The 10 Rules for Good Business Writiing
10 Rules for Good Business Writing
There are a number of real and imagined barriers to good business writing, but in all honesty it's not rocket science. For sure, you might not get it right first time. But practice and constructive feedback make better if not perfect in time.
Here are some general rules which can be used for letters, business reports, web site copy or even presentations and speeches. You'll need to pick and mix depending on what your needs your target audience.
In summary the steps are:
It's human nature to put off what you don't feel confident about doing. Many feel this way about business writing. The good thing about modern technology is that you can ‘plug and play'. Just get stuff down and you can refine it or edit it later if there's no real urgency.
Unless you're doing a print run of thousands, it doesn't matter if you need to change it later as other ideas come to mind. 80% ‘right' – whatever that is – will probably do?
2. Be personal, conversational and friendly
By and large write the way you think and talk personally so that you come across as authentic. There's no need to adopt a ‘high and mighty' formal style.
Using ‘I' and ‘we' helps you engage with your reader more effectively.
There's no harm in having a particular point of view or opinion or being provocative as long as it's not offensive. Humour can de difficult and is probably not right anyway for formal business communications.
Remember people don't do business with businesses; they do business with people. Be friendly – will your letter or whatever pass the breakfast reading test?
3. Understand your audience
It often helps if you have a mental picture of the sort of person you're writing to:
What's the single most important idea that you're trying to get across? Does it really stand out? Think about what you want to say in terms of primary & secondary importance.
One of the challenges is that you probably know too much about what you want to say!
But less is more – and don't expect people to read everything that you write.
What do you want the lasting impression to be when your target audience has finished reading your document?
5. Be clear about the outcome you want
Everything you write in business, from sales letters to budget plans, is trying to get a response. You want someone to do something. To be successful in business and in writing, you must persuade.
Start with your outcome in mind – define what you want to happen and work back from that.
A simple set of communications steps for a sales letter to prospective customers is:
For a Business Plan or Proposal this is most effectively done in the Executive Summary. This previews the main points of an in-depth report. It is usually written with non-technical people and those who are not inclined to read the main report in mind. It should reflect the main body of the document and you need to take care to make sure they are synchronised,
6. Stress benefits not features
Persuasive writing stresses benefits instead of features. Your reader doesn't care how many bells and whistles your product has. The reader wants to know what your product is going to do for him or her.
Usually this means focusing on the emotional not just the rational benefits. Consider the perfume industry. Fashion houses do not sell stuff that makes you smell nice (the feature). They sell romance — how much more alluring and attractive she/he might be as a result of using the product (the benefit).
Feature Open 24 hours Benefit You can shop when you want
Batteries included Can be used out of the box
Power steering Less physical effort required
7. Think Kiss!
George Bernard Shaw once apologised for writing a long letter because he didn't have time to make it shorter. Simplifying, synthesising and editing do take time and effort. But your challenge is to make what you are writing about as easily understood as possible for the reader.
There are some techniques you can use here:
Active: The Board will review all budget submissions in early November.
Passive: In early November, all budget submissions will be reviewed by the Board.
The Fog Factor
Longer words and longer sentences increase the difficulty of reading – the so called ‘fog factor'.
Microsoft Word has a tool for checking the readability of your material.
For example this guide has a Reading Ease of 64.6% where a rating of between 60-70% means it is easily understandable to 13-15 year old US students.
KISS doesn't necessarily mean short – it just means being sufficiently informative and complete given the communications task that needs to be achieved.
8. Make it easy on the eye
Unless it's a legal document it doesn't have to look like one!
Spend some time formatting your content. When you read a newspaper, for example, (apart from starting at the Sports Page!) you probably scan the page looking for items of interest before you start reading a particular article word for word.
To help your reader, consider using:
As an example, here's a homemade diagram that illustrates the touch points that impact a patient's ‘entry to exit' experience of a hospital stay.
9. Get the technicals right
Proof Reading
Spell check doesn't help you if you use the wrong word but spell it correctly i.e. there/their, complement/compliment, practice/practise, stationary/stationery - so you need to eyeball (proof read) what you have written.
This is actually quite demanding and it's too easy to see what you thought you'd written rather than what is actually written. If somebody on your team has eye for this kind of detail then use them!
It won't help you either if in the excitement of mastering ‘cut and paste' you end up duplicating something.
Version control
A good discipline is to exercise some version control as you develop your material – it's so easy to mistakenly use a version that you had junked earlier.
Grammar
Purists might object to beginning a sentence with ‘And, So, But'.
No matter - it's the spontaneity and flow that is more important. Some may feel the same way about the niceties of grammar – semi colons, colons, past participles but I'm not sure it's worth loosing any sleep over (personal view only!)
