{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Not-Boring Tech Writer","title":"Writing more human content with Mat Patterson","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4311,"description":"In this episode, I talk with Mat Patterson, a CX professional turned technical marketing writer who spent nearly a decade each at Campaign Monitor and Help Scout before going freelance and founding More Human Content. We talk about why content that keeps its personality connects better than content with all the edges sanded off, how he treats an email newsletter as an invitation into someone's inbox rather than a transaction, why small companies shouldn't voluntarily start sounding like big ones, and how years of putting his own name and face on his work shaped his move into freelancing.\n—\nMat and I discuss his winding path into writing for a living, which started with tech support out of university and a stint as a web designer beginning in the late 1990s, when one HTML course was enough to qualify you. He shares the moment he noticed someone had copied his company website, not the design but the copy, which he took as a sign he should probably be doing more writing and less web design. He joined Campaign Monitor as a support person, a role that called for web design skills and that he came to as an existing customer, and we talk about how being a user first gives you a real feel for how a company thinks and treats people. Over nearly ten years there he handled email support while also writing content for the knowledge base, the blog, and eventually giving conference talks, and that combination led him to a customer evangelist role at Help Scout for another decade before he went freelance and founded More Human Content.\nThe heart of our conversation is Mat's case for keeping personality in the content you write. He describes the frustration of finding a company whose voice you like, then opening their documentation and discovering every bit of life has been sucked out of it. We talk about the gravitational pull that draws growing companies toward a middle ground of corporate language that makes everyone sound the same, and why small companies and individuals...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/JlP4_zZATprOmI0COWYcSJZswo0AzjaOmxyE_M5gX6M/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kNTdh/ZjBlMjA5ZmEwZDhh/NTNjZWFiOWM2NWY1/ZDAzNS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}