KeyNotes - The Moving Finger Newsletter
About writing and editing for business, and words in general
Hi, and thank you for sampling the latest issue of KeyNotes, which I publish around five times a year.
In each issue I present a couple of articles highlighting the importance of words in business with some handy tips on ways for you to manage them better - whether you write your business communications yourself or get someone like me to do this for you.
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Best regards
Chris Snowden
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In the April 2009 issue:
- Write your way out of recession
- How to produce a customer newsletter - part 5:
Holding your readers' attention
Write your way out of recession
Business is certainly going through a tough time at the moment but one lesson from previous downturns appears to have been learnt – your marketing has never been more important.
And neither have the words that make up your website, newsletters, case studies or news items.
Once upon a time marketing and PR were the first budgets to be cut as companies ran for cover at the first signs of economic trouble. Now entrepreneurial businesses see such times as the opportunity to grab market share and steal a march on more timid competitors.
If your business wants to flourish and buck the economic conditions, then backing your sales efforts with more lead generating activity is a must. That means making a reality of those good intentions you’ve been harbouring. Just like the canny shares investor who buys when the market is low to cash in later on, businesses need to get that website in order, collate their expertise into a vibrant case study library and showcase their industry knowledge and confidence in a white paper.
Trounce the competition
Making worthwhile content freely available in this way will feed the clamour for service, product and market information your customers and prospects generate. As budgets tighten, they’ll be researching more before they buy to ensure their money is well spent. Provide the information they’re looking for to make these important decisions and you’ll be best placed to trounce the competition.
You can make this content available from your website or use it proactively to generate leads. For example, consider an email campaign that uses the carrot of a free white paper on an emerging trend or technology in your industry to drive your targets towards your wider services.
Get writing now and you can expect the solutions you describe to get you higher up your prospects’ shopping lists. After all, if they hear from you regularly and like what they see, why would they go anywhere else?
How to produce a customer newsletter - Part 5: Holding your readers' attention
To get results your newsletter needs to present relevant content in a style that matches the reading habits of your audience. And it’s the same whether you’re broadcasting a particular offer, or just reminding customers and prospects about what you do.
So how do you go about it? In this increasingly visual-driven age you have to meet the needs of the scan-reader – which includes most of us especially when it comes to online reading. As such, we don’t necessarily read every word but look for sign-posts in the layout to tell us we’re in the right place, or that there’s something on the page worth reading.
Pace your reader
First, organise your information so the article’s main thrust is clear at the start and your readers know what it’s about. Write in the pyramid style, starting at the apex (important points first) and expanding outwards with your supporting arguments so the least essential comes last. If you’re editing contributions by others, you may find the real message buried among the waffle so dig deep to pull it out otherwise your readers will give up and miss it completely.
Get your information across in short paragraphs, and keep your vocabulary simple. Explain jargon. Your intention is to get your message over simply and clearly in an easy read. You don’t want to bamboozle your readers, or drive them to a dictionary.
Use rhetorical questions to keep your readers engaged. These are the newsletter equivalent of fiction’s page-turners and will grab your readers’ attention as they highlight solutions they may be seeking. Sub-headings and bulleted lists visually break up your copy and make it easier for readers to find information relevant to them.
Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy
When it comes to the story itself, accuracy is paramount. Misspell someone’s name, or get a figure or a fact wrong, and that'll be what's remembered about the article, no matter how well written.
Check and double check. Ideally have two people proof read everything and be especially careful about headlines and captions.
Finally, when you’re ready to publish, it’s a good idea to read what you’ve written aloud, or have someone read your words back to you. You may be surprised at the difference between what you think you communicated as you wrote, and how it comes across.
Related article: The pyramid - ancient Egypt's contribution to clear writing