Be Simple, Clear, Concise and Relevant
Today many avenues exist to communicate both personally and professionally. Traditional business communication happens by phone, through live conversations, or voicemail. Now text and instant messaging have entered the mix. Email is another major channel for business communication. Add social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and you see a growing trend for using a wider variety of communicate vehicles.
Not only are we using more channels to communicate for business and outbound marketing but the communication channels we use can impose word and character limits. We need to communicate in 140 characters or less on Twitter. How many of you have initiated or replied to a text message? Both beg brevity and clarity.
Tips to Meet Rising Needs for More Effective Business Communication
Email and text message use is on the rise and increasingly becoming part of our daily communication. So our ability to be clear, concise and relevant in writing is becoming more essential. Our written communication skills must be as strong as our verbal skills.
In lead generation consulting, we work with companies to communicate with buyers more effectively, clearly and concisely. I thought I’d share a few tips on written communication skills and techniques that may help you:
- Think before you speak; think before you write. We live in a world where instant response is demanded and expected. But thinking through your response while being timely is the best advice.
- Read it just one more time before you hit the send button. This practice is worth its weight in gold. Once you think and write review what you wrote. Be sure your abbreviations will be understood and your message is in the right context.
- Spell check, spell check, spell check. Yes, this is similar to real estate’s premium on location, location, location. As the speed of written communication is increasing, so are typos. I think we all agree no one is perfect (certainly myself included) but it looks bad. Don’t be too busy to spell check.
- Some of us are good speakers; some of us are good writers; some of us are both; some of us are neither. If you are not a good writer, take refresher training. It will serve you well.
Writing is on the rise. Prepare yourself.