According to the Atlantic, writers are trained at the “Groupon Academy” on the art of writing in the Groupon voice. What a greal deal Groupon has: a crack team of trained journalists writing Web marketing copy. We’re beginning to see a lot of writers with journalism experience writing content for the Web. That got me thinking about the journalism tools we could use to help write more compelling Web marketing content:

1. Know your reader. If you understand your reader, you’ll understand their interests and challenges. Give them content that will interest them, whether it’s a tip to help them in their jobs or an interesting tidbit relevant to them or a piece of advice. All the better if the content is free.

2. Focus on benefits. You may want readers to hear about your new product, but why should your readers care? Frame your content so that it will matter to your readers. Focus on the issues or challenges that your product targets and then discuss how your product addresses those challenges. But don’t overdo it.

3. Substantiate your claims. If you make a claim that your product is the fastest, cheapest, or easiest to manage, substantiate that fact—ideally by an independent third party, such as an industry research company.

4. Check your facts. Double check everything before you publish. For example, if you’re writing about a customer in your blog, or developing a full-blown case study, review all the facts with your customer.

5. Check for errors. If possible, get someone else to read through your copy. Bad grammar, spelling mistakes, and awkward language can detract from your message and hurt credibility—whether you’re talking about corporate messaging or an informal blog.

6. Keep the length manageable. Overall, keep your content short. Less is more in the world of Web content (or, as E.B. White said decades ago in “The Elements of Style,” omit needless words).

7. Use subheads and graphics to break up text. If your piece of content is a long article, think about adding subheads to break it up into manageable chunks. Some writers add subheads every third paragraph, while others add them when they introduce a new idea. Graphics such as charts or photos can also help break up text—and illustrate or underline the points you’re trying to get across in your article.

8. Consider the inverted triangle. I say “consider” because the concept is debatable in this digital age. In the journalism world, the traditional ”inverted triangle” was about getting important who, what, where, why, and how facts in the first paragraph of the article, or as high up in the story as possible. The content in the subsequent paragraphs would be in descending order of importance. The idea was that the editor on deadline to the printer could cut from the bottom up without deleting the most important aspect of the story. The Online Journalism Review has an interesting discussion about the need for a “digital media pyramid”, which keeps the five ”Ws,” but also recognizes the need for including supporting materials from other online sources.

What other journalism tools do you use when producing Web marketing content?