Your written communications skills are critical to the success of your business. An important medium in which to develop them is your Emails. You can then take those writing skills and apply them to your marketing materials effectively.

All businesses require excellent writing skills and as a business owner, you will have many, many occasions in which your writing skills will make a world of difference in how effective your communications are and in how your messages are received and processed by others. It is essential that you understand your audience as well as you can. You are potentially targeting your written communications to more than one type of audience and whomever those people are and no matter what they do and where their interests lie, they will all react the same to your writing. If your written communications are effective and on the mark, they will have succeeded at touching your audience emotionally on some level as well as making your readers understand that you are there to solve their problems. There are several possible approaches to effective written communications.

• The simpler the better: Your readers will definitely appreciate your simplistic, clear and concise approach when it comes to communicating with them. This is particularly effective when it comes to Email communications. Using numbered lists of items is an excellent idea. Your readers will definitely appreciate it and they will retain the information easily. The reason that numbered lists work so well is that it keeps things extremely organized in the minds of your readers. It also makes it easy for the readers to refer to numbers in their Email response to you, if they wish to respond. The simple approach is also very effective when it comes to writing blog articles. People love to read lists for the same reason as was stated above. It keeps things organized in their minds. Your writing approach should always be whichever one is easiest for your audience and whichever one holds the interest and attention of your readers.
   
• Always give them a call-to-action: If you don’t give your readers a way to contact you after they have finished reading whatever you are sharing with them, the relationship will be over before it begins. If you give your readers something specific to do (in the form of some action), the chances are that they will do it willingly. It is a lot easier to gather valuable information from your readers by giving them a call-to-action than if you give them an open-ended question. That sort of question generally leaves too much to chance. Of course,  you need to decide beforehand exactly what you want your readers to do (connect with you on a specific social media channel, sign up for your newsletter, take you up on your offer for a free white paper, etc). When you make the request of them, make sure that you are clear in what you want and always use concise, easy-to-understand language.
   
• Always make sure that the content is appropriate: It is very important that your content touches your readers in enough of a way that they want more and that they get something positive from it. After all, you are not sharing your content for your benefit. You are sharing it for their benefit so that they learn something valuable and are enticed by what you are sharing. You should never intentionally “tease” your readers. The only time that this is really appropriate and effective is at the beginning of your blog article. The teaser paragraph in that situation serves a very distinct purpose. You need to make sure that you have a logical transition (or segue) from one paragraph to the next and your concepts within the writing should parallel the paragraphs in a specific order. It is very important that what you are trying to say is not only clear to you but to your readers as well. That is a very important part of effective writing.
   
• Always demonstrate professionalism: The quality of your writing should always demonstrate professionalism. You should always write in full sentences and read what you have written before you actually send it anywhere. It is very important that you think about what you want to write before you actually write it. Your readers will definitely appreciate it and it is critical to the success of your business. Writing in a professional manner doesn’t mean that you are not allowed to put your personality into it. In fact, giving it some “flavor” is highly recommended. Nobody wants to read boring content that has no personality. You can inject some humor as well as other attention-grabbing techniques into your writing. Your readers will be intrigued and they will want to read more and more of what you are writing.
   
• Always use the best medium possible: It is extremely important to know your audience and to really identify which means of communication works most effectively for them. The bottom line is that you want to communicate with them in the way that gets you the most effective response the most quickly. You should make sure to be open-minded enough to consider all sorts of communication media. It is up to you to choose the best one in every situation. Another positive effect that it will have if you customize your communications is that people will feel that they count in your eyes because you have made the effort to communicate with them in a special manner.

Conclusion

Your writing skills are critical to the success of your business. Email writing is very important as are the other types of online content that you share with your audience(s). You should never make the mistake of thinking that one is better (or more effective) than they other. Remember that your content marketing must be relevant and extremely valuable so that it engaging your readers and compels them to keep reading and interacting with you. The different types of content are both important in their own way and should be used at the right time and in the right place.

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The power of the written word is the first (and one of the most important) bridges between you and your  readers. Your content must not only be well written but must also entice the reader and compel them to continue.

