I consider it my job to help my clients understand their audience. I like to challenge them with thought provokers that I hope will forever change the way they communicate — or even think about communicating — with their audience.

Here’s the question I ask and the one I hope you’ll start asking yourself or your corporate writers:

“Is this what you want to say or is this what your audience wants to hear?”

Remember, it’s not their job to hear you, it’s your job to reach and connect with them.

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We’re more than halfway through our discussion of what makes content relevant. If you’ve been following all along, congratulations to sticking with this series and making the commitment to really learning about relevant content. If you’re just joining us, read this first.

Today, let’s talk about our third characteristic of relevant content: useable.

I believe (as so many have said for so many years), that people go online to complete a task; it could be getting information, finding entertainment, making a purchase or interacting with others. Relevant content, then, should support the task completion — whatever the task.

So I created the Get Great Copy “Yes We Can Make It Useable” checklist. If you can answer yes to most of these questions, then you’re well on your way to providing relevant content to your site visitors.

Get Great Copy “Yes We Can Make It Useable” Checklist

____ Does the copy help put them in charge?

____ Does it make it easy for them to find information
            and scan for answers?

____ Is the copy simple and to the point?

____ Will they be wowed instead of bored?

____ Does it tell them something important?

____ Does it tell them something they didn’t know,
            need to know or want to know?

____ Does it provide decision support?

____ Does it help them understand your value to them?

____ Does it help make them want to come back?

____ Does it help make them want to tell others?

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As a joke for my dear hubby’s upcoming 50th birthday, I got him a membership to AARP. Consequently, we’re now recipients of AARP The Magazine.

And I have to say that I’m impressed.

I’m savoring our first issue because it’s packed full of so much interesting information, advice and humor. My favorite piece (to date) is a mock-interview piece with Stump, a 10-year-old Sussex Spaniel who is the oldest dog to win “Best in Show” at  the Westminster dog show. Hysterical interview.

So as a writer enthralled with a magazine “written for old people” I had to pause and wonder what gives.

What “gives” is that the editors of AARP The Magazine understand relevant content. I’ve talked about relevant content a lot here. I talk about it workshops and with my clients. Other people, of course, talk about relevancy, too. Because it’s so important.

Yet there are still people who understand the need for relevant content but don’t know how to make it happen.

So I’m going to embark on a series of blog posts that discuss relevancy in much more detail.

Let’s start with a definition of the word “relevant.” Unfortunately, the dictionary definition does little to help and much more to confuse:

“having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand; affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion”

Yikes!

Perhaps a better definition is this: Relevant content is/are the text, images, audio, video, graphics, animations, data, PDFs, documents and posts that are meaningful, memorable and useful.

Enough for now. In my upcoming posts, I’ll discuss each of those in detail as they pertain to text, which I call copy, as well as talk about how relevancy is, well, relative.

Until then, start watching for the things that grab your personal attention. Set them aside for now; we’ll use them to fuel future discussions.

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I love Dr. Phil. I find his common-sense approach appealing. In fact, one of my favorite “Dr. Phil-isms” is this:

You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge.

That works for pretty much everything. Including writing.

Which is why I ask my coaching clients to complete a SWOT analysis of their writing.

If writing is a part of your job in any way, I encourage you to take stock of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In addition to being pleasantly reminded (I hope) of your skills, talents and capabilities, you’ll have some insight into which qualities you can use to their best advantage, and which areas need improvement.

Here’s an example of a SWOT analysis to help you complete your own:

One of my personal weaknesses is overuse of cliches. But because I know I have that tendency I’m vigilant to watch for them and rework my copy accordingly.

Spend time taking an honest look at your writing abilities, then look for tips, ideas, blog posts, articles, ezines, books, coaching opportunities and workshops that help you address your specific areas.

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