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Client: Consumer Technology Association / Industries: Trade Organization

Technology Association InnovatesContent by Empowering Teams

with Web Writing Skills

Technology Association Innovates Content by Empowering Teams with Web Writing Skills

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The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM has more than 2,200 member companies and represents the $287 billion U.S. consumer technology industry. Their members trust CTA to help them grow every facet of their businesses through research, events, advocacy, and standards committees. CTA also publishes the semi-annual report, U.S. Consumer Technology Sales and Forecasts, which serves as the benchmark for the consumer technology industry.

Its hallmark event, the CES®, attracts more than 165,000 attendees from 150 countries. More than 3,800 exhibitors showcase the latest in consumer technology, and CTA has held the event each year since 1967, and thousands of life-changing technologies have been revealed at CES.

Since effective communications is paramount to their success, CTA partnered with Content Science to improve their web writing through a series of writing workshops. Content leaders and creators from CTA came together for intensive workshops at CTA headquarters in Arlington, Va.

In this case study, learn about this powerful standards and trade organization’s situation, our solution, and the results.

The Client


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The SituationAs a leading voice in consumer technology, CTA recognized that investing in web writing training would provide an opportunity to ensure their teams across departments shared a content vision as they prepared for the redesign of their corporate site. The organization was particularly concerned about the content adhering to best practices for web writing.

“The way people consume content today is drastically different than even 5 years ago. So, CTA is not alone in having to change. What’s great is the longstanding organization viewed the change as an exciting opportunity to modernize its approach to content.”

CTA Manager of Digital Content Alicia Goodman led the partnership with Content Science to help unlock the potential of their team. She explains,

“In advance of our website redesign, we wanted to train our content creators to provide more compelling content by educating them with a higher baseline knowledge of web writing best practices. ”

Our solution? Provide intensive, customized writing workshops for nine CTA teams.


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Our Solution

Guiding PrinciplesThese four Content Science principles guided our work with CTA.

1. CONTENT DEFINITION Content is more than copy. It’s the text, images, audio, video, documents, and more that comprise the substance of a website or digital experience.

2. CONTENT ASSETS Content and its related data, together, are valuable business assets. Consequently, they merit thoughtful strategy and careful planning.

3. DATA-INFORMED APPROACH Effective content strategy is informed by data at every stage, from discovery analysis through implementation.

4. BEYOND BEST PRACTICES Best practices, alone, are not a content strategy. A content strategy is unique to your organization to achieve your mission and vision.

AnalysisOur consulting engagement began by talking extensively with CTA about their goals and desired topics for training. Our goal? To identify specific, targeted needs that Content Science would address through training and consulting in writing workshops.

We also reviewed the organization’s data to inform our training approach and determine the topics and materials used in the workshops. Our analysis verified the needs identified by CTA and uncovered some additional needs.


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Our Solution continued

Fig 1. Heat Map Data Used in the Analysis


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Writing WorkshopsTo align content creators around a vision for web content best practices and provide them with the tools and resources to get going, we planned training customized to CTA’s needs. We drew on our own repository of training materials, content strategy methods, principles, and techniques.

We also used research-based examples to demonstrate web writing best practices in action and incorporated hands-on activities to teach participants how to revise their own content.

Our personalized, in-person training included several interactive activities designed to solidify key concepts and best practices for participants to apply immediately. Writers were able to rework their content in the workshops with our guidance and learn how to improve it without starting over.

Goodman praised this approach:

“Having hands-on, onsite training was a big benefit. All of the activities we did during the training helped us apply and cement the concepts we were learning using our content. ”

Content Science designed the training curriculum to motivate writers to create more impactful content and gain more empathy for users and readers of their content. Training also introduced participants to several tools to simplify applying best web writing practices.


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Training curriculum included:

• 5 Must-Know Web Writing Best Practices

• Why You Need Web Writing That Works

• Top Print Mindset Mistakes—and How to Fix Them

• Field of Content Dreams: Write It So They Will Come

• Web Writing Process + Tools

Fig 2. Training Curriculum Examples

MAKE YOUR CONTENT A FORCE 4 WEB WRITING BEST PRACTICES

1. Write Chunks, Not Blobs When using the web, people scan. Make your content easy to scan with chunking.

! Divide large paragraphs into smaller ones (2-3 sentences). ! Label chunks with clear headings and subheadings. ! Break up text with bulleted or numbered lists and tables.

X !

2. Down with Jargon, Up with Plain Language Jargon is harder for people (regardless of their expertise) to scan, understand, and remember than plain language.

! Avoid acronym abuse. ! Use technical terms precisely and consistently. Define them if the audience includes non-

experts. ! Use active voice, not passive voice.

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Writing for the Web Training Outline

Participants + Objectives The core participants in the training will be subject matter experts—not professional writers or communicators—who are responsible for creating content for sections of the Consumer Technology Association website. During this training, participants will

! Gain awareness of the value and impact of web writing best practices.

! Acquire skills and resources to apply web writing best practices easily and consistently.

Participants should leave this training

! Possessing more empathy for users / readers of their content.

! More motivated to change their current approach to creating web content so that the content has more impact.

