contentdesign.london
Publishing model 1
1. CEO has fabulous idea
2. hire copywriter
3. someone practically rewrites it
4. no-one is massively happy
Publishing model 2
1. someone writes
2. legal ‘signs it off’ (aka destroys it)
3. no-one is happy
Government publishing model
1. permission (denied)
2. learnt helplessness
3. stop asking
How to make friends
and influence people
Set the main:

• problem

• task

• goal
Rule 1
Be more specific than you
are comfortable with
The copywriter’s
most useful tactic:
The copywriter’s
most useful tactic:
HIDE
www.google.com/
trends/explore
Find your audience’s
mental models
Selfies
Take your client on a journey
Rule 2:
Get your audience
to fight for you
Conversations
with data
@escmum
Reading
psychology
Your memory works on:
• motivation
• length of time in
working memory
• meaning
Context is important
Coat vs cove
Cat > dog
Cat > soap
It was a really sunny Saturday.
Sam was having a great time on
the beach. It took ages to find the
pump and her friends were
already on their inflatables in the
water. Sam couldn’t believe how
long it was taking to inflate the
large carrot. She needed an ice
cream badly.
Words are easily skipped if they
are easy to process. This
happens when they are:
• short
• high frequency
• and/or predictable
“Eye movements are affected by
the need to make a grammatical
and legitimate metrical
structure.”
Rule 3
Humans are not special
.www.alltrials.net/news/judgment-in-richmond-v-
hra-judicial-review/
www.alltrials.net/news/judgment-in-richmond-v-
hra-judicial-review/
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1000&context=christopher_trudeau
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1000&context=christopher_trudeau
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1000&context=christopher_trudeau
Rule 4
Do you want people to
read or understand?
Measure what
too much content
is costing you
The quality needle
gets lost in
the haystack of noise
Rule 5
What you don’t publish
is as important
as what you do publish
Job and user stories: contentdesign.london/content-
design/user-stories-and-job-stories/
Everything: www.contentdesign.london/book
Legal study: http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1000&context=christopher_trudeau
Problem statments: https://medium.com/leading-service-
design/how-to-write-a-problem-statement-50e2c87810fe
Legal judgement: www.alltrials.net/news/judgment-in-
richmond-v-hra-judicial-review/
Questions?
10% discount on 2-day content course:
contentdesign.london/content-design-2-day-course/
Code: PCN

The science of ordinary words