This winter, sunny California has lived up to its name, which means spring fever arrived early. After a recent business-writing meeting, I couldn’t resist strolling Oakland’s College Avenue to check out the colorful shops. In one of my favorites, I got a good laugh from a pack of sticky notes featuring a woman holding up a file folder with the headline: “File under ‘Who cares?’”

On the way home, though, I wasn’t laughing when I thought about how fat that file would be today. About 80 percent of all business writing could be filed under that category.

What a waste of time, effort, and most of all, potential.

Time: Even 10 minutes spent on writing filed under “Who cares?” is a waste for the writer and the reader.

Effort: I’m sure that most of the people turning out “Who cares?” documents want their business writing to be more effective, but they honestly don’t know how. They’re already discouraged by their results, and their motivation takes another hit with every “Who cares?” reaction.

Potential: Here’s the real kicker—lost sales, missed opportunities, and flagging spirits. They all happen when our business writing doesn’t generate the interest it should.

OK, so what’s the antidote? What can you do to make your readers care? Try the one-two punch:

1. Write to them not at them.

-   Share stories, benefits, and results through your readers’ eyes. What do they care about? Use that as your focus rather than what you want to tell them. You’ll still get your points across—but they’ll be framed from your readers’ perspective.

-   Engage them. Use the word “you” often. It’s a proven magnet that keeps people reading.

2. Get [a little] creative.

I added that “little” qualifier because people freeze at the word “creative.” Don’t. There are so many easy ways to be more creative. And besides, since most people are slapping together their business writing, you can stand out with just a few creative touches. (Don’t worry about these in your early drafts. Add them in your editing phase.)

Here are four easy ways to be more creative:

-  Paint pictures with similes: Introduce new ideas in your business writing by comparing them to something familiar; use like and as to connect the new with the familiar. For example: Our services are like an a la carte menu—you get to choose exactly what you want.  Or: Lumping our software packages into one category is like saying pasta is just spaghetti. Your readers will be on your wavelength in a fraction of the time.

-  Add a lyrical lilt with alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (“Paint pictures” and “lyrical lilt with alliteration”). The effect is engaging and memorable, which makes your message stand out.

-  Create mystery with foreshadowing: Mention a point early on but save the explanation until later. You’ll create drama and tension by withholding key information—which keeps your readers reading.

-  Incorporate dialogue: Introduce other voices into your article and have them talk to one another. Dialogue also makes the page look less dense—and more appealing to your readers’ eye.

When you give these creative techniques a try, your articles and blogs, reports and proposals will be filed under “Important Ideas!”

What creative techniques do you use to add interest to your business writing? What successes have you had that you can attribute to a well-crafted proposal, report, blog—even e-mail?

Journalists are the Casanovas of nonfiction writing. They flirt with their readers with come-hither headlines, lure with their leads (first paragraphs), and court with the lyrical lilt of alliteration, creative wordplay, and robust calls to action.

I’ve been both a journalist and business writer, and I know how much journalists taught me about engaging my readers. Their tricks of the trade make your business writing more fun to write—and read—because it’s more conversational, creative, and compelling. That’s what it takes to rise above the onslaught of reports, e-mails, blogs, articles, and white papers flooding our inbox every day.

David Oglivy, the “father of advertising,” warned, “You cannot bore someone into buying your product.” In my business writing training and coaching, I paraphrase that as: “You cannot bore someone into reading your business letters, reports, proposals, newsletters, articles, blogs—even your e-mail.” (You wouldn’t believe how quickly people delete something they don’t like the looks of!)

Let’s take a look at how you can copy journalists to make your content more powerful and creative:

1. First, spend time in the magazine section of your local bookstore. Study the cover lines—those provocative headlines on the front cover of any publication from Cosmo to Inc. That will show you how to grab people’s attention. Back at your desk, use the same technique when writing e-mail subject lines and headlines for blogs, reports, articles, newsletters. “Get more out of your sales” becomes “Five ways to increase your revenue” and “Reorganize your office” becomes “Drowning in paper? Try our SOS (Simple Office System).”
2. Now, grab a cup of coffee and read an article or two. Notice the tone of the articles? Today’s journalism is conversational and approachable. You won’t find much jargon or convoluted phrasing here. (Hint: They get rid of that in the editing phase.)
3. Next, see all those subheads in bold?  They’re like mini-headlines every two or three paragraphs, and you want to make them as interesting as you would a headline. Add those to your documents to break up the content, make it easier on the eye, and attract skimmers. (We’re all skimmers these days, and subheads help draw us in.)
4. Finally, consider sidebars, a journalist’s best friend for tedious lists. Don’t clog your content—and your readers’ minds—with laundry lists of details. Put them in sidebars, those boxes that often accompany magazine and newspaper stories.  Studies show they are often more read than the body copy.

