BUT I COULD WRITE THAT
OF COURSE you could have written that. Everyone in business is expert at stringing words together on screen and paper, or so they think, if only they could find the time. They know they can't design the cover for the company's sales brochure, update the logo, or build a new website. These are mystical, creative vocations best left to experts. But: writing? Anybody can do it ...
Oh yes? Writing is the most underrated of all communications skills and yet it is the most valuable.
Believe it or not, professional writers are trained. In the case of yours truly, an English language aficionado, the preparation was in the hard-knocks arena of Fleet Street and then as a copywriter in exacting advertising agencies. The process in the latter role would be to take a brief, research the subject and its objectives, come up with prospective headlines, narrow them down to one and then write the body copy. The agency demand was for compression, precision, clarity, simplicity, rhythm and appropriate corporate style – grammatically potent, although not necessarily purist.
FAR TOO BUSY
This is starkly different to the word play that emerges from general business. "I'd write it myself, but I'm far too busy" and "Surely we have someone in-house who can write this, instead of paying for it?" are familiar-sounding remarks.
Undoubtedly, business managers spend chunks of their working days assembling words in the form of e-mails, memos and reports. Secretly, they are likely to be proud of their prose and would be starkly horrified at any suggestion that their output might have been written badly. Nonetheless, to the professional eye, it is usually poor in terms of the assemblage of ideas and worse still in clarity of expression.
Facets of writing professionally include being able to absorb and to question a brief; to define the most appropriate interaction strategy; to create the concept; then to execute it in a tone which is compelling, precise, economical and true to the client's corporate culture.
SPEAKING THEIR LANGUAGE
Always, the writer must transpose into the position of his or her readers – to seem to be speaking their language. Effective writing concentrates on those who buy the product or service, not those who make or sell it.
This applies whether the writer is working on a total package or a single item. Most certainly, it is not a task for part-timers, nor for those whose heads are filled with a plethora of other concerns. It is not a job for the great untrained.
You will not get through to an audience that is bored or restless. Corporate communications programmes will never work at full power, nor deliver value for money, unless they are implemented by craftspeople who understand your business objectives and can help achieve them for you through the use of energetic, clear and digestible language.
Profitable publicity depends on more than pretty pictures.
