Writing creatively for business

Every part of a business needs words. Without words, nobody communicates. “Nobody communicates these days anyway,” people warn. Not true. We just speak differently in the twenty-first century. Today’s world is one of websites, e-mail, text messages, e-mags, e-zines, e-newsletters.

But remember today’s key idea is multimedia – it’s the past, present and future. Consumers still read books, non-e-magazines (aka magazines), brochures, flyers. And business writing needs to appreciate this. A company branded in the past will miss out on today’s commerce. Equally a company branded in the present will miss the opportunities of tomorrow.

So what about the past? Life is a cycle. Things return. Just because the trend today may be for short hair, in five years it will be long. Just because businesses are concentrating on e-communication in 2009, it doesn’t mean we can forget the skills to write for traditional media.

Creative writing across all media is as important to profits as brand image, design, management style, networking, even product and service. Take a book as an example of consumer habit. People will usually buy a book on the basis it has an interesting blurb. Yes, it needs to look nice, but a pretty cover alone won’t sell the book, and the subject itself will have plenty of competition. So why buy this one? Because an easy-to-read paragraph on the back has entertained, intrigued and persuaded us. If it hasn’t, it’s told us to buy the next one.

Businesses should concentrate on placing themselves ahead of competition: that means coming first in consumers’ minds and Google rankings, and being synonymous with quality. And where does all this start? It’s in a company’s first words – its first utterances. It’s those impressions that stay with us as consumers. You want to be trusted, reliable and quirky. If you can do this, you’ll be memorable.

Some words are easy to forget. Don’t let your words fall out of people’s minds.