You too can woo with words—and make your readers fall in love with your content.

How do you attract readers? What tricks of the trade are your favorites?

Do you ever put off business writing because you feel intimidated by the process? You’re in good company. Not long ago, I received the following comment to one of my blogs: “I really appreciate your laid-back attitude to getting punctuation perfect. For those of us working on improving our writing, your approach takes a lot of the pressure off.”

The key words here are “pressure off.” It’s not that I’m advocating higgledy-piggledy punctuation. But given the fact that four different style books state four different ways to use commas, for example, I wanted people to know that there isn’t always just one correct way.

Now I’d like to take a little more pressure off:

Don’t panic if you find a typo after you hit “Send.”

Do you need to proof like crazy and find a proof buddy to proof even crazier? You bet. But when the inevitable happens, accept it. I proof my work; I pay people to proof my work, and still typos sneak by. Newspapers and magazines have many levels of writers and editors reviewing content, and still typos hide out. Ad agencies make staff members read content backwards and out loud, and still typos stow away. It happens.

I finally embraced this “laid-back attitude” about typos when I was talking with Kathy Goughenour (www.ExpertVATraining.com), who was way ahead of me on this topic. I told her about someone we both admired who was ranting about typos and how he’d never hire anyone who had a typo in a cover letter or resume. I thought Kathy, who’s a consummate professional and trains virtual assistants to be just as professional, would agree. To my surprise, she scoffed. She told me that was absurd, especially since an excellent candidate simply could have had – gasp! – a human moment.

And just like that the silly notions I held about perfection flew away. That kind of bad business-writing advice makes people quiver and quake when they face a writing project. Thank you, Kathy, for bringing me to my senses.

And in case you need a little more validation, check out Seth Godin’s blog post about the inevitability of disappointing yourself and others. Typos are a disappointment for sure, but they shouldn’t stop you from bringing your “magic into the world.”

How do you feel about typos? Would you really nix a qualified applicant just because of a typo? What other bad business-writing advice do you hear?

Butchered business writing. I’ve got a million of ‘em. Examples of terrible business writing stream into my inbox, and I save them as often-amusing, sometimes-disturbing writing training examples.

One article-writing company is a wellspring of examples. (You’d think these e-mail gaffes couldn’t be good for business, but this company has been around for years. Go figure.)

Victim #1
Regardless of the type or scale of business you operate in, you need the help of marketing if you are going to make said business a success, but the question that remains now is do you know how to effectively do this?

Ouch! That sentence runs 42 words and rambles like a 3-year-old at the circus. Writing concisely is essential in today’s impatient e-world.  How about:

Do you know how to effectively market your business?

Ah. Nine words, same message.

Victim #2
Now for a one off payment of $39 you will have access to all of the knowledge you could possibly need to successfully market your business and gain a flood of new traffic to your website, which has the potential of turning into a flood of new customers and clients.

Same company, only now we’re up to 50 words. I guess this flood of words goes with the tortured theme of this sentence. And what is a “ one off payment”? The missing hyphen makes me stumble. But even “one-off” seems bloated; “only $39” tells me all I need to know.

For only $39, you’ll learn how to drive traffic to your website, where you can convert visitors into new customers and clients.

Only 22 words, and I’m more inclined to 1) read this and 2) respond.

Get concise later
Don’t worry about extra words in your first drafts. That’s when you want to let it rip to save time and tap into your creativity. But by the third or fourth drafts, take time to cut extra words and all those redundant words that say the same thing. (Just kidding. I know I don’t need “that say the same thing.”)  Delete adjectives that are virtually synonymous, e.g., active and energetic; exceptional and unique. Concise is only one step in the editing process. Get your free copy of my “Editing for Success Checklist” to help you edit like a pro.

Victim #3
We offer money back guarantees on all of the products that we sell.  If you are not completely satisfied with the product for any reason, simply return the unused and used portion for a refund.

I recently bought an herbal capsule from this company. When I read the fine print, I was astonished to find that in order to get my refund, I needed to produce not only the capsules left in the bottle, but the ones I’d ingested!  I don’t know whether this is simply bad writing or a legal loophole that means they don’t have to refund my money. On the other hand, I suppose I could substitute some of those regurgitated turkey vulture pellets mentioned in last week’s blog post!

Do you have any questions about writing more concisely? What are your thoughts about the other extreme so popular today: writing with terse bulleted phrases? Do you have any examples of outrageously bad offers?