! Able to apply key best practices, such as chunking, to their writing and to use tools that reinforce those best practices.

Curriculum Outline The outline below includes the key topics and activities for the training.

" Additionally, we typically work in questions throughout the session to keep the session interactive.

" Besides the case studies called out, we use examples throughout the training. We will include mostly examples from nonprofit and technology.

I. Kick Off (5-10 min) A. Facilitator Introduction B. Session Overview C. Relevant Icebreaker (e.g. self-assessment of web writing expertise)

II. 5 Must-Know Web Writing Practices (2.5 hours) B. Chunking vs Blobbing

" Mini activity (5-10 min) C. Jabberwocky: Down with Jargon, Up with Plain Language

" Mini activity (5-10 min)

WEB WRITING BEST PRACTICES LIST 1. FIGHT THE BLOB WITH CHUNKING

! Short paragraphs with 1 idea per paragraph. ! Headings and subheadings for groups of paragraphs. ! Lists, tables, and other formatting techniques

2. AVOID JABBERWOCK SYNDROME WITH

! Plain and personable language. ! Active voice.

3. LESS IS MORE

! Include only priority information that meets users’ needs. ! Remove filler and fluff to create concise content.

4. GET TO THE POINT BY

! Using the inverted pyramid. ! Stating the relevance of the content to the user. ! Guiding users to the next step with a call to action (1-3 words).

5. LAYER CONTENT

! Do not inundate users with details. ! Give users a taste of content first with teasers and summaries (bites and

snacks).

!

Handout 1

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Writing for the Web Template Handout 2

Page Title:________________________________________________

Page Subtitle (Optional): Maximum 1 sentence

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Page Summary / Intro: 1-3 sentences

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

Page Body: Use chunking techniques such as short paragraphs, headings, subheadings, lists, tables, diagrams

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

Call to Action or Related Content: __________________________________________________________

WEB WRITING ESSENTIALS

BEST PRACTICES FOR A WEB-FIRST APPROACH TO CONTENT

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CTA gained immediate benefits from having a shared content vision and investing in their content writers.

Alicia Goodman applauded Content Science’s actionable training approach.

“Colleen did an excellent job of really motivating our content creators to look at what they were putting on the website with fresh eyes. Our writers were inspired by what they learned in the training to immediately take action with their new knowledge, revise their copy, and resubmit as a part of our website redesign. We saw the immediate fruits of our labor”, Goodman said.

CTA is already starting to see a range of returns in its investment in the workshops.

In the short term, CTA is

• Using the tools they were introduced to in training to create more compelling web content

• Seeing writers submit higher quality web content

• Experiencing an easier revision process where content leaders are able to reference lessons and best practices learned in training for clarity and guidance

Long term expectationsCTA is hoping the creation of more compelling content will lead to an uptick in its web metrics and improve the length of time people spend on the website reading and engaging with content. Additionally, CTA plans to implement the search engine optimization recommendations Content Science provided in training.

Results


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Results continued

Fig 3. The CTA Site Before and After

Before

Before

After


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Our partnership with CTA was a success, resulting in training and resources the organization can call upon now and in the future. One factor in the success was the ability to customize the workshops and use hands-on activities to address CTA’s specific needs.

“We were able to look at our data with Colleen to ensure the writing workshops met our specific needs. We wanted the ability to customize the training for a variety of content owners with different levels of knowledge. We were able to make everything applicable without anything extraneous. And having the hands-on activities really helped make sure people understood what they were expected to do.” CTA Manager of Digital Content Alicia Goodman

If you work with us to evaluate your content and create a content strategy, you could gain benefits such as

• A STRATEGY, VISION + ACTIONABLE PLAN for content that creates value both now and later.

• BETTER COMMUNICATION on your team and among stakeholders about content.

• A MOTIVATED, READY-TO-ACT TEAM thanks to a well-understood plan for moving forward.

• A FOUNDATION for reducing your risk, saving costs, maximizing technology investment, and improving business results.

When asked on a scale of 1 to 5 how satisfied the not-for-profit is in reaching its goals with Content Science, Goodman reported, “5, CTA is very satisfied.”

Why Partner With Us

5/5 Satisfaction Rating


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About Content ScienceWe’re an award-winning content intelligence and strategy firm headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

We have advised the world’s leading brands, not-for-profits, startups, and government agencies on making content make a difference to their goals.

Why Content Science? Because content is, indeed, a science. We study what works well—and what doesn’t—so you can make informed decisions about your content.

Our services include consulting, research, and training. Our focus areas include content analysis, content strategy, content marketing, user experience, and content systems.

Our subscription products include the innovative software ContentWRX, which takes the hassle out of understanding whether your content is effective. We also created the online magazine and training platform Content Science Review to empower you and your team with research, tools, and insights.

Our CEO is Colleen Jones, author of the popular content book Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content and frequent speaker.

Want to make your content work for your organization? We can help.

Contact us to find out how. content-science.com/about/contact-us

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Technology Association Innovates Content by Empowering ...content-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/cs_casestudy_CT… · Technology Association Innovates Content by Empowering