Six Types of Business Writing and When You Would Need Them….

Author: Bizwriter

May 3

Business writing may be defined as writing that a business uses to communicate its offerings to another entity, be that entity a person or another business.  The latter is commonly abbreviated as “B2B” communications (business to business).  Unlike a research paper you would write for school, business writing’s ultimate objective is to increase sales and profits of a business.  Therefore, business writing style tends to be very different from academic writing.

 

Here are some of the most frequently requested types of business writing:

 

  1. Press release – also known as a media release also known as a news release also known as a web release.  These are all basically the same, with their objective to immediately relate newsworthy information to your public(s).
  2. Web site copy/brochure – I’ve grouped these two together as they are similar in the goal of trying to garner consumer interest and to get potential customers to contact you.
  3. Ebooks/reports – these are a relatively new marketing tool.  They can either be offered free or for a fee.  Ebooks can be a great as they have an unlimited “shelf life” and, like a brochure, may be passed along to other potential customers.
  4. White papers – white papers are simply reports that a company produces to extensively explain the benefits of their product or service.  In the past, these were mostly associated with technical companies, but are more frequently being used in other industries as a marketing strategy.
  5. SEO Articles – used as “article marketing”.  With article marketing, you submit articles related to your business to an online directory. You include a link to your company’s web page within the biographical section of the article.  Article marketing is not really new.  It’s been around for years in the form of those free magazines, such as the ones you pick up in your doctor’s office, which tend to be high on advertising, low in content.
  6. Technical documentation – also known as technical writing.  Technical writing my include anything from high-level software documentation, to describing how to use a new washing machine.  Technical writing may be found in a lot more places than one realizes.
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BtoBonline.com Marketing Survey Results Emphasize Need for Quality Writing

Author: Bizwriter

Mar 17

According to a recent btobonline.com survey of marketers, the top marketing trends for b2b marketing for 2011 are (summarized):

1. Budgets shifting to more online – more than 78% of respondents said they plan to increase online marketing budgets.

2. Changing nature of b2b communications, with the internet being central to businesses marketing platform – the internet allows marketers to leave “digital footprints” across the web from such sites as facebook, twitter and linkedin.

3. More emotional/personal b2b communications – b2b communications are more likely to touch on emotions and be less “business-like.”

4. More data gathering and mining – using different data gathering methods to measure customer likes/dislikes.

5. New customer intelligence metrics – measuring customer likes/dislikes in different ways.

6. Optimizing social media – using sites such as facebook, twitter.

7. Feeding the content machine – using company websites and blogs to promote business.

8. Expanded partnerships with media – working with magazines and other media to gather info, publish content.

9. Growth of mobile apps – more apps being developed for Smartphones and Thinkpads.

10. Immediacy in search engine results – frequently updating website content to ensure top placement in search engine results pages (SERPs).

What is noteworthy about the above survey results is the need for quality writing in seven out of ten of the trends listed.  My hope as a writer is that businesses will realize that quality of the writing is vital to businesses in this internet age.  Time and time again, I hear stories of companies that hire someone via bidding sites such as elance.com or guru.com and get shoddy writing in exchange for lower rates.  As with anything else – you get what you pay for.  If you pay cut-rate wages to a non-native English speaking writer, you’ll probably get cut-rate writing.

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How to “SEO” Your Business Web Site

Author: Bizwriter

Jan 31

Making your web site search engine optimized is not difficult.  Most of the steps below may be completed by your copy writer or web master.  These are just a few tactics out of many.

Use Keywords and Phrases

Make sure your keyword or keyword phrase figures prominently in your website copy and headers.  Think about what search terms a potential customer may type to find your web site.  For example, if you run a chocolate shop, your keywords would be “chocolates,”  “gift ideas” “valentines day” “gourmet chocolate” etc.  Search engines would be looking for such keywords and related keywords within your web site.  A word of caution:  as search engine crawlers become “smarter” they are better able to recognize “keyword stuffing” on web sites.  It is best to write naturally and keep the tone of your writing “human.”

Write a Blog

Search engines, like Google, love active web sites.  The more updated, the higher your site will rank in the search engine result pages (SERPs).  Blogs are a great way to continually update your web site as well as get new product or service information out to your customers.  They have the added benefit of building trust and goodwill for your business.

Mind Your File Names

The labels you place on files you have uploaded on your web site such photos, clipart or charts are often a missed SEO opportunity.  Name these files with words that relate to your keywords because search engines read these words as part of the copy, so why not take advantage of it? Using our previous example of a chocolatier business, you wouldn’t just name a picture of a box of chocolates, “picture 1,” call it “box_of_chocolates” which will help up your keyword density.

These are just a few techniques to optimize your web site.  A quick search of the web will give you many more.

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