Hey Michael,

How are you my friend?

Well, I’m not sure I am his friend, really, but he didn’t have to challenge me so bluntly. Maybe if he’d inserted a comma I’d have looked at it a little differently.

To be fair, this particular business is an “offline” entity, but they wouldn’t have a Web site at all if they didn’t think it could help bring in clients. So what kind of first impression does it make on a potential client if she sees a testimonial that appears to have been written by a fifth-grader? (Yes, it really was that bad.)

That business is far from alone. Without much effort, you can find Web sites, brochures, and ads with gratuitous verbiage, unintentional grammatical errors (we’re not counting “think different”) and even misspellings. In almost every case, you can wager your paycheck that the text was written by the Web designer, company president, or pretty much anybody but a professional writer.

You can also bet that every one of these companies believes that text is adequate for their needs.

Why? Let’s ask.

People are smart, they’ll figure it out.

Why would you want your potential customers to have to figure out your value proposition, or features, or worst of all, how to buy? It’s the copy’s job to make them understand.

Our product speaks for itself.

Then why have copy at all? If you simply put a good product snapshot and an order form on a single page, would you sell just as many? Products, even great ones, don’t speak. If they did, they’d say, “get me some good marketing and support, you ninny.”

We’ve got a crack sales and support staff.

Then why make their job harder? Will your best people stay around when they know how little effort goes into backing them up with written materials? It’s the copy’s job to help your staff.

A professional writer is an extravagance.

Would you keep a support rep who confuses your customers? Would you hire a sales agent whose resume was full of grammatical errors, or entire paragraphs that told you nothing about his qualifications?

Think of copy as a product’s resume, and it all starts to make sense, doesn’t it?

What better inaugural topic than one of the most important rules of communication: address the reader! When you speak directly to the reader, it not only makes your prose clearer, it forms a bond between yourself and your audience.

Note the difference in the following sentences:

People love SmeltCorp pre-cooked smelt products for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

You’ll love SmeltCorp pre-cooked smelt products for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Imagine yourself as a prospective customer. Whether you’ll actually love SmeltCorp’s products or not, you’d rather not get lumped in with “people,” would you? No, if you’re interested enough to read the copy, you’re already wondering whether you’ll like it.

Only one word has changed, but that one word changed the meaning of the sentence from a boast to a direct assertion. (If you back it up with a guarantee, it’s practically a double-dare!)

Even if you’re writing a technical document, addressing your copy to the reader pays dividends in clearer instructions. In the technical domain, it’s easy to lose your feel for the audience, and speaking directly to the reader is the next best thing to walking in their shoes.

Whether you’re writing to one or one million readers, you have the power to speak directly to each and every person who reads your copy, just as I’m speaking to you right now.

Simple, huh?

Please feel free to add your comments, questions, and tips of your own—we’re all students in this classroom.