You have heard the term “Content Is King” on many different occasions and in many different contexts. You can do so much with words in a positive direction or a negative direction. It all depends on how you spin it. Before you take any action whatsoever to reach out to your readers, you need to make sure that your content will touch them and that they will want to establish a connection with you and will want to continue to interact. You may have the most brilliant ideas of all time but if  you are not able to express them in a way that is extraordinary, they won’t do you much good. The connection must be an emotional one. The emotions will drive your readers to ultimately make decisions about buying what you are selling at some point in the future. There are some critical steps that you need to follow in order to entice your readers through your incredible storytelling.

• Use authentic, sincere, informal language: If you have any hope of reaching your readers through your content, you must always maintain authenticity and sincerity. Your readers will always be able to tell if you are being insincere and they will act accordingly. Part of that authenticity means that you have a deep understanding of your readers as people and focus your content on their wants and needs. You need to make your readers understand that you have the full intention of solving their problems or at least making them feel good by reading what you are sharing with them. You should try not to inject too much technical, dry information into your content. It should be a pleasure for them to read.
   
• Use language that allows your readers to visualize: It is important for you to remember that you have 3 seconds in which to capture your reader’s attention. If you are not able to do it in that amount of time, you will lose them. Not only do you need to capture their attention but you also need to entice them to continue reading until the end. You should make your content as visual as you possibly can so that your story is one that they not only read but one that they can see with their mind’s eye as well.
   
• Always write in the active voice: Writing in the active voice strengthens the power of your words. When the verbs that you use are active and strong, it has a much greater impact on the reader. Active language leaves no possibility of ambiguity. The meaning of what you are writing will be crystal clear. Active language is also easier to read and is more engaging for your readers. It is important to remember that when most people read, they are not reading every word. They are skimming the content to see if there is something that grabs their interest. People don’t have a lot of time in their busy lives and the more compelling your content is, the better your chances will be of enticing them to read on.
   
• Give them a call-to-action: With each and every word that you write, you must give your readers a way to get in touch with you. The way to do that is through a call-to-action. You can give them an Email address or phone number with which to contact you. Also, it is important as part of the call-to-action that you ask them to do something, such as signing up for your business newsletter, asking for  your free white paper, etc. You will be establishing your relationship with them and you will be building it from there.

Conclusion

The way that you seduce your readers is through your content. Everything that happens after that is a result of what you offer them and how you influence them. Your storytelling must be exceptional. Good storytelling will go a very long way. Your content will unite your audience through common interests. If you content is incredibly well written and tells a compelling story, your readers will keep reading your content, will return to you over and over again, and will eventually turn into loyal customers.

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Many people are confused about the notion of what it means to blog versus what it means to create content. Think about the two as different sizes of plastic containers. Blogging fits neatly in the smaller container.

Content creation covers a much broader range of writing than blogging does. Blog writing (as the name states) is a specific type of writing. Blog articles are generally short articles (between 500 and 1,000 words each) on any topic that you can think of. Blog articles can be on business topics or they can be on more informal, more personal topics. The language in business blogs tends to be more formal and more grammatically perfect. Actually, no matter what sort of blog writing (or any writing at all) you post, the content should always be well written and error free. Having mistakes (grammatical, punctuation, spelling, etc) is very distracting to your readers. If they are distracted by errors in your writing, they will think that you don’t have enough pride in what you are sharing and won’t bother to read subsequent content that you post.

Don’t pigeon hole yourself

If you are a writer who writes different types of content, it is smarter not to label yourself as a blog writer. Blog writing is just one of the many types of writing that you are capable of producing. You write content. Your content will carry you very far if it is well written, insightful, interesting and compelling. As a content writer, the goal of your writing is to engage your target audience, position yourself as a subject matter expert (SME), and figure out how to give your readers what they need so that their problems will be solved (WIIFM, What’s In It For Me?). WIIFM is a marketing concept that should constantly be at the forefront of your mind. It must never be about how great you and your business are. It must always be about how you are able to help the other person. If you always keep that in mind, you will never run out of fresh ideas for your content.

Fierce competition

Another good reason not to limit yourself when it comes to online writing is that you will have an easier time finding your hook, which will allow you to stand out and beat the pants off of your competitors. There are a huge number of bloggers on the Internet and you can’t be “just another blogger.” You need to have some unique quality, which will make people pay attention to you and which will make them choose to read your content more readily than someone else’s content. Never allow yourself to be placed in a box. Your ideas need to be truly compelling to other people.

