Andrea Zoellner

Andrea Zoellner is passionate about making the web more accessible and usable. With clear UX copywriting and a single-minded focus on the user, she helps people succeed online.

Andrea and I talked about:

her passion for making the web more accessible

her path to UX copywriting via communications and journalism

her definition of UX copywriting: tiny bits of copy that help people complete a flow

how her journalism background helps her anticipate users' needs

the expansion of the term "copywriting" from marketing and advertising to UX

how common it is for writers now to do be called upon to do both marketing and UX copy

supporting your target customer with the information that they need to accomplish their goals

the balance between being generous with your content and paying attention to the need to get marketing results from it

how to measure the ROI of content, and the importance of tracking and measuring content engagement and performance

the importance of content in achieving SEO goals

the value of writing to connect with your customers and to answer their questions

using tools like A/B testing and other research methods to guide your content creation

how to track content success in both flow-oriented UX task writing as well as how-to content

how she uses Google Analytics to track the validity of her marketing copy hypotheses (and how she's always surprised by the info)

the value of in-person interactions to drive idea generation and to identify sources of friction

the differences between micro copy and macro copy, and how both can/should impel the reader/user forward

how difficult UX copywriting can be, the challenge of being succinct, the need to be accurate and meaningful

how to make my websites more accessible to people and being understood by the largest audience possible

the importance of accessibility in both writing and design

Andrea's Bio

Andrea is a Content Creator at SiteGround and the lead organizer for WordCamp Montreal. She trained as a broadcast journalist and worked in corporate communications before trading it for a career in tech. Now, she uses her experience as a writer to improve how people engage with information online, whether it’s through blogging, editing microcopy, or developing brand messaging. When she’s not at home in Montreal, Canada, she’s sampling the digital nomad life and documenting her adventures on her travel blog capsulesuitcase.com.

Video

Here's the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/WY3DfCzMvNQ

Transcript

Larry:

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Episode Number 34 of the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Andrea Zoellner. Andrea is a content creator at SiteGround, the web hosting company, but she's done a lot more than that. Let me have Andrea tell you a little bit more about her background and what she's up to today.

Andrea:

Hi, Larry, and thanks so much for having me on the podcast.

Andrea:

Yes, you're right. I am a content creator at SiteGround, but before that, I was on the marketing team at Automattic, so I've been in the WordPress space for a couple of years now. One of the things that I'm most passionate about is making the Web more accessible for people through language.

Andrea:

Before that, I was working in communications in the nonprofit sector and in the corporate sector, as well as working in journalism before that, which is what I studied in college. But yeah, I would say that words are really my business.

Larry:

Nice. Like I said, this is the thirty-fourth interview I've done, and everybody has a different pathway in and yours is unique,