Goal, Methods And Formats Of Rewriting
Rewriting is a critical step in managing web content. Its goal? Increase the relevance and performance of the existing. The rewriting, in marketing of web content, aims to improve the effectiveness of existing content much more than to give a new version of a text already written. The key words are readability, referencing, attention rate, relevance, clarity, incentive and interaction. It is a question of adapting certain pages of the site on the basis of rules, principles of transformation which aim to hoist the indicators of performance: return on attention, conversion, loyalty, no question, therefore, to reinvent or give a new version of your texts to simply "refresh" or "to do something new".
Rewriting, a principle of economy. Rewriting therefore requires rationalizing the work and avoiding the pitfalls of subjectivity and aesthetic bias. The key words are readability, referencing, attention rate, relevance, clarity, incentive and interaction. On large volumes of content, rewriting requires segmenting the critical elements of the pages concerned (product sheets, FAQs, blog articles, pages tips, etc.) and apply to the components most likely to make a real improvement, a minimum of editing rules for maximum effect." The ultimate goal of a rewrite is always to increase conversion rates. This calibration work therefore assumes a preliminary study, intended to qualify and quantify the elements that need to be corrected. This strategy therefore involves developing models, containers, checklists to rewrite existing content in an industrial way.
What goals do rewriting and editorial sizing cover? The ultimate goal is always to increase conversion rates. In doing so, readability, inducement, user experience and research experience are systematically improved. Some illustrations?more registrations to the newsletter: we simplify the form, we specify the frequency, the current number of subscribers, the contents it offers, etc. less rebound on the product sheets. We add a description moremarketing generic to the product's features (generic name, main profit,more visibility of our blog posts: checking the title and meta tags (length and relevance), checking the keywords on which the article is positioned, improving scanning by reducing the length of paragraphs and sentences, adding more fat, intertitles, etc." Rewriting involves the use of tools, recipes. A checklist that we use in our rewriting missions. It is part of the guide and copywriting template on sale on our blog. Write for the web. Get the tool in our shop.
Some classic methods of rewriting
As mentioned, rewriting involves recourse to recipes, checklists or procedures:
- simplify sentences (reduce the number of words per sentence);
- restructure the pages (title, chapo, 3 intertitles, a quote, a call to action);
- to popularize the lexical field (to simplify the vocables, to favor a more operational semantics);
- explain contents (add examples, refer to case studies and testimonials, add lexicon terms) to balance the 3 dimensions of the speech (to add relational or transactional elements to the articles of blog, to decorate of contents inspirational the very transactional description of the product sheets)
7 types of content to focus on rewriting
All the contents that must lead to an action and therefore a transformation can lend themselves to a calibration work. This does not mean that they all have to be improved simultaneously. One can very well begin a progressive edition, answering the rule of Pareto (20% of efforts for 80% of effects). Let's focus on 7 formats that may require rewriting:
- The microcontenus call (title and chapô, meta tags)
- The subject lines of your emails
- The forms and registration flows
- The calls to action and action buttons
- The transactional emails
- The descriptions product (besides the features)
- The mesh of the links in your pages
Gradually done
- Make sure you can isolate the effect of your rewriting work. Do not change the content of pages to which you also add features, an action button, a promotion, or where you change the layout, design. In your statistics, you must be able to attribute any fluctuation of the numbers to your only rewriting work.
- Work in increments. If you want to get good results, you have to take at least a minor risk. Choose something visible, something with high traffic where you will be able to see results fairly quickly.
- Focus on the conversion points. Start the job by rewriting pages that contain a purpose and a clear call to action. Microcontents of call (titles and links), action buttons, banners and other incentives are ideal for making your weapons. They generally allow to clearly see the difference between before and after rewrite and calibration work.