You have the power

As a content writer, you have a tremendous potential to influence other people. The more valuable information you share with other people on products, services, brands, businesses, etc, the more they will be inclined to take your words seriously. The reason for this is that you have proven your trustworthiness and credibility and other people know that they can count on you to be honest and to always steer them in the right direction. Your readers will come to respect you and will become loyal to you before you know it.

Conclusion

Content creation is so much more than blogging. While blogging is extremely important and is a very effective online tool in your armamentarium, it is not the only important and effective way that you can express yourself. There are many different approaches to expressing opinions that are interesting to other people and the information that  you share is valuable and educational. As a business owner, you have information that will benefit other people and that is exactly why you should be sharing your content. The analogy for blog writing versus content writing would be website versus web presence. They are both extremely important; however, the website fits into a box that fits into the web presence box just as the blogging box fits inside of the content creation box.

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Now that you are writing content and posting it on your chosen social media channels, your writing skills are bound to be improving. Even if you were a great writer before, social media can help you become even better.

When you write content for business, your approach to the language should be totally different than it is if you are posting content for personal use. The language that you use for business is much more formal than when you are sharing it with friends and family. The chances are great that the quality of your writing is a lot better now than when you first started writing and posting your content. The approach that you now take is much less selfish and focuses much more on other people. It is geared to reaching out to them and addressing their needs and wants. The following points may illustrate the differences that you see from your original writing to your writing style now:

• More “them” and less “you”: You now write a lot less about what you need and want and how wonderful you are. Instead, you gear your writing toward how you can help other people to solve their problems. In other words, you practice the marketing principle of “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me).
   
• Clear and concise: Your writing used to be verbose and unending. Now, you write clearly and concisely. You choose your words very carefully, knowing that your readers don’t have the time or the patience to read encyclopedias. At the same time, you want to give them something of value that they can benefit from.
   
• No editing required: You no longer see the value in big words that are only used for the sake of appearing impressive. They serve no purpose for your readers (or, in turn, for you). Knowing (or hoping) that your content will be shared by others, the last thing that you want is for someone else to have to edit what you post in order to make it suitable to share with other people. If your content needs to be edited, people will not make the effort as frequently to share it as they would if all they had to do was push to button to send it to other people.
   
• Social media appropriateness: Writing content for social media is very different than writing content for any other medium. You are now able to effectively communicate your ideas in short and compelling ways. If you have a lot more that you feel you want to write on any given subject, you use a different forum (such as a blog or Ebook) to do so.
   
• No more writer’s block: You used to experience writer’s block quite frequently. Now that you have been writing for a while, your creative juices are flowing more easily than ever before. One of your biggest sources of inspiration can be what other people are writing. Ideas for your content can come from many different sources.
   
• Interactive discussions: You are involved with a lot of interactive discussions based on the content that you are posting and sharing. Those discussions (on many occasions) result in ideas for more content. People love to know that their needs are being met and that their interests are being satisfied. If you write on topics that other people tell you they would like to read about, you will be building strong relationships and they will eventually become loyal customers of yours.
   
• Write everyday: The more you write, the better your writing skills will be. If you make it a point of writing something every single day, you will find that the effort will pay off for you. By writing everyday, you are forcing yourself to evaluate your work carefully and really hone your skills, including identifying both your strong and weak points.

Conclusion

As important as it is to be persistent and consistent when it comes to your writing online, it is also important to make sure that you manage your time effectively when it comes to your involvement in social media. You should make a commitment for a certain, finite amount of time and stick as closely to that as you possibly can. When you are not interacting (or doing other important, work-related, necessary things), you should continue to hone your writing skills. The more you write, the better a writer you will become. Other people are bound to appreciate the quality of your writing and you will be tremendously proud of what you have accomplished.

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The content that you share online is informative, educational, and valuable. However, it can also come from a marketing angle. Although your interactions with other people through social media are all about building relationships, ultimately, people will buy from you.

