Let's put it into words.

Catching elusive fish, aka readers

All of us word smiths are trying to woo the elusive reader. We do it with catchy titles, with the right search words, with bullet points and paragraphs that make the text seem relevant, digestible and appetising. The elusive reader, in our minds, can be a young man biting into his lunch sandwich, catching a few rays on a cold park bench before ducking back into the office. It can be a middle-aged woman on her morning commute, scrolling through her feed, clicking on links that catch her attention. Or it can be soon-to-be parents, heads together as they search for that perfect stroller that fits perfectly onto their city pavements and is a breeze to push.

Cutting through the Net’s noise

Cutting through the noise as a copywriter is a big task. On a Net bursting with tips, listicles, educational videos and expert insight, the next article needs to say something noteworthy. Just like the best films, it needs to be twisted, turned on its head, surprising and, well, interesting. It needs to grab the elusive reader’s attention and not drop it until the end.

So what kind of written content manages to do this? I’ve gone out trawling the big catchy web and put my word fishing gear to good use. Here are a few that I pulled back to shore and examined before throwing them back in (I’m a vegetarian).

Cosmetics. Most of us know that all mascaras aren’t born equal. If you’re on the lookout for a new brand, chances are you wouldn’t just put type ‘mascara’ in the search field. One of the long-tail search terms I played around with was ‘mascara that doesn’t flake’ and voilà, I landed on this little gem from Pure Wow, which claims one of the top Google spots. This company does reviews for a living, so it’s no surprise they know their content stuff well. Nevertheless, the article does a great job of giving me answers to the question I threw out there. It includes an plus-and-minus overview of each product, states the price of each, and describes the ‘expert panel’ that serves me the information. The text is easy on the eye though it’s on the long side, and it’s mixed with images. Clear, transparent and highly relevant.

Food & Drink. I’m very particular with my coffee, less so when it comes to tea. In the evenings, my preferred brew-of-choice is white tea, without knowing much about its health benefits. Since there’s no time like the present to further one’s education, I typed ‘white tea health benefits’ into the search square and lo and behold, I found the answers on this little blog (ultimately supporting a web shop, Tea Culture of the World). Now I know that white tea is the rarest of brews and that sipping it might clear up my skin. Amazing!

Clothing. It comes as no surprise that the popularity of second hand clothes shopping has boomed lately, possibly overtaking the fast-fashion industry if it keeps gaining ground at this speed. As a minimalist, I’m thrilled to see this trend developing, and even more thrilled about the increasing options to buy second hand items online (especially since we moved to the country). Having made some teeting mistakes, I’ve now found a few online outlets that I return to a few times a year, but perhaps I could have avoided those initial faux-pas by researching better. So, I used the term ‘buying second hand clothes online – best tips’ and, having scrolled past the first paid-ad-links to web shops, found something meatier just below. I love this piece of content from C&A for its sections and its mix of bullets and text, and I found myself doing something I only rarely do when researching: I clicked through to the next article. And then the next.