The sweet, sweet horror

Web copywriting for senior corporate people
Are you human? Do you have a personality? Not, it seems, if you're the reader of a big business-to-business website.

Whereas the offline guys (think of the UK's Financial Times and The Economist) have an engaging tone, the online copy aimed at senior business people is often dull, dull, dull.

Think about it - that's the opposite of what you'd expect on the web. Short copy should become shorter. The tone more personal. The distance between reader and writer that little bit closer.

Why be dull?
Are these writers afraid of something? The answer is probably "yes". They're afraid of annoying their client. It's easy to write some bland copy that will sail through the review process.

And it's just as easy for this copy to pass by unnoticed by the audience the writer is doing such a bad job of second guessing.

The press guys have got it right
Newspapers need to sell copies. Their editors know this. So they make sure the content isn't just bang-up-to-the-minute. It's got to have a personality - it's got to hook the reader.

So here's my advice: check out the tone of the quality press before settling down to write another dull piece of copy aimed at senior corporate people.

That way, we might actually end up selling something.