Whenever you spend time writing something – whether it’s a blog post, a newsletter or even a tweet – it’s an opportunity. An opportunity to get a message across, an opportunity to reach out to a dormant client or an opportunity to connect with someone new. Don’t let the opportunity be wasted!
- Before you start writing, ask yourself: What am I trying to achieve with this communication? Who am I trying to reach?
- When you know who you’re targeting, keep them in mind while you’re writing. You would speak differently to a business contact than you would to your friends and equally you should write differently for students than you would for lawyers, for example.
- Start well! We all have busy lives and won’t waste time reading something that doesn’t draw you in.
- Please, drop the jargon. It doesn’t make you sound clever – it just isolates the reader. Write clearly and simply.
- Make it interesting! If it’s a tweet, will it stand out from thousands of others sent at the same time? If it’s a newsletter article, could you tell your story through an individual to bring it to life?
- Keep it concise. Realistically, who is going to read a blog post that goes on for thousands of words?
- Break it up. A big chunk of text can be overwhelming and put readers off so use sub headings to make it more digestible.
- When you think you’ve finished, read back over it. Then read back over it again. If you send out a professional communication littered with errors, it could have the opposite effect to the one you want.
