Are you thinking of how to improve your business writing skills?
If you find writing difficult, you can improve and become better by learning the rudiments of excellent business writing.
Writing happens to be one basic mode of communication.
Hence, having excellent writing skills as a business owner will be a plus to you.
This is because writing is a great way to put your business out there and communicate with clients, business partners, and suppliers.
Your writing represents your business.
Sometimes people judge your business with how good your writing is.
Improving your business writing skills is an excellent step to moving your business forward.
However, you need to know that just like other skills, it might take time, but with your willingness and commitment, you will get it right.
This blog post shares the essential things you need to know and do to help improve your business writing skills.
However, before then, we will give you a clearer picture of what business writing is and the types.
What Business Writing Is – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
This is a form of writing that business persons use to correspond with clients or shareholders, coworkers, and managers.
It is used to share ideas and information, explain a new process and deliver news.
Above all, good business writing establishes the trustworthiness and credibility of a business.
Types of Business Writing – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
Business writing is of four main types.
They are:
Informational
This business writing type provides information to its readers.
Examples of this type of business writing include financial statements, meeting minutes, and reports.
Instructional – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
This type gives instructions to its readers.
It might contain steps to be taken in solving an issue or handling a task.
You can use instructional writing in product/design specifications, memos, and user manuals.
Transactional
People use this writing type daily when sharing information or seeking a specific response from the recipient.
Transactional writing is used in letters, professional emails, invoices, and direct messages.
Persuasive – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
Professionals use this to get their readers to make a certain decision.
The decision they expect their readers to make could be to demand service or purchase a product.
You can use this writing type in a sales pitch, project proposals, press releases, and advertising.
Most business documents and communications can be classified as one of these business writing types.
Importance of Good Business Writing Skills – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
In business, the main channels of communication are written, verbal, and non-verbal.
They are all essential; however, writing is the most fundamental.
As a business owner, your writing skill is required to help you build your business.
Apart from that, there are other reasons why your writing skill has to be good.
Let’s quickly see those reasons why good business writing skills are required and essential.
It Ensures Effective Business Communication
Communication in business enables a business to connect with its stakeholders and partners.
All your writings have to be created in a comprehensive, informative, and proficient way.
This way, the readers will get your message.
It Helps Foster Business Relationships
As we have already established, writing is one basic mode of communication.
You establish a relationship when you write properly and frequently to your customers, partners, and investors.
Good relationships are essential to business as it boosts the chances of business success.
It Boosts Record-Keeping – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
When information is passed verbally, the possibility that it can be forgotten is very high.
However, when you write information down, it will be preserved for a long time without getting lost.
This is why you can get accurate information about things that happened in the past.
It Builds a Strong Web Presence
The internet has become a very effective marketing tool in recent times.
This has prompted several businesses to build their web presence to draw customers to their business.
One strategic way to achieve this is writing on social media, forum marketing, blogs, and other platforms.
Excellent writing skills can help you achieve this in your business.
Excellent Writing Skills Can Boost Sales
Over the years, many businesses have received huge ROI due to brilliant sales copy, resulting from excellent writing skills.
Therefore, improving your business writing skills in this aspect will ultimately improve your business sales.
Tips for Improving Your Business Writing Skills
Now, we will be looking at some useful tips that will help you develop your business writing skills.
Know Your Primary Purpose
Writing without a definite purpose or the end goal in mind is a recipe for bad writing.
Most times, your main point might be obvious.
Other times you might have to put in more thought.
The first step to writing an articulate message is setting your primary purpose.
It is also a significant factor for having successful communication in your business.
When your primary purpose is clear, you can stay on point and pass your message on to the readers with no issues.
To help you stay on point while writing, summarize your main point in a sentence.
Understand Your Audience
Understanding your readers and their needs is very important.
They determine how you convey your message.
You need to consider their needs and not yours.
Consider how much they know and care about what you are communicating with them.
When you do, they will be able to relate and understand what you are communicating to them effectively.
Keep It Concise and Clear – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
Do not beat around the bush when writing a business document or communication.
When you do this, you confuse your readers.
Let your message be concise and clear.
To ensure this;
Avoid overusing acronyms and technical jargon
While writing, you might feel tempted to use some acronyms and jargon, but you need to avoid it.
Using jargon can work well when conversing with persons in your niche that understand the technical terms.
Hence, be conscious of who you are writing to and use words with clear meaning.
Use short and simple sentences – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
For excellent writing, it is advised that you use short and simple sentences.
Try not to make your writing wordy by using simple sentences.
Watch Your Tone
Your tone is an essential aspect of writing; it conveys your attitude to your readers.
It is how you use certain words in a definite way to convey your message.
Also, it portrays your attitude, emotion, and perspective.
Hence, when writing, you watch your tone because it will affect your readers’ feelings.
You can do this by watching your choice of words; use words that promote amiability between your readers and yourself.
Also, keep your audience in mind to determine the appropriate tone to use.
When speaking to professionals, it would be best to use a professional tone in your writing.
Use Active Voice
It is a refreshing and direct way to write.
Most times, it is considered as the human voice.
This is because it is direct, unlike the passive voice, where the subject receives the action.
When doing business writing, ensure that you make use of the active voice.
Limit the use of passive voice to avoid sound vague and uncertain.
An example of active voice:
She conducted market research.
An example of passive voice:
The market research was conducted by her.
You can see the difference between the active and the passive voice.
The active voice is short and direct.
On the other hand, the passive voice is lengthier and indirect.
