Business Writing: Defining the Term
Business writing allows you to sell a business idea, improve communication with colleagues, and promote your products. It should have a clear message and target a professional audience. Every idea for a business you want to sell needs to be written concisely, with maximum facts and minimum unnecessary information. This will help your employers, customers, and colleagues understand they are dealing with someone trustworthy.
You can come across business writing in various formats. Some of the examples of business writing include:
- Emails
- Reports
- Business Proposals
- Business Letters
- Business Reviews
- Memos
- Company Handbooks
- Product Pages
- Press Releases
- Articles
If your business writing is efficient, it can accomplish two objectives at once:
- Engage the Audience: By targeting a particular group of people with the correct language, format, tone, and title, you promise to fulfill their needs and expectations.
Example: You need to write a promotional page for a new music platform with a target audience of young adults 18-23. Use a friendly tone, avoid long paragraphs, and sprinkle your writing with teenage slang to appear more relatable.
- Explain Your Purpose: Business writing performs several functions: it informs, explains, persuades, directs, and provides a call to action. Your message should be clear and easy to understand.
Example: You need to craft a promotion review of the service Writepaperfor.me. Your purpose is to inform the audience about the quality of the product. You should place your call to action at the end of the review to encourage your target audience (students) to use the service.
Good business writing will help you ensure the client’s trust, articulate your ideas, increase sales, and improve your reputation among colleagues and senior executives. If it is a promotional page for a specific business, you can add pictures and infographics to engage the audience. If you are advertising a product through a business review, as we can see in the Writepaperforme review, make sure it motivates the readers and includes a call to action.
Ways to Make Your Business Writing Better
Stay Impartial
Being impartial in business writing means that your opinions and statements are led by reason and not pure emotion. Provide a reasonable argument in favor of your business proposal. This will have more effect on your target audience than simply saying that you are passionate about the subject. This is because expressions like “I strongly believe” or “I’m confident about” can be hard to interpret, while facts and figures are understood easily.
Keep It Brief
The first thing to know about business writing is to put your main point in the first paragraph. Your readers will lose interest if your opener does not catch the eye. Instead of starting vaguely and presenting your main idea in the middle of the text, state your purpose at the beginning.
Example: If you need to meet a client on Monday, start an email with “I would like to arrange a meeting on Monday morning.” Use the rest of the text to add context to your request, indicating the time and place. Your recipient’s inbox is probably flooded with emails, so you should show you value their time.
Avoid Jargon
It is hard to imagine a business report or an email without a few buzzwords specific to the industry. However, adjectives like “impactful” and “actionable” can confuse the readers and clutter your text. Opt for clarity and conciseness, as they never go out of style. You are trying to sell your idea or propose a solution, and your audience needs to know what you expect them to do.
Incorrect: We consider this a value-add proposition that will allow us to initiate fruitful collaboration.
Correct: This is a great idea that will help us find practical solutions for our shared project.
Incorrect: The task at hand is highly resource-intensive and can potentially impact our business.
Correct: The current task requires a lot of money and resources and can affect our business.
Include a Call to Action
All types of business writing need to have a purpose. In most cases, this purpose is to motivate the readers to do a specific action based on your message (buy, contact, download, try, reply, subscribe).
- If it is a sales piece, it needs a call to action that will encourage readers to buy your product and use your services. “Download Now” or “Buy Now” are the most common examples of a call to action in a sales pitch.
- If it is a business article that promotes your blog, your call to action can be a link to your blog content. If you have a blog for students, your link might look like this: https://www.arcyart.com/blog/2023/07/19/5-incredible-places-for-college-students-to-travel/.
- If it is an email, your call to action is asking your recipient to agree to your proposal or provide a detailed reply.
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