Factual information
Using precise information generates confidence - which important to business writing because it tells the reader that the writer really knows what he is talking about. This confidence can, however, be easily shattered if there are glaring factual mistakes.
Look and feel
It's really useful to print off a copy of what you have written. What you see on your screen is not necessarily what it comes out like when you print it. Pagination and alignment may be out of sync – does it line up properly?
As you review the document it may cause you to think that it's not so logically presented as you imagined.
10. Share it with your inner circle
As a first step just read it back to your self a few times. Talk it out aloud and go at the pace you would normally speak.
As a test:
Do this a couple of times, perhaps leaving it overnight so your thoughts can settle.
Then, and this is quite challenging, send it to your inner circle so you get different perspectives. This should include some customers with whom you have good relationships, a coach or mentor if you have one, people you network with who are probably not direct competitors and professional advisors such as your accountant and bank manager.
Don't be surprised or defensive about what you get back!
Now you have to exercise some judgement. What do I need to change?
At the end of the day you'll have a range of different views which you'll need to mould in to your sense of what the compelling offer is.
Don't be worried, be happy with the outcome! And remember the acid test is if it works it works – and if it doesn't you try again differently!
There are a number of real and imagined barriers to good business writing, but in all honesty it's not rocket science. For sure, you might not get it right first time. But practice and constructive feedback make better if not perfect in time.
Here are some general rules which can be used for letters, business reports, web site copy or even presentations and speeches. You'll need to pick and mix depending on what your needs your target audience.
In summary the steps are:
- Start right now!
- Be personal, conversational and friendly
- Understand your audience
- Focus on the key idea
- Be clear about the outcome you want
- Stress benefits not features
- Think KISS!
- Make it easy on the eye
- Get the ‘technicals' right
- Share it with your inner circle
1. Start right now!
It's human nature to put off what you don't feel confident about doing. Many feel this way about business writing. The good thing about modern technology is that you can ‘plug and play'. Just get stuff down and you can refine it or edit it later if there's no real urgency.
Unless you're doing a print run of thousands, it doesn't matter if you need to change it later as other ideas come to mind. 80% ‘right' – whatever that is – will probably do?
2. Be personal, conversational and friendly
By and large write the way you think and talk personally so that you come across as authentic. There's no need to adopt a ‘high and mighty' formal style.
Using ‘I' and ‘we' helps you engage with your reader more effectively.
There's no harm in having a particular point of view or opinion or being provocative as long as it's not offensive. Humour can de difficult and is probably not right anyway for formal business communications.
Remember people don't do business with businesses; they do business with people. Be friendly – will your letter or whatever pass the breakfast reading test?
3. Understand your audience
It often helps if you have a mental picture of the sort of person you're writing to:
- What paper do they read?
- What business language would they be using if you were talking to them now?
- How would they describe a particularly pressing business problem?
4. Focus on the key idea
What's the single most important idea that you're trying to get across? Does it really stand out? Think about what you want to say in terms of primary & secondary importance.
One of the challenges is that you probably know too much about what you want to say!
But less is more – and don't expect people to read everything that you write.
What do you want the lasting impression to be when your target audience has finished reading your document?
5. Be clear about the outcome you want
Everything you write in business, from sales letters to budget plans, is trying to get a response. You want someone to do something. To be successful in business and in writing, you must persuade.
Start with your outcome in mind – define what you want to happen and work back from that.
A simple set of communications steps for a sales letter to prospective customers is:
- Awareness: Have they heard of you and do they know what you do?
- Interest: Do they have an interest in what you are offering and do they consider you to be a credible supplier?
- Desire: have you generated sufficient interest and excitement to get the reader to go to the next step?
- Action: Describe clearly what their next step is – the ‘Call to Action'. Make sure your contact details, for example, are highlighted.
For a Business Plan or Proposal this is most effectively done in the Executive Summary. This previews the main points of an in-depth report. It is usually written with non-technical people and those who are not inclined to read the main report in mind. It should reflect the main body of the document and you need to take care to make sure they are synchronised,
6. Stress benefits not features
Persuasive writing stresses benefits instead of features. Your reader doesn't care how many bells and whistles your product has. The reader wants to know what your product is going to do for him or her.
Usually this means focusing on the emotional not just the rational benefits. Consider the perfume industry. Fashion houses do not sell stuff that makes you smell nice (the feature). They sell romance — how much more alluring and attractive she/he might be as a result of using the product (the benefit).
