Online Writing Tips For Local Campaigns

The web provides a cost-effective method for political candidates and campaigns to reach voters and supporters. However, writing for a website is different than writing for print. Simply copying your campaign print material onto your website limits the potential of online campaigning.

Nobody likes scrolling through pages and pages of poorly written, overblown website content. Studies show that people read from computer screens about 25% slower than from paper.

Make your website content more readable:

• Start each written section with the conclusion. Put the main points of your document in the first paragraph so that readers scanning your pages will not miss your point.
• Write concisely and stick to one idea per paragraph.
• Bullet lists rather than using wordy sentences or paragraphs. Readers can pick out information more easily from a list than from paragraphs.
• Use meaningful subheadings. Guide the reader by highlighting the main points of your information.
• Remember that readers do not read web pages in sequence. Providing information in precise segments allows readers to quickly locate the material they seek.
• Separate your ‘white paper’ information and link out to it for readers who want to know more detail about a particular subject. PDF files work well because they can be easily printed out for offline reading.

Online content layout tips:

• Don’t set your text size too large or too small.
• Capitalizing all letters gives the appearance of shouting at your visitors. SHOUTING IS RUDE!
• Keep your text left-aligned. Justified text can be harder to read online, particularly if the width is wide.
• Space out blocks of information. Large chunks of text are intimidating to a reader and probably won’t get read.

Or course, what works for one candidate or campaign may not work for another. These tips should be adapted to suit your unique needs as part of a larger, multifaceted online campaign strategy. To find out what content works best, use website analytics to measure the impact of your online content and make data-driven adjustments.

Remember that anything you put online becomes part of ‘the record’ and will not only be read by your supporters, it will be read by your opponents – and you can be sure that they will keep an eye on what you do!

Our exclusive client resources site, OnlineCandidateResources.com, has sample website copy and content tools that you can use for inspiration.

We are here to help! Start your campaign website today. Online Candidate website clients get full access to our political campaign resources and articles.