3.) For question #2, please outline in detail how your new post addressed the three main objectives as discussed in class. Please outline in detail for each. (9 Marks)
This new post addressed the three key elements of plain language writing and is now clear, concise, and correct. My target audience can now find what they need, understand the information given to them, and use this information to fulfill a specific purpose or goal from my website. Using the three elements of plain English writing I can save visitors and my ideal audience time because it was redesigned to now be clear, concise, and clear and be scanned instead of read.
I wrote for my audience of parents to help them get where I wanted them to go which was ultimately my products/company purpose for those who don’t know anything about my company, product pages for those who know what they want, and external links to my social media accounts and Blog for those who are interested in finding more information about my company/products on behalf of their child who requires my products.
Clear – Helps audience find what they need easily.
I used short sentences, lists, brief explanations, and common words to make the information more clear to read or scan so readers could find what they needed quickly. This strategy included using organization, and taxonomy to separate the key details in order of importance of the information I provided. I used the main header “Welcome to Sensory Solutions Windsor” and the subheaders “My Sensory Toys are the Solution to:”, “We Have the Perfect Toy!”, and “You Belong Here”. This was so that my audience could find out where they are, understand what my products/company do, find the perfect product easily and take action, and understand why they belong on my site to build trust and website authority.
The vast majority (87%) of shoppers begin product searches on digital channels, up from 71% last year, and knowing how important a website’s products are – I made my product information the most important and easy to find. This was done by briefly explaining how my products are the solution to their problem to first gain trust and then saying directly in bold “Browse our products to see how they can benefit you!” under the exciting headline “We Have the Perfect Toy!”. This was a CTA to encourage my audience to directly go to our “product page” and start shopping.
After this, I clearly suggested visiting my most important social media pages (Facebook, Instagram) and listed other ways to find more information which were reading product reviews, visiting our Blog, and lastly stating that they can chat in real-time with other parents on our “Facebook Group – Sensory Solutions Parents”. I would include all of the underlined terms as anchor link text so visitors can click and easily find more information they may need from my website to my socials because “31% of consumers use social media to find answers to their questions”. The list below was all CTA’s to find more information about our products and to find how other customers are using and loving our products. My main goal for this section was to get my audience to view and buy my products.
Lastly, to speak directly to the audience I stated clearly that they belong on this website and are right where they need to be by saying “You Belong Here!” followed by a brief explanation about how my company is just right for them.
Concise – The audience can understand the information given to them.
I spoke directly to the user’s needs first so the most important information was concise and easy to understand by using the words “…safe and affordable sensory toys” the first chance I had because that is what my audience wants. I used a visual of a happy child using soundproof headphones with the copy “Calm the mind with a sensory solution” over it because as we discussed in class website visitors decide if a website is useful and easy to understand within seconds.
I included “My Sensory Toys are the Solution to:” followed by a list of very short reasonings (Calming, Redirecting, Initiating Behaviors) and included images with one-word captions to help distill the context of the information and make it easy to understand. For the last two sentences of this list, I put in bold text “In-school” and “at home” because it is the second-most important information for this section, and left one line not bolded because it was my least important information for this section. Relating the information from my list to a visual graphic makes the information easy to understand for new website visitors.
For this section, I wanted to explain how my products work effectively and simply explain why my ideal audience should buy them. I did this by targeting my ideal audiences’ specific problems and behaviors they would like to address with my products through a simple visual of children completing certain behaviors and giving each image a one-word caption. This would be highly effective for those who scan and mainly view simple images and infographics when searching for the information they need..
Correct – My audience can use this information to fulfill a certain purpose/goal.
I made this revised plain English language version correct by making sure that my ideal audience could use it to fulfill a specific purpose or goal. By putting all of my information in the correct order of importance to the visitor, using accurate words that my audience knows, and visually demonstrating how my products, I was able to make this introduction page correct. Many people might not know how or why sensory toys are used – therefore do not know why they should buy from my company.
I gave my ideal audience the information they needed to learn about my company and products, and eventually led them to make a purchase. I introduced myself and my company goals so my audience could scan and understand that my company is here to solve their problem – finding a safe and affordable sensory toy from a trusted company.
I listed how my products can benefit their children and be used to control certain behaviors. My sensory toys provide a very specific purpose – calming, redirecting, or initiating behaviors, which is explained through a short list and visually. This section is prepared for readers to scan and understand – once they find the information they need about the sensory toys, they can begin looking for products.
After scanning the section above, customers will now need the information on how/where to find products and purchase. To explain this for readers to quickly understand I used a list. This list begins with the first line “Browse our products to see how they can benefit you!” in bold because it is the quickest and easiest way of conveying a CTA and telling my ideal audience exactly where to go to find products.
I also listed several other ways customers can easily find more information about our products and company. The words that I had underlined would become anchor text for my social media links. This is so that viewers can scan for the keywords “Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Group” and press the link to be brought directly to my socials. This was done for new or existing website visitors to easily find and access more information about buying products – specifically the buying experience of other parents and customers.
I included action words “Follow us, Read our, Visit our, Start a chat” to encourage website visitors to connect and use our socials to find more information that fulfills their specific purpose or goal.