Three Quick Tips For Great Business Writing
Here are three quick tips to supercharge your written copy.
Great business writing is within your reach, if you’re willing to go beyond the basic fundamentals of written English.
Here are three quick tips to supercharge your written copy!
When you think of essentials in business writing, what comes to mind?
Correct spelling? Proper grammar and punctuation? Knowing the differences between “their”, “there”, and “they’re”?
Yes, these simple rules are important. But truly great business writing goes beyond these basic fundamentals.
Check out these three tips to supercharge your written copy!
Tip #1: Know your Customers’ Pain Points So, why do your customers come to you? Clearly, it’s because you’re the expert in your field, and they need your help.
But help with what? You won’t know when they come to your website, because there’s no opportunity to ask them.
You need to anticipate what your customers will need before they come to you, and tailor your copy appropriately.
For example, if you’re in financial services, what do your customers worry about the most? Financial security? Long-term income? Retirement savings? Address these concerns in your copy. Spend less time talking about you, and more time discussing how you can help your customers realize their dreams.
After all, I don’t care how many letters a financial advisor has after his or her name. My only concern is that they help me achieve my financial goals.
Tip #2: Don’t Try to Impress with Fancy Lingo Anyone who has ever worked with me knows I’m I big proponent of Simple English, often using a computer store scenario to demonstrate its effectiveness.
If you confuse your customers with fancy tech talk, they’ll spend too much time trying to figure out what you’re talking about, and not enough time hearing your message.
Not only that, you risk making these potential customers feel “less than”. It’s always nice when your knowledge is recognized, but if you employ a bunch of industry terms and fancy lingo when communicating with a layperson, chances are they won’t be engaged.
In other words, if they can’t understand you, they may not think you understand them.
It would be great to discuss quantum theory with Stephen Hawking, if I could speak on his level. Perhaps I’ll save it for Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Tip #3: Get People to Do Something When you get right down to it, you’re not creating copy to simply show off your writing chops. You’re trying to get your readers to do something.
I recently wrote copy for a specialty food store. The goal was more than showcasing the owners, their neighborhood, and their products. My mission was to write copy that induced a hunger response.
For example, visualize a cheese wheel. How would you describe it? You could just write “cheese wheel”, but a better idea would be to describe the cheese’s subtle pungency and nutty, buttery taste, that will literally melt in your mouth.
Another example would be a button that you’re dying for the reader to press. Easy phrases that start with “Learn more right now…”, “Download this valuable document…”, or “Benefit today from…” can go a long way to getting your readers to do what you want, thus keeping them on your website.
And that’s what you want, isn’t it?
Great business writing is within your reach. Following these three tips will help your content stand above your competitors, thus increasing customer engagement.
Are my tips in line with your content strategy? Let me know in the comments below!
About Author:
Twitter: @editdesktweets Web: www.editorsdesk.net Email: Richard@editorsdesk.net
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