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pOne of the challenges of being a web designer is dealing with other people#8217;s babies. /p
pSometimes a single client meeting, and a Google search is all it takes before you are tasked with creating a new design to wrap that baby in./p
pAnd most of us get pretty good at it. We take a look at their current design material, what the competition is doing and we#8217;re off. /p
pBut coming up with written content is a whole other matter. /p
pContent can be a thorn in a designer#8217;s side. The main reasons poorly written client content makes its way into a project are a lack of: time, skill, backbone, expertise, and budget. Let#8217;s take a closer look at these issues.span id="more-19968"/span/p
pstrongTime/strong: Or lack there of. Web designers, myself included, often dump content into pages without reading it. Whether it came from a brochure, the company contact, or an actual competent writer. Content is king, but the king is often the last thing completed, and in a rush. Many eyes look over the design mock-ups and final design, but who is in charge of reading all the content when the project is complete?/p
pstrongSkill/strong: If I was a good writer I might take on the responsibility myself, but I#8217;m not. Often the client isn#8217;t a good writer, and the designers are not either, so someone ends up drawing the short stick, and most often the client contributes at least some, if not all the written content. /p
pstrongLack of Backbone/strong: The designer is afraid to let the client know that the content is poorly written. When a project is going smoothly it can be hard to rock the boat, especially for designers who care more about how it looks, rather than what it says. There is always a fear that if you question the copy they#8217;ll nitpick your design. /p
pstrongExpertise/strong: No one knows the ins and outs of the company more than the client and it would be a disservice to pretend you do. So naturally their ideas and insight need to be part of the project, just not in their exact words./p
pstrongBudget/strong: It#8217;s hard enough to get a client to justify paying for a design project. Asking for even more money for a copywriter sometimes just isn#8217;t going to happen. Or if a project goes over-budget the content writing and proofing are where the shortcuts happen./p
h3Whatever the reason, the outcome is almost always the same./h3
pBlame it on our education system or lack of practice, but whatever the reason, most people are horrible writers, especially when trying to create promotional copy. Here are the most glaring mistakes I see on a regular basis. /p
h4Emphasis/h4
pKnowing what text is important and how to emphasize it is lost on people. Instead of writing engaging content, and letting the reader find what they are looking for, clients resort to using font styles. /p
pMore often than not, half the page is important to the client, so you end up with five paragraphs with two-thirds of it in either bold, italic, or a combination of the two. /p
pOr even worse, the dreaded WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS. This can easily be removed if the time is taken to do so, but I also see this frequently when the client is given access to a content management system. Show them where the bold button is and they#8217;re going to use it, guaranteed. /p
h4Lets Get Excited!!!!!/h4
pClients often don#8217;t understand that readers are not excited about the same things they are, or simply never get excited. While the client wants to praise their $20,000 state-of-the-art septic system cleaner, the reader probably could care less. In this case, the reader may just want to know if the client does the job and how much it costs. /p
pAlong the same lines, humor should be kept to the handful of people in this world who are actually funny. It is better to keep it simply and dry than to crash and burn with cheesy jokes./p
pAnother pet peeve of mine is the exclamation point. Clients love to use them and they should never-ever-ever be seen on advertising or design material. The only time I use them is to depict sarcasm or to make fun of something, and that only happens in social media where you can be a lot less formal, and everything you write isn#8217;t a sale pitch./p
h4Grammar and Spelling/h4
pPretty self explanatory. Most people have poor spelling and even worse grammar because spell check doesn#8217;t catch it. /p
h4Walls of Text/h4
pIn design you take away elements until only the essentials are left. The same hold true for writing. But when a client gets in the zone, words become run-on sentences, run-on sentences become lengthy paragraphs, and lengthy paragraphs become huge essays that no one is going to want to read. /p
h3Solutions/h3
pUnfortunately, there isn#8217;t one solution to keeping poor content out of your projects, but here are a few suggestions:/p
ul
liLet the client know their work will be revised before being used on the project (to spare hard feelings)/li
liGive a due date for project copy that comes before the design mockup is ready for review/li
liInclude a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelance-writing/website-copywriting-sins/"copywriting/a costs with any estimate/li
liCreate a guide to pass to the client about emdo#8217;s/em and emdon#8217;ts/em of copywriting/li
liCreate a timeline you can stick to/li
/ul
pemPhoto credit: a title="Attribution License" href="http://photodune.net/wiki/support/legal-terms/licensing-terms/"Some rights reserved/a by a href="http://photodune.net/item/overworked-businessman-behind-stack-of-papers/648021"Yuri_Arcurs/a/em./p
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