Irreverent thoughts about
Interactive Copywriting

When people say "interactive copywriter," they're usually referring to online work. Frankly, I think that's selling both online and offline writing a little short, particularly if you're a marketer. Because just being online doesn't make it "interactive." And offline copy needs to be interactive, too.

True, successfully writing for the Web requires certain things. It takes a different tone than you find in a lot of other marketing media. Not pushy, no hype. Friendly, helpful and honest. Trustworthy. It has certain readability requirements, and you should modify your style manual to aid scannability. Some say the pages also have to be shorter, or in bite-size bits (although I'd sometimes dispute that). It demands content that's truly valuable to the visitor. It takes sensible organization. And the text can't just contain links. It has to motivate the reader to use them.

But that's true of any copy-intensive medium. Good online copy is "interactive" because it needs to interact with the reader. Ditto for offline. To be good, marketing copy always needs to be valuable to the reader, personal, and motivating.

Otherwise, it's bad copy, regardless of the medium.

Granted, online is less tolerant of bad copy, for several reasons.

• One: The reader immediately has someplace else to go if confused, offended or bored. He or she can even hop directly to the competition. A printed brochure isn't quite so vulnerable.

• Two: The reader is more personally involved. More likely to feel it viscerally if you waste his or her time.

• Three: Unlike reading magazines, people often visit websites to find very specific information. If the reader came from a search engine, and your site doesn't deliver what was promised there, that's 100% disappointment.

• Four: Conversely, you can't force your copy into the visitor's hands. Unlike other marketing media, distribution is not fully under your control. If the spiders don't like it, if fellow visitors don't like it, if it seems like jive for any reason at all, it won't even be seen, let alone read. How can you sell with strong, "selling" copy if nobody visits?

• Five: Online marketing communications offer such strong potential for converting interest into immediate action, that failure to interest and relate to the visitor seems an even more terrible waste.

So online, bad copy is risky, while offline you might get away with it. But if you've got a great copywriter, that's not an issue. Compare good to good. A good marketing copywriter (advertising copywriter, direct response writer, whatever your angle), with strong interest and an average amount of online browsing experience, can do an admirable job online or off.

Just don't try to scrape by with a mediocre one.

This isn't a new issue. For decades, most advertising agency creative directors have held that a print writer can learn to write for TV much more easily than a TV writer can learn print. The online/offline situation is arguably analogous -- a print writer may be able to cross over to the Web and email more easily than an Internet-only writer can move in the other direction.

I've been working on both sides for years.

If I haven't discouraged you with this, I'd be happy to demonstrate. Or to dig right into your online content job. Please call 718-577-0005 during NYC business hours, or write me, and let's discuss how you might benefit by hiring a writer whose perspective is broader than some.

These pages are also web-related:
• Web Work
• Writers and Websites
• Search Engine Optimization
• Copywriting Services: a dozen ways I can help you

You can also interactively search my Samples.