The 7 Ps of microcopy

The importance of microcopy

Microcopy is the unsung hero of copywriting and web design. When writing web copy, it is all too easy to forget about it, and it is very easy to get it wrong....welcome to the underrated art of microcopy.

What exactly is microcopy?

It is short, as the name suggests, and it has a guide or gatekeeper role. Done well, it should gently nudge your visitor through your site. It offers information, instructions, or feedback on an action recently taken.

You’ll find microcopy in the faraway corners of your website: exit popups, sign ups, contact forms, login and password recovery, confirmation messages, or error messages such as the dreaded ‘404 error: Page not found’.

As messengers, they are often the bearers of bad news. Something has gone wrong.

Picture the scene...

You are browsing a company’s website and are all ready to subscribe to their newsletter for further insights. You and the website are getting along fine. The charmingly chatty tone suits the brand and their services.

Then disaster strikes and you submit an incomplete contact form. Cue a starkly formal declaration: ‘Error: you have not …’ – a complete departure in terms of tone and content.

You panic. You feel told off. You feel patronised...and, as a result, the website loses another valued visitor when it is all so avoidable.

So what does good microcopy look like? Follow the 7 Ps as a helpful guide...  

The 7 Ps of microcopy

Microcopy should be …

 1.  Polite

First of all, it pays to be polite and a ‘please’ or a ‘thank you’ go a long way. Consider this from Deliveroo: ‘Sorry, we don’t deliver here. We’re expanding so please check back soon.’

 2.  Positive

As in Deliveroo’s suggestion of future expansion, be positive. Someone hasn’t completed a form completely? It’s hardly a disaster. Things are easily rectified. Good microcopy leads the visitor by the hand. Always make things easy and intuitive.

Steve Lodge from marketing communications agency Oxygen points out:

‘… if readers pick up on negative words such as “no”, “nothing”, “can’t” or “won’t” they’ll decide to give it a miss.’

 3.  Painless

The solution should feel painless. Copywriting is all about addressing problems and pain points, whilst offering solutions. Bad microcopy does the opposite of this and leaves the reader confused or frustrated. Make sure your microcopy is clear and concise and helpful to the reader.

 4.  Personal

If your brand tone of voice is friendly and approachable, maintain this in the microcopy. Consistency is key and a thoughtless shift in tone is jarring. Comment phrases and colloquialisms can help here, as can abbreviations.

 5.  Patient

Patience defuses the seriousness of technical issues. Avoid blunt statements implying blame, such as ‘You have done this or not done that.’ Indirect nudges work far better: ‘Are you sure you want to …?’

6.   Precise

Be clear, and take ownership of any issues, using an active voice. For instance:  Passive: Your password couldn’t be changed. Active: We couldn’t change your password because it contains…

Ultimately, you need the reader to do something to rectify the situation and you need to be clear what that is and not assign blame. Depending on the tone of you copy, you could take this further with phrases such as ‘It’s not you, it’s us … please, bear with us. … Thanks for your patience.’



 7.   Playful

Sometimes it pays to be playful with the wording of your copy. And this is where inventive, quirky microcopy comes into its own.

Onomatopoeia – with ‘oops’ and ‘whoops’ and ‘woohoos’ – are popular on some webpages, such as Gmail: ‘Woohoo! You've read all the messages in your inbox.’ Playful copy is personal and memorable. It establishes a closeness between the two parties, as does humour and well-judged in-jokes.

One popup on the History Society website reads, ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’ as the visitor is about to leave the web page. Ingenious, especially as it suits the site perfectly. It wouldn’t be appropriate for a bank, but here this quote from Romeo and Juliet is perfect.

Ann Handley in Everybody Writes quotes this error message on the Burger King website.
‘We’re sorry your photo could not be processed! Looks like the doo-hickey isn’t reading the what-cha-call-it. Please use a new photo.’

This is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the jargon of microcopy. They aren’t taking this too seriously. It is a playful, positive expression of sympathy. ‘Onwards and upwards, we can do this,’ it seems to say. It concludes with the icon ‘TRY AGAIN’ so the next step (call to action) is clear.

Microcopy - often overlooked, but vital to user experience

It may make up a very small proportion of the written content on your website, but microcopy plays a big part in user experience. It's an opportunity to set the tone for your customer interactions and lead website visitors to behave as you wish. Whilst microcopy refers to the written words, it is closely linked to website design in the way it is presented in buttons, call-outs, dialog boxes and pop-ups. At QuayClick our web designers and copywriters are used to working together on microcopy to provide a great user experience. To find out how we could help you, please contact us in Exeter today.

Sources

http://goodmicrocopy.com/

https://uxplanet.org/how-to-microcopy-9d34881a880c

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/07/getting-practical-with-microcopy/