Nowadays, there are several different ways in which you can reach other people. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are three of the most popular social media channels. On Facebook, you can write as much as you like, although other people would probably prefer shorter (rather than longer) messages. LinkedIn has a lot of possibilities when it comes to sharing content as well. In this case, the relationships that are shared are business oriented. With Twitter, the messages must be short (140-character maximum). However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t have a subtle promotional spin to them. There are several effective approaches that you can take in order to write effective marketing content and tweets. Your success depends on not only using Twitter but also writing well. The quality and the precision of the writing should be quite specific.

• The system that you use for this particular type of communication is social networking and shared messaging
• Communication is your medium
• The  form of language is language itself
• Your content should speak about branding and marketing
• Your interaction is the call-to-action that you choose to give to the person with whom you are interacting

Promotional copy

Promotional copy is very different than it is when it is in print. The way to make promotional copy successful through social media is by sharing a great deal of it and sharing it very often. By doing that, you are doing several things at the same time. You are increasing your reputation. You are building your credibility. You are positioning yourself as a subject-matter expert (SME). And you are building your credibility and trustworthiness. These are all ingredients without which you have no chance at success. There is a viral element that comes with all of this. The more your word is spread by others, the more popular your ideas will be and the more people will pay attention to you. They will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, etc. The success of your business is very dependent on word of mouth. In that way, it differs greatly from other forms of promotion. With social media, you rely on other people’s willingness to engage with each other and their willingness to share your information with others.

Promotional copy and social media

Your content and tweets must reflect the way that people communicate and interact through social media. In this case, the relationship that you are trying to promote is between prospective clients and your brand. If you succeed at having people form those relationships, you will succeed at getting those people to buy what you are selling. Of course, social media is an extremely personal medium and the messages that you are giving to others uses the various social media channels as their vehicle. The delivery of the communication is direct and instantaneous. The way that you make your offerings appealing to other people is through words. You create images and ideas through your words.

Conclusion

Writing content and tweets that market your offerings will give you a great deal of mileage. You should think about it as an extended form of speech. The success of your content depends totally on how creative and how vivid you are able to make your ideas. You can design your content in whichever way you feel works as long as your promotion is subtle and in good taste. Just remember that above all, it needs to be informative, valuable, and educational. Most importantly, it needs to solve the problems of the people with whom you are interacting.

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You have established yourself as a subject matter expert in your niche. People continue to read your content because it offers answers to their problems. What they don’t want from you is to do a hard sell on them.

If you try to overtly sell anything to anyone, you will most likely not succeed and in the process, you may lose some very valuable business relationships. In fact, if your writing is about selling, they won’t bother to read your content at all. They will read other people’s content and become loyal to them instead of to you.

When it comes to your promoting your business, there is definitely an appropriate place and time to communicate about what you offer. In fact, it is appropriate to put your call-to-action in a resource box at the bottom of a blog article that you have posted and syndicated as well as putting some type of promotional content on your website’s landing page. Of course, it is not advisable for you to do this before you have established a relationship with your online connections that is solid and one in which those people find you credible and trustworthy. It is extremely important that your content is informational and educational and doesn’t in any way read like an infomercial.

Another good reason to steer clear of self-promotion in your content is that you will have a more difficult time getting it published, especially if you submit your articles to business directories. The reputable business directories have strict guidelines when it comes to what they will accept and what they will not accept. There are many ways in which content can come across as being self-promotional, which should be avoided whenever possible. The following are types of content that you would be better off avoiding:

• Mentioning money: Mentioning any money amount in your articles does not offer any real value to your readers. It doesn’t give them anything that they can walk away with. It is no different than the content that you would find in an advertisement. On the other hand, if you give people information that they want and need, they will keep coming back to you for more and more information.
   
• Dropping names: The only appropriate place to put your call-to-action in your article is in the resource box at the bottom of the page. The article body should be used for tips, hints, tricks, and other substantive copy. The concept is that you entice them with valuable information and once they have become interested in what you have to say, you provide them with a way to continue the relationship with you by giving them your contact information.
   
• Reviews of other products: It is perfectly acceptable for you to post unbiased reviews of other people’s products and services as long as you have no connection to them. Remember, of course, that it is important that you don’t provide a direct link to the owner of the products and services because that would be promotional on their behalf.
   
