As a business owner, do you constantly find yourself writing? Whether it’s an email, a blog post, web copy or an ad, businesses need a constant stream of great writing. And every piece of writing counts.
Like it or not, every single piece of writing your company puts out there either builds up your brand or tears it down. Seem over dramatic?
Let’s look at a real example of bad writing. The company name has been concealed to protect the innocent, or in this case, the guilty.
Beautiful and long lasting, that’s just a couple of the reasons tile is so popular. But we’ll give you a couple other reasons and that is the great selection and price you’ll find at XXXXXXXX. Below are some of the brands we carry, jump over and see what the incredible style and beauty then give us a call and we’ll tell you how to get it in your next project.
This is just one paragraph from a website with writing that would make most people cringe. Besides the grammar and punctuation errors, the website would bore a reader to tears causing them to quickly lose interest. The business hasn’t bothered to give people a real reason to stay on their website, much less call or visit them.
They don’t stand out. They don’t speak to their potential customer’s motives for buying. They’ve lost before they’ve even started.
The problem often begins because the wrong person is doing the writing. Not everyone is a great writer. (I know, shocking.) Business owners have three choices when it comes to writing: write the copy themselves, have someone in-house write it, or hire a professional.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today let’s discuss why great writing is important for your business.
Establish credibility
This is without doubt the most important purpose of anything written for business. In today’s skeptical world, prospects want to do business with companies they trust and believe. The content written about your company must establish your credibility—all part of building your brand.
A writing instructor I had not too long ago, Lisa Adams, said copywriting “manifests a company’s image in words.” That’s incredibly powerful and not to be looked at lightly. What you write and how well it’s written has a direct impact on how well your business builds trust and credibility with customers and prospects.
A prospect’s perception of your company determines whether they’ll do business with you. You’re ultimately selling an image, not a product or service.
A reader views a company that invests in professional writing to be established and dependable. That doesn’t mean it’s stuffy. It means you carry a consistent company voice throughout your written materials and website. Good writing has the power to tell a story and capture people’s attention—even to change their minds.
Show transparency
Your company’s content can also provide the transparency the public wants to see from businesses they trust. Tell your customers what’s going on as much as possible. If something goes wrong that affects them directly, own up to it and vow to do better. Then do better.
Careful writing is crucial in situations where transparency is needed. The tone must be selected intentionally to instill continued trust. The perfect words must be selected to smooth over any misunderstandings without causing greater harm.
If you face a situation like this where transparency will save you or sink you, bring in a professional writer. You can’t risk going it alone.
Power of persuasive writing
When we buy bathroom cleaner, we don’t buy it because it gets the shower 10 percent cleaner than the competitor’s brand. We buy it because we think it keeps our families healthy or because it makes us feel good our house is much cleaner than our best friend’s house.
Petty? Sure. But true nonetheless.
When you dig down into the deep motives of your customers, you’ll find they buy products and services because they make them look good, feel good, or fit in. This is critical when writing persuasive content. If you don’t know how to appeal to motives, you can’t move prospects to believe you and, ultimately, buy from you.
Write for readability
Good grammar is essential to good writing and readability. If you follow general grammar rules, your writing will be clear, concise and easy to read. Some of the rules you learned in school can be broken, but it’s easier to break rules when you know them first.
You don’t have to be a grammar expert who knows all the parts of a sentence and every technical term. But you do need to understand what a good sentence looks like. If you aren’t sure, either get busy learning more about it or hand it off to someone else.
One major reason you might struggle with readability is because you’re too familiar with your industry. You know all the jargon and corporate speak, and it’s hard for you to use plain language when writing about your business.
If you can’t write in plain language, get someone else to do it for you.
I’ve actually heard business owners say, “We want our writing to be free and loose.” What they really mean is they have no control over their words, they don’t know how to get control, and they’ve given up trying. It’s a cop-out.
Get control of your writing so your readers understand your point as quickly as possible.
Communicate a coherent message
To establish a coherent message, your writing must be:
- Consistent
- Accurate
- Professional
- Polished
An incoherent message due to sloppy, unfocused writing confuses prospects and customers, driving them into the waiting arms of the more coherent competition.
You must be consistent in your company’s story and accurate with your facts. And regardless of the voice and tone you use, you must uphold a professional image that is reflected in the polished writing that tells your story.
Following good grammar practices and keeping a consistent, accurate message will help you cater to your audience because your message will have a better chance of breaking through the noise. You’ll come across as authentic and credible in your space.
And since you can’t appeal to everyone, you might consider tailoring your message further to a more targeted audience. That takes skill with the English language. If you don’t have that skill, you must either learn it or find someone who can put together the message you want delivered.
There’s a pattern here
Have you noticed a pattern here? If you know you don’t have the skill to write in a way that builds your brand and attracts customers, you need to re-evaluate your writing situation. Let’s look again at your three choices:
- Learn to write better yourself
- Hand it off to an internal employee who has the necessary skills
- Hire a professional writer
If the responsibility rests squarely on your shoulders and you need help, there are many books and classes out there to teach you better writing skills. They’ll get you by while your business grows to the point you can hand off the writing duties to someone else. If you want some suggestions for books or classes, tell me about your greatest need in the comments below. I’ll try to point you in the right direction.
Maybe I can help
I’m developing a boot camp specifically for business owners who need to improve their writing. This will be a one-on-one boot camp designed to help you work on your specific writing issues. Watch for upcoming announcements for start dates. It might be just the thing you need.
Be sure to follow the blog so you don’t miss the boot camp dates.