Guest author Dan L. Hays gives us some great tips on how to write good business copy. Be sure to read Dan’s bio which follows this article.
When you read a great book – from the very first page, you want to find something that compels you to keep reading. Do the words pop, pull you in and keep you wanting more? Whether you are trying to develop wording to enhance your business presence, or craft content for your website, it needs to pass that same test. Do you engage the reader? Online readers typically begin by skimming content, so you have a very short amount of time to capture their attention.
It Begins With A Hook
What makes your company distinct from others? That’s what you want to try to discern, and represent in your opening statement. You want to tell the reader something very important, that will keep them reading.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – A Tale of Two Cities.
Don’t you want to see where that statement will lead? Find a similar hook for business.
But there’s a catch – how do you grab the reader without sounding like a cheesy TV commercial generated by a local car dealership. You’ve seen them, the ones where the owner wrote his own copy and feels compelled to share his genius with the viewers.
“Come on down to Car World, and we’ll treat you better than anybody.”
What’s Really Important?
That’s why it helps to have an outsider take a look at what your business represents. The owner sees their company too intimately and might not see key elements that will make his business content or website stand out.
One firm provided a study help service for high school and college students. On the surface, it looked very similar to other services being offered. In talking to the owner, I found out that the other companies just provided a landing space for people with the right qualifications to post an entry about themselves. There was little screening done for those entries.
What distinguished this owner’s service was the rigorous testing and approval process their help staff had to go through. There were background checks, verification of grades, and testing in the disciplines they were going to monitor. Many people did not qualify, assuring that only the best resources were used to help the students. This was a demanding and thorough approval process – and that was the key concept for his business.
Know Your Audience
Who will be reading your company site? In this case, would it be the student? No, because the help service came with a price, and who would authorize that cost? The parents would. They were the decision makers about using this service. Instead of writing content that might appeal to the student, the text needed to be crafted and directed at the parents. The commitment to the quality of the help resources was made to the parents, not the student.
The Hook
“We have rigorous qualifications. Only one in ten people we interview are hired by our service.”
Strong words – but true – so why not put the distinction up front?
The Content Distinguishing The Service
The company web content next stated that some people with perfect test scores were turned down by the company, because they couldn’t communicate concepts in a manner easy to understand for the students they were helping. This strong and bold statement came right from the mouth of the owner. It clearly stated a strength of the company, making another solid distinction between this and other companies offering similar services.
The specific qualifications were then clearly presented, and thoroughly elaborated, so that parents could see why their children would get the best level of help available. Other advantages were described as well – for instance, by relying on that rigorous qualification process, the parent didn’t have to spend countless hours trying to find and pre-qualify effective resources for their child. Each reason that distinguished this service and made it superior was described in clear, concise content.
The Close – A Call To Action
If you want a reader to do something – engage your services, use your company resources, make a purchase – there always needs to be a close in the content.
“Give us a call today, and let us get your student started with the help resource that will serve them best.”
That’s how you craft good copy.
Photo Credits
Image from the Microsoft Clip Art Collection
About Dan L. Hays
Dan L. Hays is the Director Of Public Relations at Life As A Human. He has a marketing degree, an MBA, and 30 years experience in the business world in the oil and gas and real estate title insurance industries. He has reviewed and edited numerous documents defining projects, proposals requesting work bids and documents establishing legal agreements. He has generated extensive business correspondence, from letters to emails to project update reports. He has prepared memoranda of title to clarify legal ownership of mineral interests, and drafted curative documents to resolve title issues.
Dan has published a book which received a positive review by the New York Journal of Books. He is a regular author at Life As A Human where he has published over 140 articles. Dan has also written a series of 10 informational posts for a writer help site. He regularly writes for his own blog and frequently writes guest posts for other sites.
If you need help writing content to properly represent your business, or have written a business proposal or correspondence and need a “second set of eyes” to review your writing, Dan can help and he offers SYNAPTIC I members a 25% discount on his services.
Learn more here: Dan L. Hays Writing And Editorial Services
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