C, etc.

Since there were several tiers of pages, he had to make several individual comp-maps.

Step 2: Make a Content Request form for each page, with the content zones labeled according to the designer's comp-map.

I created these forms using tables in a Word doc. In the table I specified more than just the location on the page. I also specified word or character count, and explained the purpose of that specific content.

For example, there were Headlines, Subheads, bolded paragraphs, bullet lists, and tabs. There were also several blocks of content on the page that would carry supporting info, belief builders like customer quotes and success stories, etc. Each content zone had a little squib of info, like "This is intended to grab the reader's attention and give him a little tickler that will stick in his mind. Use an arresting data point, or a big-name customer quote."

I also made sure they knew who we were talking to in each piece of content, and what the page's primary success event was. For example, "This is for the techie to share with the boss. Success = they click the Share button."

Each labeled zone got its own word count, and intended purpose.

This took a LOOOOONG time to do, but it paid off handsomely. The SMEs had a clear picture of the purpose of each piece of text. They knew how long it could be so that it didn't bust the template. They knew the target reader. They even knew the target Fog Index and the SEO keywords. In the zip file (called a Content Kit) I also supplied them with supporting materials -- a little piece I'd written about the Fog Index, and a little piece from our SEM partners about how to weave keywords into your content from the beginning.

THE RESULT?

This was, by far, the most usable content we've ever received from a set of SMEs. It took some rounds of editing to tune it up, but the material was pretty-much all there. They struggled with the Fog Index with one notable exception. (One SME really got into it, and tested each sentence with the Fog Index tool. His stuff was right in the 11 range where we wanted it. I sent a grateful note to him and copied his upline and colleagues, so they'd know we were keeping track.)

I think they all learn to write with high Fog when they are in grad school. Normal people do not speak like this. Normal people do not say "leverage" whenever they mean "use."

The other thing they almost all did was write too long. Even with the wordcount limits staring them in the face, most of them gave up trying to trim, and just wrote with reckless abandon -- leaving it to the editor to do the necessary cutting. It is hard work to write short. VERY hard work. This is why we have editors, I guess.

Going forward: we are planning to create an online form that will do the job of the Word docs. Stay tuned, I'll let you know how that goes.