• No outline: Writing from an outline is a great tool. Once you have finished writing an outline that you feel you can depend on, you should stick to it as religiously as possible. The outline will keep you focused and on track in your mission to stay away from any sort of promotional content.
   
• Wishy-washy messages in your title: It is very important to have a strong article title (always) and to also make sure that your title ties in closely with the rest of the article. Your message should be clear and focused. Your goal is to get your readers to stick with you and read the entire article and then want to read more and more of what you are writing.

The heart of the problem with content that is self-promotional

The problem with content that is self-promotional is that its goal is to convert readers into customers right away. It is not a healthy relationship if your readers become clients before you have had a chance to develop a relationship with them in which they have come to trust you and consider you an expert in your niche or industry. Building credibility is critical to the success of your business. If you don’t have credibility, you won’t have customers. You need to make sure that if you go anywhere near promotional ideas in your content, you are subtle and you don’t make it all about selling. It is always important to make the other person feel that they are in control of making their own decisions and if you build a solid relationship with him or her and they eventually want to buy from you, they will do so wholeheartedly.

Conclusion

The interactions that you have online for your business are key to your success. The relationships that you share with others must be cultivated, nurtured, coddled, and maintained on a regular and consistent basis. At the heart of those relationships is human emotions. The hard sell has no place in that phase of the relationship. The reason that people will eventually want to buy from you is that they trust you and believe that you will give them the best products and services for them based on your deep understanding of what they need and want.

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As  you get more and more immersed in writing and publishing content for business, you need to take your target audience into consideration is a big way. It isn’t enough to just write. You need to target your audience.

Your marketing plan

When you write your marketing plan at the very beginning of your social media marketing strategy implementation, your target audience will probably be mentioned. However, when you are working with social media, your target audience is not always a static entity. In other words, you may have identified a target audience initially but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will end up targeting the same audience over time. So, how do you identify the appropriate target audience for your business and how do you customize your content for those audiences?

• For your niche: One of the main focuses of your content is to gear it to your niche or industry. You can no longer rely on print media to share valuable and informative information in the broad and comprehensive way that it was once communicated but this has opened the door to a tremendous opportunity online. You can now position yourself online as a subject matter expert (SME) so that you can build credibility and the relationships that you form will prove to be valuable over time.
   
• For your clients and prospects: As is always the case, when you provide content for your customers and prospective customers to read, your content is offering them a solution to their problems and it is answering their questions easily and in a precise manner. That content is generally in the form of a blog post, which has effective and appropriate keywords and key phrases, can be found easily by your audience and is intuitive when it comes to giving them what they need and want.
   
• For your clients to make use of: Another excellent approach when it comes to your content is to offer content that is easy for your clients to use. You should think about the content as a type of sales tool. Your ultimate goal is to sell your products and/or services and in this case, you are not selling directly. Instead, you are getting your clients to sell for you. If your clients are loyal to you and your business, they won’t have any problem telling other people about your offerings. You will never run the risk that your clients are not being genuine when they speak about your offerings because they truly believe in what you are selling. Sincerity is an extremely powerful magnet when it comes to buying.
   
• For your consumers: As one business to another, you can gear your content to your consumers. Sharing content is an excellent way to reach them like you have never been able to reach them before. The messages in your content need to be very precise and it is of vital importance that you as the business owner build a strong relationship with them directly. No middle people are required. Even if your consumers are already loyal to your brand, you should make the effort to take the deeper dive into having a human relationship with them. It will enhance the entire business experience.

Conclusion

There are many different ways to target your content to your target audience. As is and will always be the case, you main objective is to fulfill the needs of others. It is of little importance how wonderful you and your offerings are if you are not able to solve the problems of your clients and prospects. Always remember to keep WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) at the forefront of your mind. If you do that, they will want to be involved with you and your business and they will eventually buy what you are selling. If, on the other hand, you let the needs of your clients and prospects go by the wayside, you will be holding yourself and your business back tremendously. If, on the other hand, you provide the right audience with the right content, they will want to continue to interact with you and will gladly accept what you are offering.

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The content that you write and share with others is critical to the success of your business. Does your content truly tell a story and is it persuasive? If done effectively, it will go a very long way.

