When it comes to writing, it’s all the same right; a bunch of words thrown at the page, and people read it with little to no, though, right? Wrong! There is a wide variety of writing styles and how to use each one.
This article is focused on user experience (UX) writing and content strategy. UX writing is the discipline of writing that is seen or heard about a product while using it. It’s a part of the user experience, as the name suggests.
Content Strategy, on the other hand, is when you make or have to figure out how to market anything published on your site. Although both of these terms are similar, and sometimes interchanged with one another, there’s a subtle difference between the two.
In grade school, you may have heard all squares are rectangles, but all rectangles are not squares. That same concept applies to UX writing and content strategy.
Content strategy is not user-experience writing, but UX writing uses content strategy principles. To get a better idea of these two terms, let’s do a deep delve into each word and figure out what makes each distinct, and then the similarities.
What is User Experience Writing
This sort of writing is used to communicate with the reader. It helps explain what a product is through not only the written word but also the tone used while creating the description.
User experience writing is also known as microcopy because rather than create entire essays, UX writing is designed to serve as quick hints and tips to users. This form of writing is also intuitive, and people should receive help without feeling like they’re being babied.
What Are Some Questions an User-Experience Writer Commonly Asks
- What information do we have on the target audience, and how have they reacted to the text?
- If I found this product or site, what would I want to know?
- Can we be more concise?
- Does the tone match everything else on the site?
Quick Example of User Experience Writing
Let’s say Jane Doe is googling information about the rainforest, and she comes across your site. After clicking on several tabs, she comes across a broken link and comes across the dreaded “404 page not found” error notification.
Rather than leave a dated tab, you could dress it up. It could say, “You’re lost in the jungle. Click on the vine to swing home.” This image would appear below a set of trees with various vines dangling from the canopy.
This brings us to our next tool for UX Writing.
Be Creative
Whether you are writing error messages, security notes, terms, and conditions or product usage instructions, the writing is as important as the product itself. Poorly written content can ruin the best of products or the most well-designed interfaces.
This type of writing is typically done by product marketers and copywriters and has been done for years; however, the term is a new one. It’s designed to target various groups of people to promote a product, and the best way to do that is through imaginative language and explanations. It also doesn’t hurt to know how to market something to your target audience.
Some things to keep in mind while writing User Experience content
- Write so you are easily understood
- Be concise in your writing
- Think outside the box
What is Content Strategy
This is what businesses use to figure out what should be created and made available to the public. This is the what and why behind any campaign. The strategist determines what needs to be developed and how can it promote our business’s goals and objectives.
Content strategy can also be used to define problems a company is facing, or refine solutions to give a better outcome. Similarly to UX-writing, it’s also built around a target demographic.
What Are Some Questions Content Strategists Commonly Asks
- What is the target audience?
- What is the problem we are addressing?
- How does the content fit into the broader scheme of things
- What is the public’s attitude towards our products
When designing content strategy, you can follow a 5-step plan, and although it’s simple, the difference between a good company and a great one is having a game plan for your content before you begin writing it.
5 Steps to Developing Content
1. Understand the Business Objective
The objective is whatever you are trying to do. This is arguably the most important part of the process because once you decide on what you want to accomplish, you can decide on what sort of content needs to be created and how to effectively use it.
2. Develop Content With the Audience In Mind
Create content based on the target demographics. Something you can do is create a focus group to figure out the best way to present the information.
3. Define the Goals and Metrics
This step involves figuring out what you are trying to accomplish. Rather than have one goal, most businesses have two, if not more. By meeting the objectives, you can consider whatever content created to be a success, and exceeding your goals meant it was well worth the effort.
4. Revisiting Focus Groups
Now that you have started developing something for the public, go to a similar focus group from the second step and see what their reactions are to the content. It’s important to note their thoughts, reactions, and feedback.
You may need to make something new or tweak what has already been developed based on these sessions. It’s ok if you want to do several rounds of getting feedback on the prototype because, by fine-tuning everything, you’ll have better content.
5. Publish It!
Now that everything is good to go, publish what was made on your app or website. The first four steps were important for you to develop the process. Now, you have to use everything you learned to keep cranking out things that interest your base.
Bonus: Consider tools and services
Whatever it is that you’re working on, UX writing or blog entries, you need the right tools to ensure the quality of your text. There is now a large variety of tools and services like Hemingway, Writing Judge, Grammarly, and Trust My Paper that can help you calibrate the tone and voice of your texts and continually improve them over time.
Similarities Between UX Writing and Content Strategy
Now that we’ve given enough background on the two processes, how are they similar. The two things that jump out to us is that both are designed to help people learn or use a product, and they have a broad scope.
Content marketing requires people to make an attractive presentation and lead people to certain products by promoting a variety of features. Once someone finds the content or buys the product, UX writing is there to help explain things if something isn’t clear, because UX is all about providing a 5-star experience.
The wide scope is important because trends and audiences’ interests will change over time. By tweaking content every now and again by using the 5-steps, you can revisit the content to make sure it’s still relevant.
Summarizing the Major Differences
Whereas Content strategy and UX writing are similar, their differences between more prominent with time. User-experience writing requires you to write clearly and to research the target audience. Content strategy, on the other hand, educates and guides users by using a variety of keywords.
The UX Writing also is the how on any digital platform, and the content strategy is designed to guide the process of making the digital platform and anything featured on it, to meet a variety of metrics.
UX Writing is also done by specialized writers and focus more on the interface. Content strategy can either come from a strategist or a copywriter, and their focus is creating the final product like a blog post, a video for social media, or a podcast.
However, both are needed for an effective campaign and don’t forget
Content strategy is not user-experience writing, but UX writing uses content strategy principles.
Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks, and empowers using the magic of words at reputable writing services like Grab My Essay, Studicus, Best Essay Education and WOWGrade. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin gained experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. As of recently, she has become a senior editor at Supreme Dissertations, an academic writing service.
