10 Tips To Help You Pack More Power Into Your Business Writing

1. Ask yourself "does this concept/approach /clever headline/earnest mission statement/ really help the message achieve its objectives?" If the honest answer is no, alter it or rethink it completely.
2. No matter how beautifully structured your message is if it doesn't take into account the real circumstances and needs of the audience, it won't work. Align your message's objectives with these circumstances and needs.
3. Study the 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 the crowd. (Or if the crowd's too big, reconsider the choice of media if that's within your power.)
4. Successful business messages are always based on benefits for the target audience - either actual or implied. Ensure you know the difference between features and benefits, and how to convert features into benefits.
5. Research the 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.
6. Traditional grammar and even spelling mostly have been thrown out of the 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 the 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.
7. Time pressures and the influence of the internet have made us into a world of browsers, even when we're reading brochures and other print. Unless it's very short organise your offline text so readers who are browsing get the key points very easily. Always separate technical detail and other lengthy data from the main text so readers aren't obliged to plod through it unless they want to.
8. Never be tempted to transplant text written for print into an online environment. Online text is as different from offline text as a PC screen is from paper. Because reading from screens is so unfriendly, online text must be very short and crisp and must make it extremely easy for readers to absorb the key points. Don't let web designers talk you into flamboyant graphics that could inadvertently swamp your message.
9. Use a tape recorder to get an objective view of your voice, style, weaknesses and strengths. Keep sentences short with only one idea in each. Avoid telling jokes unless you're naturally funny. And rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
10. If you think you may be out of your depth with a business writing project (e.g. a TV commercial, major direct marketing campaign, complex video or business theatre script) you're probably right - so call in a professional writer.

Business Writing: When Not To Be Professional
It’s time to write your next ad or brochure. Maybe some web content. You’ve done all your research, and you’re staring at a blank computer screen. You want to put your “best foot forward.” Not, that is, if “looking good in print” means sounding like an educated professional. Or using perfect grammar. Because unless all of your prospects are English teachers, they’re going to respond better to more natural writing – writing that reads like people actually speak.

Real people don’t speak like “professionals” write. (Neither, for that matter, do most professionals.) Real people use sentence fragments. One thing real people do not do is use big, fancy words when shorter ones will do. Real people do not say things like, “I am committed to finding the lowest cost alternative.” Copywriting that uses stuffy, complex language just doesn’t sell. You know what I mean: The verbose, impersonal, corporate-speak that sounds more like a mission statement (which nobody cares about) than a personal communication. The kind that strokes the CEO’s ego when it should be stroking the prospect’s.

1. Picture your prospect. If you have to, get a real picture from a magazine or even your family album and tape it to your computer screen as you write. Then write like you’re talking to that one individual.
2. Read your copy out loud. If you stumble over anything, so will your reader. Rewrite until your words flow smoothly and sound natural.
3. Read your copy to someone else. Preferably a group of people. If, when you are finished, they tell you what a great job you’ve done, you have failed. Never be afraid to be personal in your ads, web pages, sales letters – any time you are communicating with a prospect. Make it sound like you are actually speaking to them.

If you still want to “look professional”, use the money you make and go buy some nice business clothes!