Small Business Owners- Five Tips on Writing in the 21st Century

Since so many business owners write their own ads, websites and articles, below are five writing tips to get our writing in sync with the 21st Century customer.

Write strong beginnings. Allegedly, you have four seconds to hook a reader. If that's true, the beginning of your copy has to be the strongest. This means the headline. The following two tips may help you craft something that will entice your prospect to buy:

- Appeal to your reader's self interest. This means they will gain an edge, solve a problem or avoid a loss by reading further.

- State a benefit. Be very clear about this. What will the reader gain by reading this piece?

Here is an example: Before you swallow another diet pill, you must read this free report.

This appeals to the reader's self interest (that diet pill may not be good for you) and focuses on an immediate benefit to the reader (a free report).

More material exists on headlines (I even took a class on the subject!), but I think these two are the most relevant.

Be active. With your verbs, I mean. Try and stay away from the state of being verbs is and are as much as possible. You may not realize it, but they can lull the reader to sleep. Less than ten percent passive sentences works best. (Note- This piece has 6% passive sentences)

Informality works. It's a 21st Century trend. Have you noticed it on text messages? Lol (lots of laughs or laugh out loud) thx (thanks) kwl (cool) and G2G (got to go).

For many written pieces it's ok to begin a sentence with and, but or because. It's ok to use contractions. They reduce formality. Actually, the closer you can get to writing as you talk, the better most pieces read.

Writing like this connects you to the reader. And that's what you want.

Sublety and cleverness decreases effectiveness. Many examples of this can be found in advertising. Where you remember the commercial but forget the product being sold.

For example, what if I used copy that began with- Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Not only is it a cliche, but what does it mean to the reader? There may be some kind of link with your product or service but why make the reader think about what that might be? Make an obvious connection between what your reader wants and what you offer.

Being direct works.

Avoid cliches. I'm not just saying this because it's my company name. They're boring. Have you ever heard the saying that everything after eighth grade is a rerun? That's the way I think of cliches. You've read or heard them so much over your lifetime, they begin to wear you out.

I've read copy where almost every line is a cliche. I've seen company slogans that are cliches (Our Secret is Our Service, No Job Too Big or Small).

But to really hear cliche riddled comments, just listen to any football player's interview before a playoff game. That's a cliche clinic right there.

I'll tell you though, cliches are tough to avoid, even when you're conscious of them. They seep in.

In fact, all five of these tips require attention, awareness and work. The results, though, can increase your revenue, your customer base and improve your company image. That's worth deleting a few cliches, don't you think?

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