Today, we are overrun with ads. They are everywhere – intrusive, loud, flashy, and annoying. So how can companies ensure an effective and customer-centered marketing campaign? The answer lies on the surface. Strong user experience and relevant content techniques help users get past all the noise and give them the insights they need to solve their problems.
However, there exists a great deal of confusion between these two concepts, which is entirely understandable. Indeed, the two terms are very similar; however, polar at the same time. Here’s what each of them implies and how to tell them apart.
What Is UX Writing?
UX writing is the art of creating texts that help people connect with an organization’s touchpoints. These interactions can include but are not limited to sites and other channels such as email, live chat, and mobile apps. UX writing links the voice of the organization to the demands and expectations of the user.
Quite recently, there has been a dramatic uptrend in better awareness about the significance of user experience. Those companies and brands that focus on strong and positive UX have reaped considerable rewards. Therefore, UX writing is not an option anymore; it has been a top priority for global businesses, and for a good reason.
Effective UX writing can boost engagement, increase conversion, curtail uncertainty, build user confidence, set expectations, avoid errors and friction, guarantee a satisfying experience, and amplify an organization’s brand.
It means tapping into a user’s head (or finding out) and addressing the user’s thoughts and concerns. Although UX writing is mainly geared toward assisting the user’s actions, it can also encourage the user to act. In this sense, it is like copywriting.
It implements storytelling and personable, conversational copy that triggers the user’s emotions and drives. It engages users and motivates them to carry out the needed action.
Once the user acts, the writing must change to get the user through the process as quickly and easily as possible. What makes user experience writing so important? The way companies communicate with a consumer establishes how users will behave toward a product and organization. To build bridges between the customer and the organization or product, it is essential that communication is straightforward and comprehensible.
When we enter the site for the first time, it’s almost like an adventure for us. Each click churns us up as we step into the unknown. And while we are paving a new path, we definitely need a guide.
UX writing implies a good microcopy, which refers to the words of an application or website interface. It should usher users through the interface while being subtle at the same time. Let’s have a look at how Airbnb is being considerate of its customers:
Airbnb is well aware of the fact that its users often fall short of words to contact a host. Thus, after fetching some customer insights, the company provides its users with a message template. This message template is geared toward targeting the user’s pain, making it an example of excellent UX writing.
What Is Content Strategy
Content strategy refers to the organizing, crafting, placing, and promoting specific content, based on a given budget and efficiency. For example, buying relevant backlinks is an integral part of a successful content strategy as well. Content may include any materials that can be created: presentations, articles, videos, online lessons, etc.
Today, businesses have an unprecedented level of competition; therefore, most visionaries invest in content marketing in 2020. Content strategy helps get a leg up on the competition and put a smart content plan in place. But how can we define the term itself?
If we look back, we’ll see that this term is not new, as it has been widely used in web engineering for over a decade. Today, content strategy is an authoritative part of UX design and catches attention from neighboring fields such as business assessment and tech writing.
The notion has also been explained as a repeatable framework that sets out the whole editorial content generation process. But regardless of the exact definition, in practical terms, content strategy is the continuous process of converting business objectives into a set of actions. It implements content as a critical instrument for meeting these objectives. Every other facet of content creation stems from the business objectives.
Now that we’ve defined the essence and foundation of the notion let’s break down the main goals it pursues. Content strategy targets the following fields:
- Building brand awareness
- Establishing brand loyalty
- Educating potential customers
- Humanizing your company by engaging customers
- Showcasing a company’s vision and values
Therefore, through bringing together the content and the goals mentioned above, a company can breathe life into its marketing efforts. But what is the intersection point for the terms in question?
How Are UX Writing And Content Strategy Similar?
The two aspects share so many similarities that the job positions of a “content specialist” and “user experience writer” are sometimes used as synonyms. Although these two notions are generally different, they still share some similarities. Let’s look at some of them:
The Overall Picture
Both UX writing and content strategy apply the grand scheme approach. Regardless of the service, these two concepts address all facets of the experience with the specific product. To leverage both, it’s vital to pinpoint the blemishes and problems a company encounters. It will allow brands to plan the concepts in question to mitigate product flaws.
Cross-Functionality
The two concepts imply a multi-facility meaning. It presupposes that both UX writers and content strategists work in close collaboration with other experts from various departments. For example, UX writers usually reach out to graphic designers, while content strategists typically reach out to SEO specialists.
Word is the tool
This may lay on the surface, but still. Both of the concepts cloud their ideas with words to build brand awareness and educate about the product. Therefore, content strategy comes in handy even before your potential customers interact with a product. Once the customer is enticed, UX writing helps him or her explore the maximum capacity of the service and use it as intended. It makes UX well-suited to customers’ needs. So, if you offer a service on your own, you can use UX content to identify and describe the needs of your customers.
How UX Writing Uses Content Strategy?
You must have already guessed it, but we’ll make an extra effort to lay it all out. UX writing belongs to content strategy. The former is useless without the latter, but the latter may still stand to reason without user experience writing.
To meet UX targets, writers turn to requirements outlined by content specialists. Additionally, UX writing has to uphold a company’s voice and tone; that is why it takes advantage of content strategy insights to develop an intuitive and straightforward user interface.
For instance, the content in your application will be included in the content strategy while belonging to UX writing. Think of the latter as a mechanism that content strategy implements as a part of its capital goal.
Final Thoughts
In the time of agile approaches, digital businesses must ensure that customers have a satisfying experience and boost customer loyalty and involvement. UX writing and content strategy can become powerful tools in achieving those goals. Now that we have briefed you on two essential marketing tools, it becomes clear that companies should avail themselves to both, in order to meet their business objectives.
- UX Writing and Content Strategy: What’s The Difference? - October 15, 2020
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