It’s been a while since I’ve had some solid inspiration for writing over here, but I ran across a website today that I just had to point out. How do you ride the coattails of Web 2.0 without any new technology? Hire a copywriter of course! Let’s delve into this awesomely Web two point oh company, Infragistics.

First, let’s start off at their home page. They’ve got a nice promotional header that cycles through a few benefits of their technology. Here’s some benefits of AJAX:

• Save Time
• Increase performance
• Empower your users
• Leverage a rich toolset

Hot damn! I’m feeling empowered already! Wait, they do charting too? Let’s take a look at the benefits of charting:

• Create compelling experiences
• Increase performance
• Empower your users
• Leverage a rich toolset

That’s odd. It’s almost like I read that somewhere else. Oh well, moving on, let’s take a look at one of their products, NetAdvantage for ASP.NET Navigation. Look Ma! More AJAX:

AJAX Load on Demand – Let WebTree load nodes on demand using AJAX without doing server round-trips

Oh sweet! My current navigation (which loads with the page, on one request) was complaining just today about the round-trips it had to make to the server. This way, we’re reducing requests from one to two. Wait a second, how does that make sense? Who cares, it’s AJAX anyways! Let’s check out the features :

AJAX in WebTree
Data for web navigation child nodes can be sent on demand to reduce traffic over the wire and increase. This includes automatic AJAX in CLR 2.x and load on demand with a postback in the CLR 1.x version of the WebTree.

Alright, I’m sold. I don’t even understand half that copy! It must be too Web 2.0 for me.

The Reality

The sad reality of this company is that their code-base is terribly Web 1.0. Hell, they’ve even got support for Internet Explorer 4.0 yet don’t support any Gecko (Mozilla) browsers for half their effects (or, Internet Explorer effects, as they’re known in the Copyjax industry). Worst of all, they don’t support WebKit/KHTML (Safari) browsers at all.

But who cares when your copy can overcome people’s perceptions despite glaring misinformation? In most cases, clients don’t know the difference between AJAX and their morning cereal. Writing has the power to manipulate how people perceive the truth, and this is a magnificent example of manipulation.

Understanding your material

So, what can you take from this embarrassment to copywriting around the world? Understand your material. Don’t write about products that you haven’t used or don’t understand — take the time to really know what you’re talking about. Part of copywriting is having the technical understanding to generate informed copy about the product you’re promoting.

When you lack the technical understanding, your copy fails the very people it should be targeting — those who will be using the product. Take this as a final piece of advice: If your audience is more knowledgeable about your product than you are, you shouldn’t be writing about it.