10 tips to help you pack more power into your business writingWritten by Suzan St Maur
1. Before you write anything down define not what you want to say, but what your message must achieve. Keep that firmly in focus at all times and use it as main goal for everything you write. Ask yourself “does this concept/approach /clever headline/earnest mission statement/ really help message achieve its objectives?” If honest answer is no, alter it or rethink it completely. 2. Identify your target audience and get to know them very well. No matter how beautifully structured your message is if it doesn’t take into account real circumstances and needs of audience, it won’t work. Align your message’s objectives with these circumstances and needs. 3. Study media you’ll be using; be aware of how people will receive your message and where your message will be competing for their attention, use your common sense and creativity to make it stand out in crowd. (Or if crowd’s too big, reconsider choice of media if that’s within your power.) 4. Now develop your message based on these issues, and add in final magic ingredient … “what’s in it for them?” Successful business messages are always based on benefits for target audience – either actual or implied. Ensure you know difference between features and benefits, and how to convert features into benefits. 5. Research way your target audience speak and communicate, and phrase your message in their language – which may not necessarily be yours. Avoid corporate pomposity and unnecessary jargon. Talk to “you,” not some vague third party, and keep your English as simple as possible, especially when your message is going to people who originate from other cultures. 6. Traditional grammar and even spelling mostly have been thrown out of window. However there are still a few grammar rules you need to follow if you don’t want your message to look amateurish. Your knowledge of audience and how they communicate will dictate your writing style to a large extent. Don’t let catchwords, “internet-speak,” emoticons, etc. obscure your message or its benefits.
| | 9 tips to help you write more powerful emailsWritten by Suzan St Maur
Writing emails seems so easy and quick, anyone can do it without giving it a second thought. But by rushing it carelessly, are you wasting a useful opportunity to promote yourself and your business? Professional business writer Suzan St Maur shares her top tips on how to make your emails much more powerful...1. Make effort to learn about etiquette (these days known as "netiquette") involved in writing emails. There are loads of good reference websites and books about internet which will tell you basics. I know it might seem a bit precious to attach so much importance to social niceties when internet is basically very informal. However, whether we like it or not many people do take online etiquette very seriously. So if you're writing emails for business, you should assume that your recipient may well be one of those... 2. Never send and preferably don't even try to write an email if you're angry, upset, drunk, or otherwise not in total control. If you have a heated conversation with someone on telephone you can sometimes fudge things over. But with emails, once you hit "send" whatever you've written is there, carved in tablets of stone, for as long as recipient wants to glare at it. The old adage about "counting to ten" before responding couldn't be more true here. Only send angry emails if you can handle, or really don't care about, recipient's resultant feelings! 3. One thing that you may not think of is that it can be useful to consider carefully time you send your emails. To begin with it's always a good idea to avoid sending emails that coincide with Monday morning rush and Friday afternoon lethargy. In addition, I've occasionally found that emails sent to companies over weekend end up getting lost in cyberspace. And on a rather more subtle level, if your recipients see that you're sending emails on a Sunday morning or late at night, they may feel they can interrupt you for a business talk at same times. Although you may think it's cool to impress a client that you work all hours, your partner won't when same client calls you on phone at midnight. 4. Because almost everyone at some time or another has been infected with a computer virus, people are understandably wary of attachments. I never send attachments to anyone I don't know very well, and equally never open attachments unless they're from people I know well. And then, some contemporary viruses and worms clone themselves on to genuine email names and addresses, so even an email purporting to be from someone you know might just be infected. When in doubt append text to body of your email message, or contact recipient beforehand and make sure they're happy to receive it as an attachment.
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