Above all, active voice is instrumental in persuasive writing.
Incorporate CTA – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
This is another thing you should do to improve your business writing skills.
CTA-(call to action) is a very useful tool in professional and business writing.
Also, it communicates what you are saying urgently and directly.
CTA, when properly used, is precise and actionable.
Above all, it encourages your reader to take the desired action.
An example of CTA:
Please, review this report.
When incorporating CTA in your writing, do it at the end of your sentence or message.
It will serve as a powerful ending remark.
Streamline Organization and Structure
It can be difficult sometimes to figure out where to start with business documents and communications.
It is even more challenging to have multiple decks and pages of business analysis, research, and innovative ideas.
The best way to go about this is to prioritize; focus on the primary topic or idea.
This will enable you set expectations for your readers and convey your message without delay.
To make your words flow effortlessly into each other, you can include transition words in your paragraphs and sentences.
You can make your words more absorbable by using a top-line method to organize them.
For better organization, break your writing into sections and add subheadings and simple formatting depending on the nature of the topic or business document.
You can also highlight important information for better understanding.
Make your paragraphs short and lengthy documents scannable.
Be Consistent with Your Brand Personality
Several businesses have brand personalities that are incorporated in all their messages.
Learn what your brand personality is and use it in your writing.
This will help you to be consistent.
Finally, if your company has a style guide for creating content, ensure you follow it when writing documents.
Proofread Your Writing – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
You need to conduct final checks on all your business writings before sending them out.
Do not conclude that your writing is perfect without proofreading it.
Even great writers go through this process to avoid mistakes in their work.
To proofread, read it out loud, or have someone do it for you.
Furthermore, while reading, pay attention to the words and edit what needs to be edited.
You can also use an online grammar or spelling checker to spot out common mistakes.
Take Some Simple Online Writing Course
The number of free and paid online writing courses and resources online are too many to count.
This makes it easy for anyone willing to improve to become a great writer.
Hence, take advantage of the internet and search for writing courses and training materials that could help you improve your business writing skills.
Likewise, platforms like Udemy, Hubspot, Skillshare, etc., have free and paid courses that could help you improve your writing skills.
All you need to do is pick one up that seems suitable to you and start learning.
Practice, Practice, and Practice More
There’s always room for improvement, and one way to improve your business writing is by constant practice.
Hence, always practice writing.
Even when you don’t have business writing to do, practice writing important details in your journal.
Overall, the more you practice writing, the better you become at it.
Business Writing 10 C’s – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
This system is created to help writers remember what is essential when writing a business document.
So, to help you remember, you can write or print it out and paste it on your office wall; read it daily.
This way, you will notice that it will become part of you, and when you use them in your writings, there would be a positive difference.
- Firstly, Concise: eliminate stock phrases and redundant words
- Clear: ensure there is no doubt or ambiguity
- Complete: incorporate the where, when, who, why, and how
- Correct: make use of correct grammar, spelling, and information
- Furthermore, Coherence: write out your ideas and thought in a reasonable manner
- Conversational: make it seem like you are talking to your readers in person
- Courteous: use a friendly writing tone and focus on your readers
- Considerate: ensure that your writing is easy to scan and read
- Concrete: do not use vague phrases or words
- Lastly, credibility: check your source and facts
Examples of Business Writing – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
Now that you know the different types of business writing, you know how to improve your business writing skill.
We will share with you some examples of business writing to help you understand better.
Here are five examples of business writing.
Product Content
When you provide your customers with an enjoyable onboard experience, they will believe they have chosen the right company.
Also, it will help your business retain customers and provide lifetime values.
When your product content is filled with spelling and grammar errors, it could chase new customers.
In all, a well-written product content clearly stating how to use a product will attract customers to your business.
Provide straightforward instructions; direct your customers’ steps with your words.
Emails
Several people overlook emails and do not bother proofreading them.
However, you ought to understand that emails are also business writings.
To appear professional, considerate, and competent to your customers/clients or colleagues, you need to see your emails as a business letter.
In your emails, use simple and short sentences when writing your business emails to make them easy to understand.
Also, avoid making spelling and grammar errors.
If you are giving the recipient instructions, ensure that it is very clear.
Press Release – How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
These are newsworthy information or media stories.
The objective of press releases is to have the stories featured in media publications.
When your business has a new service or product, creating press releases is a great way to inform the public.
Hence, your press release has to contain an exciting headline, an opening paragraph with the news summary, and one or two compelling quotes.
Press releases are often written in a compelling and organized manner.
They typically have seven components; they are.
- Heading and subheading summarizing the information
- Location of the news base
- Two or three comprehensive paragraphs
- Description of company
- Bulleted facts
- Information of contact
- Signal to end
Help Center
Help centers help a business keep customers informed about its services and products.
When you have a well-written, accessible help center, it saves your customers time.
Instead of having to email or call you, your customers can get answers within a few clicks.
A good help center uses clear and straightforward writing to guide visitors to get solutions to any problem.
A help center aims to offer excellent guidance to customers in solving their problems.
You achieve this aim by using concise and clear word choices.
Marketing Content
Marketing content is classified under persuasive business writing.
When writing marketing content, you need to be persuasive and create a sense of relevance for your service or product.
The content has to be very clear and appeal to your target audiences’ emotions.
Conclusion on How to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
Your business writing skills go a long way in promoting and growing your business.
Improving your business writing skills takes commitment and willingness.
We hope these tips help.
However, you need to practice and push yourself to do better.
