Effective business writing skills can help you win that million dollar contract, earn a promotion, resolve a dispute, or generate a significant increase in new business leads. Poor business writing, on the other hand, can never be undone; it can cause you to lose business to your competition and even cost you your job. Here are 11 easy ways you can improve your business writing skills:
1. Before you write a word of copy, make sure you know who your target audience is and what specific result youd like to achieve. If its an important business communication, take five minutes to visualize yourself in the shoes of the recipient and imagine what this persons world is like.
What does their typical day look like? What are their unique needs, goals, and challenges? What problem is keeping them up at night? The more thought and research you invest in understanding your target audience and how you can help them, the more powerful and effective your business writing communications will become.
2. Avoid using your company acronyms and buzzwords. While they might seem cute and clever to you, its very annoying to a busy executive who has a pile of documents and...