Wylie Communications presents
 

Web Writing Workshop with Shel Holtz and Ann Wylie On-Site Training

Get clicked, read, shared and liked with Web pages, blog posts and social media messages that reach readers online

Course Description/Agenda

What You'll Learn

• Create Content Marketing Pieces That Almost Write Themselves: Write tipsheets, case studies and survey stories better, easier and faster with our fill-in-the-blanks formulas and templates
• Cut Through Clutter Online: Make copy easier to read & understand on the Web
• Lift Your Ideas Off the Screen: Communicate to skimmers with headlines, links and other online display copy
• Get the Picture With Social Visual Communication: Reach audience members through images, infographics and Instagram
•  Build Buzz Through Digital Storytelling: Engage followers and inspire them to share your stories with their networks
• Write For the Small Screen: Prepare your messages for mobility
• Help Readers Find You: Get discovered, read and shared with these content marketing strategies

Workshop Agenda

Day 1: Reach Readers Online with Ann Wylie

Create Content Marketing Pieces That Almost Write Themselves

Instead of pitching your products, try positioning your organization as an expert in your field with relevant, valuable, interesting content marketing writing. Become the source of a fascinating stream of entertainment and news you can use, and watch your prospects turn to you first when they need your products, services, programs and ideas.

BUT - and, as PeeWee Herman said, everyone has a big but - content marketing pieces aren't news. That means the techniques you use for other types of messages most likely won't work for content marketing. In this session, you'll learn how to:

• Organize content marketing pieces, from tipsheets to survey stories, from case studies to organizational storytelling, with our fill-in-the-blanks templates and annotated examples
• Find the right story - and craft the best story angle - for content marketing pieces
• Master the Art Of the Storyteller with a simple formula you can use to write case studies, testimonials and organizational stories
• Ask a simple question to help your subject matter experts recall a story
• Get clicked, read, shared, remembered and acted on with proven-in-the-lab techniques

Cut Through the Clutter Online

Is your blog post or status update easy to read? According to communication experts, that's one of the two key questions people ask to determine whether to read a piece - or toss it.

Fortunately, academics have tested and quantified what makes copy easy to read. Unfortunately, that research virtually never makes it out of the ivory tower and into the hands of writers who could actually apply it.

But you'll leave this session with "the numbers" you need to measurably improve your copy's readability. Specifically, you'll learn:

• How long is too long online: for paragraphs? Sentences? Words?
• What readability grade level works best on Facebook? Twitter?
• How to cut your copy before you've even written the first word
• How to avoid causing your reader to skip your paragraphs
• A tool you can use (you probably already have it, but you might not know it) to quantifiably improve your copy's readability

Lift Your Ideas Off the Screen

Sixty percent of your audience members aren't reading your copy, according to estimates by two professors at the University of Missouri. So how can you craft online messages that reach non-readers?

In this session, you'll learn how to use your online display copy - headlines, links and subheads, for instance - to pull readers into your copy, make your piece more inviting and even communicate to flippers and skimmers. Specifically, you'll learn how to:

• Reach "readers" who spend only three minutes - or even just 30 seconds - with your piece
• Avoid dropping the piece of display copy that 95 percent of people read - but that many communicators forget
• Pass the Palm Test to communicate to folks who will not read your paragraphs
• Make your copy 47 percent more usable by adding a few easy elements
• Add one simple element to increase reading for those whose attention is beginning to wane

Day 2: Get the Word Out On the Web with Shel Holtz

Get the Picture With Social Visual Communication

Transformation happens before our very eyes: Consider the rise of images as a primary communication form. Not only do people consume online images more than online text (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr and others), they also engage more with images than they do with text.

Fueled by the mobile web's integration into everyday life, image communication has become part of the mix for most of Interbrand's top 100 global brands. In this environment, communicators must know how to craft images that tell stories for audiences immersed in visual channels. In this session, you'll learn how to:

• Make images a critical part of your content marketing
• Select images easier and faster by using six types of images
• Make sure each image serves at least one key purpose
• Tell your story in a compelling infographic or infoposter
• Reach millions of people who can't get enough Vine and Instagram videos

Build Buzz With Digital Storytelling

Research shows: Customers in B2B and B2C worlds have no interest in being pitched through social media and digital channels. There are ways, however, to connect with audiences in compelling ways that keep them coming back for more while inspiring them to share their experiences with their own networks.

Telling stories is a timeless means of drawing audiences to your message. Now the digital space has opened the potential for new techniques that leave audiences buzzing. In this session, you'll learn how to:

• Make the most of transmedia, as well as multimedia, communication
• Get employees to tell stories that customers and others will want to share
• Use free tools available from services like Google and LinkedIn to tell great stories
• Show your brand's human side and breathe life into your CSR activities
• Increase reach on services like Facebook and Twitter with stories instead of pitches

Write For the Small Screen

The world is going mobile - fast. Today's schoolchildren will be the first in decades to live without a computer. Their smart-phones, tablets and smart TVs will meet all of their digital, connectivity and computing needs.

Communicating via mobile is much more than shrinking Web pages to fit smaller footprints. People behave drastically differently with mobile devices than with tethered computers. So how you write - even what you write - requires a new approach. In this session, you'll learn:

• Why you must use a mobile-first strategy
• Which mobile behaviors will drive your mobile content strategy
• How to write for WhatsApp and WeChat and other increasingly popular text messaging services
• How - and why - to write for SnapChat and other ephemeral messaging services
• How to write content to be viewed on FlipBoard and other popular content-compilation apps

Help Readers Find You

Everybody's talking about content marketing. Few, however, do it right. And many find themselves suffering what consultant Mark Schaefer refers to as "content shock" - that point at which the time and money it costs to get your content found will exceed the value you get from it.

But you don't need deep pockets and high production values to overcome content shock. Make sure your audience finds your content, pays attention to it, engages with it and shares it with these content-marketing techniques. In this session, you'll learn:

• Why you don't need a bazillion likes to produce the results you want from your content
• How get the attention of early adopters by identifying and tapping into new apps and services
• How to make sure people can discover your content based on search criteria that really matter
• Why you should target just one person with low-cost social communications
• How to multiply the value of your content inventory by re-using it for customer service and other purposes

More Seminar Information

Wylie Communications Delivery Method  On-Site Training Also Available As  Seminar