DreamHost Design Handbook

Copywriting

Great writers will tell you that the only way to become a writer is to write. There’s a lot of truth in that, because as with any skill, you get better the more you practice. One out of every ten that you write might be decent—and then the goal is to push that decent one into a great one.

Design is communication but design can’t happen without words. Be clear and concise. Pretend like you are talking to a friend and write in your own words. Save business jargon for Press Releases. Be funny if it’s natural but don’t force it. Fancy punctuation, like em dashes, semicolons, parentheses, etc, tend to be distracting and unnecessary.

If we’re dipping into technical aspects, have someone technical help you understand what is happening. It’s painfully obvious when something has been written by someone who doesn’t understand what they’re writing about.

Headlines

What’s a good headline? Headline writing is probably the hardest and most important part of copywriting. What does a good headline do? It attempts to creatively wrap up a targeted and powerful statement about a product in a concise and memorable way, for the purpose of persuading users to become customers.

A good headline:

  • Is focused on Unique Value Propositions
  • Is persuasive
  • Relays urgency
  • Sticks to the marketing strategy (who, what, where, when, why)
  • Works with the visual, but doesn’t state the same thing
  • Refers to the product, but not always by name.
  • Catches people's attention (humor, controversy, boldness, etc)
  • Tends to be physically larger than the body copy on the page
  • Is accurate, factual, and not overstating
  • Uses simple language (shoot for Flesch-Kincaid score of 50 or higher)
  • Does not blatantly bash the competition (this can be perceived as desperate)
  • Is written in the target user’s voice
  • Is not self-deprecating

Email Copy

The users inbox is sacred. We are sending important information directly to them and hope that they are reading it. The shorter the email, the more likely it will be read. If there’s a lot of information, put that information somewhere else (Wiki/Knowledge Base) and link to it. Emails are notifications, not letters home from your husband Jeremiah who’s been gone for 4 months fighting the British for independence.

Interface Copy

Explain to the user what is happening or what action they need to take. Don’t over explain. Link out to appropriate places where a fuller explanation (Wiki/Knowledge Base) or sales pitch (dreamhost.com) already lives. There’s no need to duplicate content.

Website Copy

Show the benefits. Explain how the product can improve the user’s life. Be persuasive, without sounding like a salesman. Use buzzwords in moderation, it’s easy to cross the line into sounding contrived.

Resources