The social media world and how it relates to business is entirely different than any other world. As a business owner, the most effective way to boost your reputation and exposure online is to share as much high-quality, informative, educational and exciting content as you possibly can. With that in mind, you need to ask yourself if your content is exciting enough to your readers and if it really tells your story.

It is well known that the success of your business using social media is based on the relationships that you develop and maintain. The next step after establishing a relationship is to get the other person interested in what you are offering. There are some key questions that you will want to ask in your effort of convincing others to be a part of what you are doing. Some of the answers that you will need in order to proceed are:

• What are the current opinions and beliefs of the members of your target audience?
   
• What reservations do they have before deciding to do what you are suggesting?
   
• Which factors influence them the most?
   
• Which factors motivate them to behave the way that they do?
   
• Which outcomes are they looking for?
   
• What might stand in the way of their deciding to do what you are suggesting?

Once you have been able to secure answers to those questions, you can use the information as part of your social media marketing campaign. You can craft the information into a story that is complete and effective. Effective and compelling content is very powerful. It can take a nonbeliever and turn him or her into someone who is in full support of what you are doing and what you are offering. The entire decision is based on the effect that the content has on them. A wonderful way to reach your target audience and to turn around their thinking is by writing content that touches your audience members in a way that makes them believe that you will be solving their problems. By the way, you don’t have to confine your content to words only. You can also share video content, graphic images, events, etc.

There are several approaches that you can use when trying to touch your audience.

• Enhancing content: You take the original content, which contains your business proposal and customization, and you make it better and mix it up a bit.
   
• Content sharing: This is content that you promote by word of mouth, republishing, referrals, and sharing socially.
   
• Internalizing content: This is the persuasion of the change in the behaviors of your target audience to get them to come around to your way of thinking.
   
• Understanding the content: This is a deep understanding on the part of your audience members. It is a grasp of the big picture on their part.
   
• Engaging content: This is when your audience wants to get more involved with you and your business than merely reading your content. They interact with you by posting questions and comments on what you have shared with them.

Your storytelling content should include success stories that demonstrate the point(s) that you are trying to make. Additionally, as part of your social media marketing campaign, you should have a process in place from the beginning that engages prospective clients, converts them at the appropriate time, implements the work that you will be doing with them and promotes success. The stories of success can be a variety of different types, as long as they all express the same message. Once you have developed a relationship with your audience to such an extent, you should look upon them as people who can be strong advocates for you and your business in the future.

Conclusion

You have heard the expression “Content is king” thousands of times. It certainly is true. Your content must be compelling, creative, exciting and extremely helpful to others. It must make sense on a persona level to your audience. Your content needs to tell a story—the whole story.

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When visitors go to your website and/or social media profiles, the first place they go is your landing page. If they have an interest past your landing page, they will probably go to your “About Us” page to learn more.

There are numerous websites with all kinds of information and all kinds of looks and feels. When a website visitor decides to go to the “About Us” page, he or she is on a fact-finding mission, as well as looking for the “story” of your business. If your website merely speaks about your products and/or services, you are selling it short. People are interested in learning a great deal more than just that about you and your business.

Of course, different visitors are interested in different types of information. One of the first and most elementary pieces of information that your visitors are looking for is who you are and how you came to be where you are at this point. Your “About Us” page is an excellent way to communicate to your visitors who you are and to give them the confidence to understand that you and your business possess the skills and experience that they need to be able to solve their particular problems. Your “About Us” page should answer the following questions:

• Who are we?
• Why should you choose us over someone else (WIIFM – What's In It For Me)?
• What do we do?
• When did we start?
• How do we do it?

When you are speaking about who you are, it is a good idea to include photos of you and your key staff members as well as biographical sketches for each of you. The sketches should highlight educational background and work experience. That information is of great comfort to someone who might be on the fence regarding whether to buy your products and/or services.

When faced with the concept of why someone should choose to work with you instead of choosing someone else, you need to state a flawless case of what’s in it for them. How wonderful your products and services are and how nice everything that you offer looks is of little importance. All your readers are concerned about is what they will get out of a business relationship with you. They need to understand what you can do to help them solve their problems.

