Business Writing Tips For Professionals
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- October 17th, 2009 |
- Comments
Effective business writing skills can help you gain that million dollar contract, earn a promotion, resolve a dispute, or generate a big increase in new business leads. Poor business writing, on the other hand, can never be disorganized; it can cause you to lose business to your competition and even cost you your job. Here are 11 easy distance you can improve your business writing skills:
1. Before you compose a morpheme of copy, make careful you know who your aim audience is and what circumstantial result you’d like to achieve. If it’s an important business communication, accept five minutes to change yourself in the situation of the recipient and imagine what this person’s class is like.
What does their typical day look like? What are their single needs, goals, and challenges? What problem is keeping them up at night? The more cerebration and research you invest in apprehension your aim audience and how you can help them, the more powerful and effective your business writing communications will become.
2. Avoid exploitation your company acronyms and buzzwords. Piece they might appear cute and clever to you, it’s real annoying to a busy executive who has a pile of documents and proposals to read. Avoid exploitation academic language like ‘ergo,’ ‘henceforth,’ or ‘so to communicate,’ and as a general rule of finger avoid consume of abstract jargon. Simplify big words: compose consume instead of utilize, send out instead of disseminate, fair instead of equitable, etc.
3. Consume a alcoholic, active expression instead of the impersonal, passive expression. “The meeting agenda could be discussed further” is passive. “Let’s discuss the meeting agenda” is active. Express confidence and decisiveness in your business communications. Instead of writing, “I intend to compose a report on sales performance measures,” which comes across as anemic and indecisive, compose: “I’m currently writing a report on sales performance measures for completion on or before end of the 2nd quarter.”
4. Compose in a conversational chant instead of alienating your readers by being also formal and bureaucratic &ndash unless you’re writing to a bureaucrat or individual who prefers formality. Know your audience!
Even if you are writing a marketing communications piece that will be read by various 1000 potential readers, make your writing as inviting and personal as possible. You can accomplish this feat by writing to one circumstantial person who you can change as an ideal customer. Pretend you are motion down with this person in a bar and having a casual conversation. Compose your piece with this one person in mind and you will positively engage thousands of readers who will feel that you are writing directly to them!
5. Replace hyperbole with coagulated facts and reputable testimonials. Phrases like, “We’re #1,” “We’re the leader in our field,” or “We provide the best service,” aren’t going to get you anywhere. Instead, consume a fact much as stating that the President of a leading association ranked your company with the highest quality score out of 500 certified companies.
6. Convert product features into benefits. Mentioning that you provide automated billing or an automatic domain name renewal service does not engage your customer emotionally. Here’s an example of benefit oriented copy: “Our automatic domain name renewal service will provide you with the added assets and comfort of knowing that your domain names will never be hijacked by your competitors piece freeing up your administrative time to focus on growing your business.”
7. Don’t rely on editing all your important business documents from your computer desktop. Print out your document and read it out loud. If you encounter any awkwardness in delivery it means you need to re-write your piece to make it more conversational and flow better.
By reading your document out loud, you will also be able to attack typos and errors that your computer spelling and grammar check program might not have detected. As an example, you might have written ‘echo friendly’ when you really meant ‘eco friendly.’
8. In writing a business letter or business proposal, it is vitally important to compose from your customer’s perspective and what will interest them. Start off by writing about how great your customer’s company is and what circumstantial attributes you like about the company instead of bragging about how great your company is. Overmuch consume of “I,” “me,” or “our company” is a careful clue of ego getting in the artifact of business. Make careful to generously consume “You” and “Your” in your business copy if you deprivation to make more sales.
9. Business writing is real different from writing poetry or literature. Don’t meander or get carried away with flowery language. Compose the most important point you deprivation to make in the first condemn. If you are writing a sales letter, you can importantly increase sales by simply including a powerful P.S. at the end of the letter that summarizes the main point in a fresh artifact, creates a meaning of urging, or adds further credibility. Here’s a powerful example: “P.S. I’ve been invited to communicate at your association’s annual conference this coming Friday and hope to accompany you thither.”
10. Be clear, concise, and to the point. Don’t assume readers will know what to do. Guide them by including a circumstantial call to action: “click on the link to get your primary report” or “call me to fix a no-cost 15 minute consultation.”
11. Consume morpheme pictures to get your point across. Can you imagine the tickle and excitement of driving a rocket-fast, cobalt blue Porsche 911 Turbo as it whisks you to your desired destination? A well-written article or report can be like that Porsche and generate a ton of new business in half the time with more fun! After all, what’s more exciting, cold-calling prospects or having them call you? (If writing is a challenge, consider hiring a professional).