Targets is the part of the Acrolinx Platform where you set and deploy your content standards and preferences universally, so they’re available to all content contributors as they create content. With Targets, it takes just minutes to set up content Goals that guide every writer. So your content is consistent from the start!

On Target Content 

A Target tells Acrolinx what type of writer guidance you want for a particular type of content or audience — because different content types require different guidance. Every Target contains:

  • Content Goals, an aspect of language you want Acrolinx to focus on.
  • A language preference, English (U.S./U.K.) or German.
  • Preset Guidelines, within each Goal, to help you get started. 

A content goal is a group of customizable Guidelines. You choose goals based on what you’re trying to achieve with your content, and the audience you’re trying to reach. Here’s a list of the goals you’ll find in Targets:

  • Correctness
  • Clarity
  • Consistency
  • Tone
  • Scannability
  • Inclusive Language

For example, for a global audience, you’ll likely be translating your content, so the goals of Clarity, Consistency, and Scannability (for easy readability) are crucial. Clearer, more consistent content means your translation costs will be lower. You can stick with our preset recommendations for each goal or choose others. 

The preset guidelines are a great way to get up and running quickly with Acrolinx. And they’re based on 20 years of linguistic expertise! Or you can make your own selections and even test out different Guidelines and further customize them based on your results. With Targets, you have complete control over your content creation.

What’s New With Targets?

Using Targets, you’ll have access to our newest guidance capabilities for Inclusive Language and Scannability. Both are goals that you can set in a Target. Along with the usual Acrolinx checks for Tone, Consistency, Clarity, and Correctness, now you can check your content to make sure it’s inclusive and accessible for all readers. 

The Inclusive Language Goal

There’s still work to be done to ensure diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity in the workplace. And the way your brand speaks reflects your brand identity. Do you know the history, connotation, and effect of your words? And do they align with your brand, values, and audience? 

We’re all worthy of feeling included and valued, and that’s why inclusive language is now a core part of business communication. Whether you’re looking to establish a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative at your company, or speak to a broader target audience, inclusive language aligns the impact of your words with your intentions. 

The Acrolinx preset guidelines meet a lot of content needs. And when it comes to Inclusive Language we recommend that you use all four of our guideline categories:

  • Respectful language
  • Gender-neutral pronouns
  • People-first language
  • Writing conventions 

The Inclusive Language goal provides feedback to content creators about the history and connotations of words, guiding and educating writers to create inclusive and accessible content. We’re on a mission to help global companies eradicate exclusionary language from their content. Want to learn more about the importance of inclusive language? Download our Inclusive Language guide today.

The Scannability Goal

Scannability helps you structure your content so readers can easily find and understand your message quickly and efficiently. It makes your content more accessible to a wider audience — including non-native language speakers and people with learning disabilities. 

One of the biggest challenges enterprises face is how to present highly technical, instructional, or complex content in an engaging and meaningful way. Because when your audience can’t easily find or understand the information they need, they become confused and frustrated. 

Scannability keeps your content clear and easy to understand, no matter who’s reading it, with Guidelines for:

  • Clear titles
  • List organization
  • Table formatting
  • Concise paragraphs
  • Focused documents 

The Scannability goal can provide actionable guidance and analytics to measure success, support writers with feedback to increase content clarity, and optimize the organization of your structured content. This results in content that’s aligned, understandable, and on-brand. 

Scannability helps make your content more accessible for all readers. Similar to the principles of Plain Language writing, Scannability helps make sure the structure and design of your content are clear and easy to understand. This means your readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and turn that information into action.

Create Content That Matches Your Business

Content is at the heart of your business. It’s there to delight, educate, and nurture your prospects and customers, and deliver a unified customer experience. But to be effective it needs to be clear, correct, consistent, scannable, inclusive, and in the right tone of voice — no matter who’s writing it. Thanks to Targets, it’s never been easier to customize goals for your enterprise content. 

Want greater convenience in setting up enterprise-wide content standards? Let’s Talk.