When I left HubSpot the product team was starting to roll out more and more microcopy. It’s something that’s often overlooked but once implemented can have a huge impact for your software. Good microcopy can mitigate the amount of calls a support team gets, help drive usage of the product and also give you a chance to connect with your customers.
Microcopy is simply the additional, side-note text that’s strewn across the web. Text that may be a little more playful than usual and helps explains a feature in the product or what your next steps should be. Here’s an article about my former coworker, who just so happens to be HubSpot’s microcopy-writing extraordinaire:
My favorite examples
Hola.org
I use Hola to watch certain streaming TV and movie watching services that are not available outside of the US and start with the same first letter as Hola. Ehem. It’s a great little browser plugin that negates having to use a VPN all the time and let’s me binge-watch Community. Their bitty microcopy of “We’re everywhere but here” shows that their plugin will work wherever I am, and I shant be deprived of my shows. Except North Korea, but I’m not planning a vacation to there any time soon.
HubSpot
Me using HubSpot is old hat, I’m in a variety of HubSpot accounts everyday for clients, as well as my own business. I’m always biased when it comes to the orange sprocket, but having all the microcopy that they do now is a blessing. Back in the day it took some serious ingenuity and conversations with developers to sort out what some things did vs what they were supposed to do. People would call in asking about how their website grade was calculated. Now, all that is explained, as with almost every data point in the software. I’m a bit jealous.
Trello
Taco the Trello dog pops up every once in awhile to say there’s wicked cool new stuff in my project management tool of choice. Every time he appears in my toolbar, I immediately click on his cute and fluffy little face to see what the team at TK have implemented to make my life easier. Never am I disappointed. In general I love how Trello communicates with their customers, but Taco is a definite bonus.
Bonus-bonus, I just found this, featuring Taco: https://trello.com/taco-game
WP Remote
For my WordPress customers, I use WP Remote to manage their sites at-a-glance. This saves me time from having to log into each site individually, and even more so once their updated software hits the virtual SAAS shelves. Hopefully they take the opportunity to use more microcopy for their customers, but they're on the right path to my fellow geeks with an example from below.
Start taking more notice of the microcopy you run into everyday. Does it help you understand the software or is it just needless fluff? Should it disappear after you’ve used the service enough times? Please leave a comment below, and I would also love to see other examples.
I empower businesses and marketers to create automated content systems that elevate sales and delight customers. Here’s how it works.
