Photo Credit: Linda Cronin
Whether you’re writing a blog, web site content, or a letter to the editor of your local paper, if you are writing for your business it’s critical that you make the best impression possible. Your words represent your company, and by extension, you. Here are a few tips to help ensure your business writing is top notch:
- Write what you know. Stick to topics you understand thoroughly. If you’re unfamiliar with a topic, it will show in your writing. If that means you need to take a little extra time to research your topic, it will be time well spent.
- Find a hook. Grab your readers’ interest right off the bat with a compelling hook that draws them into the story. You might try a surprising statistic or a memorable quote.
- Speak to your audience. If you’re writing for a lay audience, too much jargon will turn them off and you’ll quickly lose your readers. Be sure you “translate” your writing into language your readers will easily understand.
- Tell a story. Everyone likes a good story, with a beginning, middle and end. Use a story framework to get your message across, and you’ll find it easier keep your readers interested. Ask yourself, “What’s my story about?” then answer!
- Keep it simple! Many writers feel compelled to include everything they know about a subject, resulting in information overload. Narrow your message down to the most important point and fill in the blanks from there. This is true for everything from blog posts to ad copy.
- Proofread. And proofread again. There’s no substitute for human eyes – spell check can’t tell the difference between “too” and “two.” I like to read my work aloud to make sure I haven’t missed anything – I may get strange looks, but my writing is less likely to appear with errors! It also helps to have a colleague take a look at your work, just to make sure everything is accurate.
Your writing approach will be different depending on your industry, your audience and your goals, but these tips can be applied in nearly any setting. Keep them in mind next time you sit down to write, and let us know if they helped you!