Become a master at online communication

For online business owners, internet marketers and bloggers, the main (and sometimes only) communication channel is the Internet. Therefore, it is important for them to ensure that their message gets across clearly and effectively to their readers, team members or customers.

When launching a new campaign, remember that your readers react on everything you write. Do I trust them? Will I act on their suggestions? Will I share their message through social media? Shall I just close this webpage and ignore them in the future?

If you want to improve your online communication’s effectiveness, take a look at the following 9 important guidelines that will help you to achieve this goal.

Focus on one key message

Mark Twain once wrote to his friend, “I did not have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”. Writing high quality content takes time. Mainly because you have to sort through your information, determine the key message that you want to convey, think about what your audience wants to know and what it does not want to read and then mercilessly eliminate all irrelevant or unnecessary elements.

Limit your word count when making a point

As the web has become more crowded and people have joined more email lists, attention rates have dropped. Web Usability Research shows that the optimal text length for a pos, or article is between 400 and 1200 words (and even shorter for emails). For longer pages, reading becomes quite erratic. While common sense suggests that people spend more time on pages with more information, studies demonstrate that after 1200-1300 words online, users will only read 18% of additional text (unless it is something either very relevant or very entertaining).

Use short sentences

Of course, your writing style will be largely influenced by your audience and the purpose of your writing. However, if you want your writing to be easy to read, use short sentences. There is a reason why so many students fall asleep when reading academic papers. It is not the content that has such a “calming” effect on their mind, it is the style.

Therefore, if you want to hold your readers’ attention, do not be afraid to use paragraphs made up of just one sentence – even one word. Remember that short sentences do not intimidate but add power to your message. What is more, they help the reader to quickly grasp the point.

Put some thought into your titles and headings

The title of your post, headings and sub-headings are what online users first pay attention to when scanning your page. As the title compels them to click on the link and go to your webpage, the headings serve as sign-posts that grab attention and pique curiosity. The same principle is true for the subject lines and the first 3-5 words of an email.

Break your text into smaller blocks

Just the site of a large paragraph in an email or a webpage can be enough to turn away the majority of people. Large blocks of text not only look intimidating, they also make reading on the screen difficult. Using more subheadings, bullet points and quotes help to break content monotony and hold the reader’s attention longer.

Eliminate the guesswork

Online readers are very proactive in their research for information. They will not click on something unless they know what they are getting. However, it is even worse if your title or email subject line promises one thing, but your content doesn’t deliver it. Therefore, make sure that your headlines are not only catchy, but also relevant to the content of your post or email.

Include links

Without overdoing it and only when it makes sense, it could be a good idea to include a few internal or external links in your content. Internal links will allow online users to discover other posts that you have written in the past and become familiar with your website. External links, leading to other websites, will allow your audience to expand and deepen their knowledge on the subject, while turning your website into valuable and informative resource. Do not worry that your readers will surf away and never return. If your site or newsletter does a good job at compiling click-worthy links, people will come back for more!

Interact

Online writing is not a one-way street, where an author provides content and users passively consume it. Your readers should feel that they are interacting with you, that their comments are read, questions answered, their suggestions taken into consideration.

Millions of dollars are spent by big companies every year to animate social media networks and attract more fans to their brand. The great thing is that you can do it for free and it will only take you 10-15 minutes a day.

Put all the previous points together

The final piece of your writing, be it a blog post and email or copy, should bring all the previous points or key ideas together, leaving people with a clear action step that they need to take.

For example, when communicating online, keep your writing short but sweet. Build your content around one key message and use short sentences to express your thoughts. Put some thought into your title and subject lines so that they will not leave your readers guessing what they will find if they click on the link. Break big chunks of text into smaller paragraphs, provide valuable links and sum up the information at the end of the post or email.

Finally, do not forget to connect with your audience through your blog, newsletter and social media channels! It is as easy as that!

If you want to learn more about how to boost up the communication with your customers, then “Improve Your Writing Skills” written by Arina Nikitina is the right book for you.

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