Feature Open 24 hours Benefit You can shop when you want
Batteries included Can be used out of the box
Power steering Less physical effort required
7. Think Kiss!
George Bernard Shaw once apologised for writing a long letter because he didn't have time to make it shorter. Simplifying, synthesising and editing do take time and effort. But your challenge is to make what you are writing about as easily understood as possible for the reader.
There are some techniques you can use here:
- Uses short words – multi-syllable words are more difficult to read and absorb;
- Vary the length of sentences but aim for no more than fifteen words;
- Avoid capitals – believe it or not they are harder to read!
- Start a new paragraph as often as it is logically possible;
- Make sure your paragraph is not just one sentence;
- Avoid jargon - always explain a TLA (three letter acronym) before you use it;
- If it's a particularly technical paper, consider a glossary of terms;
- If there's some necessary but extensive information or data such as research findings, then consider putting them in a series of appendices.
- Use the active tense, for example:
Active: The Board will review all budget submissions in early November.
Passive: In early November, all budget submissions will be reviewed by the Board.
The Fog Factor
Longer words and longer sentences increase the difficulty of reading – the so called ‘fog factor'.
Microsoft Word has a tool for checking the readability of your material.
For example this guide has a Reading Ease of 64.6% where a rating of between 60-70% means it is easily understandable to 13-15 year old US students.
KISS doesn't necessarily mean short – it just means being sufficiently informative and complete given the communications task that needs to be achieved.
8. Make it easy on the eye
Unless it's a legal document it doesn't have to look like one!
Spend some time formatting your content. When you read a newspaper, for example, (apart from starting at the Sports Page!) you probably scan the page looking for items of interest before you start reading a particular article word for word.
To help your reader, consider using:
- Different fonts and sizes:These help highlight passages of text but should be used both sparingly and consistently;
- Colour: This helps lift text off the page also and can be especially effective if it reflects your brand/house colours;
- Pictures and diagrams; People absorb information in different ways. Some are more responsive to visual stimuli such as pictures, cartoons, models and diagrams (see below);
- Bullets and lists:Bullets are symbols (numbers, boxes, circles, asterisks, dashes) that draw attention to a particular piece of text. These are excellent, for example, for lists and outlining the steps in a process;
- Tables:these are an economical way too of presenting information and discipline you to keep it simple;
- Subheads:Use mini-headlines to break up the copy in memos and letters and direct the reader through your writing.
As an example, here's a homemade diagram that illustrates the touch points that impact a patient's ‘entry to exit' experience of a hospital stay.
9. Get the technicals right
Proof Reading
Spell check doesn't help you if you use the wrong word but spell it correctly i.e. there/their, complement/compliment, practice/practise, stationary/stationery - so you need to eyeball (proof read) what you have written.
This is actually quite demanding and it's too easy to see what you thought you'd written rather than what is actually written. If somebody on your team has eye for this kind of detail then use them!
It won't help you either if in the excitement of mastering ‘cut and paste' you end up duplicating something.
Version control
A good discipline is to exercise some version control as you develop your material – it's so easy to mistakenly use a version that you had junked earlier.
Grammar
Purists might object to beginning a sentence with ‘And, So, But'.
No matter - it's the spontaneity and flow that is more important. Some may feel the same way about the niceties of grammar – semi colons, colons, past participles but I'm not sure it's worth loosing any sleep over (personal view only!)
Factual information
Using precise information generates confidence - which important to business writing because it tells the reader that the writer really knows what he is talking about. This confidence can, however, be easily shattered if there are glaring factual mistakes.
Look and feel
It's really useful to print off a copy of what you have written. What you see on your screen is not necessarily what it comes out like when you print it. Pagination and alignment may be out of sync – does it line up properly?
As you review the document it may cause you to think that it's not so logically presented as you imagined.
10. Share it with your inner circle
As a first step just read it back to your self a few times. Talk it out aloud and go at the pace you would normally speak.
As a test:
- Does it flow, does it sound like you?
- Would you be happy to stand up and present it to a group of people?
- If you were challenged would you be able to justify what you have said?
Do this a couple of times, perhaps leaving it overnight so your thoughts can settle.
Then, and this is quite challenging, send it to your inner circle so you get different perspectives. This should include some customers with whom you have good relationships, a coach or mentor if you have one, people you network with who are probably not direct competitors and professional advisors such as your accountant and bank manager.
Don't be surprised or defensive about what you get back!
Now you have to exercise some judgement. What do I need to change?
- Factually and technically?
- In terms of the logical flow of my proposition?
- Because I have not included/underplayed some of the emotional triggers?
At the end of the day you'll have a range of different views which you'll need to mould in to your sense of what the compelling offer is.
Don't be worried, be happy with the outcome! And remember the acid test is if it works it works – and if it doesn't you try again differently!
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