The page should have a description of your business, which answers the “What do we do?” question. It should also have a mission statement, which will explain they you do what you do. Of equal importance is to explain your business team, so that people can relate to you and your staff on a humanistic level.

If they see that you have serious training and work experience in the area about which they are interested, they will feel comfortable. Another good thing to communicate is how you came to where you are now, particularly if you have a unique and compelling story to tell.

The content on your “About Us” page must address all of the important points regarding your business; however, it is a great idea to throw in some tidbits that are not necessarily connected to what you are doing now but which add another dimension to your presence. Your content on that page needs to really communicate what is different about your business and should have a clear message as to why people should buy from you instead of from someone else.

You should communicate in a clear and concise manner. The information on that page says a great deal in terms of how it represents your business and what it stands for. You can’t separate what you are as a business from how you are represented online.

Your information should give the right amount and type of information and you shouldn’t worry so much about giving too much away. If your visitors are truly interested in going further in your relationship together, they will. Always remember to include a call to action, which enables your visitors to get a hold of you, either by phone or by Email.

Your online presence is all about relationships and interactions with people. The more you interact on a personal level, the easier it will be to build relationships with your readers and eventually, they will become your customers.

Conclusion

There are many different types of visitor who check out your “About Us” page. There are first-time visitors, regular visitors, people who want to share a relationship with you and work with you and potential customers. With every type of visitor to your website, you want to be able to offer enough informative and useful information to persuade them to establish a much stronger connection with you and your business (such as becoming a fan, user, or customer).

Although not everyone who visits your website will end up visiting your “About Us” page, you need to make sure to entice those people who do click on the page. You will accomplish this by having content that is insightful, interesting and eventually makes your visitors believe that they can’t live without what you are offering.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.

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“All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary – it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.” Somerset Maugham. As a business person with an online presence, you write for the Web.

It doesn’t really matter which type of business you are in. If you have a website and/or a blog (which the majority of business people do nowadays), you either write the content yourself or you have someone else write the content for you. So, how do you get your web writing to stay consistent and compelling over time?

Which style guide should you follow?

The answers that you get to that question will vary, depending on whom you ask. There are several style guidelines to which web writers defer. Among them are the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook and the much newer Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World.

It is interesting to understand the differences between the style guides and the motivation behind why Yahoo felt compelled to release a style guide when AP has been considered the “gold standard” for such a long time, including the approach on a large number of commonly used online terms. The bottom line for you as a writer is that if you have integrity about the content that you are offering to others, you still care about editing, attribution and the assurance of reliable and credible sources of information.

Yahoo says that their style guide is different because it offers guidelines exclusively for writing on the web and that it discusses web-related topics, including topics on how to help people optimize web pages. The big question is whether AP and Yahoo can work together successfully to truly help people to write their web content and not confuse anyone.

The Associated Press and Yahoo style guides both offer useful guidance for everyone who consults them. The combination of the two books gives comprehensive advice on traditional writing as well as optimization for the web. People may be inclined to go to the AP Style Guide more often because it offers broader guidelines for the English language, grammar, punctuation and usage. The Yahoo style guide, on the other hand, targets a much narrower audience and focuses on the particular needs of certain writers.

Some people are of the opinion that the Yahoo style guide is not necessary because people have deferred to AP for such a long time. However, it is important to think in a more flexible and open-minded manner with the popularity of social media and peoples’ heavy involvement with online communications.

Which style guide should you consider the “gold standard”?

The AP Style Guide has established standards that, if followed, give the writing a journalistic voice, which also works well for the web. Short, clear and concise writing not only appeals to readers of print media but it also appeals to readers of online content. People don’t have the time or the patience to read long, complicated, involved content no matter how it is delivered.

Of course, there is some overlap between the two style guides. The most sensible approach may be to consult the AP style guide first and if there is some issue or question that has not been answered by AP, you should consult Yahoo. In other words, use AP as your primary source and use Yahoo as your secondary source.

Conclusion

Two reputable style guides have been discussed here. Both guides offer valuable advice, with one offering guidance that is more traditional in nature on the whole and one that is more contemporary. They are both essential to achieving consistency in your online writing and in presenting writing that flows, is well written and that appeals to the readers and makes them want to continue reading whatever you and your business offer them.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.

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