8 Not-So-Obvious Tricks for Creating an Exceptional Business Writing Strategy

Dominic Tarn Head of Content

05.07.2019

In business, a well-thought-out writing strategy can exceed your expectations when it comes to yielding results and ensuring steady customer acquisition.

You might think writing is easy, but good writing alone is never enough. To become successful, you need to create a unique style and branded voice. If you are looking for some witty blog ideas or tactics that haven’t crossed your mind before, check out our custom list of writing strategies.

Top Writing Strategies To Leverage Your Content Marketing Efforts

1. Select an appropriate writing style that will be the foundation of your writing strategy.

There are numerous kinds of business texts: emails, press releases, newsletters, commercials, reports, product descriptions, website content and many more. Each of them uses different types of writing strategies. The most commonly used writing strategies are the following:

Persuasive
Descriptive
Narrative
Expository

types of writing structure

Let’s dig deeper.

1) Persuasive writing is generally used in commercials and ads, various marketing materials, newspaper columns, and other creative material. The main purpose of such writing is to convince the audience to either do something or simply believe in the given information.

Unlike other types of writing strategies, persuasive writing is highly subjective and hugely relies upon the author’s opinion. These texts are full of facts, arguments, judgments and expert opinions. The most obvious feature of such writings is the use of call-to-action messages to readers.

Example: XXX yogurts – not merely food, but a lifestyle. Try it once and stay forever.

2) Descriptive writing strategy suggests detailed descriptions and a certain level of poetry. It is a written visualization of an object supplied with extensive peculiarities. Descriptions usually answer the questions: When? Where? How? and Who? It’s the perfect choice for e-commerce businesses where you regularly compose product overviews, brochures, etc.

Example: The jacket is soft and pleasant to touch, offering comfort and coziness. It smells of new leather and is smooth and clean.

3) Narrative writing requires characters and a plot while picturing some events. It lacks the informational granularity of descriptive writings but boasts a more dynamic and catching story. Narrative business texts are indispensable for biographies or companies’ histories of success.

Example: That day, the company rose from the ashes to become the industry giant for the following 20 years.

4) Expository writing provides an unbiased overview of a subject by listing the most relevant data, yet keeping personal opinion indefinite. Unlike descriptive style, it’s not overloaded with details, and unlike persuasive writing, it’s not intended to trigger certain actions or influence the audience in any other way. You can effectively use expository writing in educational content, guidelines and formal business writings.

Example: The car consumes 10 liters of petrol every 90 kilometers. Since it’s a hybrid, it can also run on electricity with no petrol consumption as long as the battery charge allows.

The examples of writing strategies given above uncover the principal difference in the general tone of your content, depending on its purpose.

2. Define your target group

When you’re writing for everyone, you’re likely to attract fewer followers than when you’re addressing a specific group of people. It is a fundamental truth: there is not a single person or a thing that is loved by everyone.

We all are different and yet we can be grouped according to our age, gender, profession, interests, and a million other peculiarities. In this respect, the main task in creating strategies for writers is in identifying your future customers.

Think about your average buyers or customers. Where are they from? What are their education, age, and gender likely to be? What needs might they have? What are their preferences? How can you help them? Do they know about your company? Are they using a similar service or product already? Why is your offer better for them?

how to define your customer

Understanding your customers would help you make your writing strategy better so that you can:

Save time and effort by specifying only relevant information in your content.
Improve your product and service to meet the demands of your audience.

For example: If you’re developing a shooter video game, you can define the majority of your users as male, from 13 to 55, living in both urban and rural locations, a little bit lazy, with good expertise in different sorts of weapons and existing games of a kind.

3. Enthrall your readers at the very opening.

When it comes to internet surfers, they usually know well enough what they’re looking for and your task, in this case, is to assure them your content is the one they need. No one will read the whole article unless they know the information they’re going to get is a direct hit.

The same applies to business emails, press releases, guidelines, and other marketing pieces. A catchy opening sentence and clear introduction highlighting the structure of further content will serve you well in keeping your readers.

For example: We Analyzed 12 Million Outreach Emails. Here’s What We Learned

The topic really intrigues readers, so the next logical step is to dig deeper and find the answer.

The same principle works when you lay out your information in consecutive short pieces: each previous piece raises the interest to read the following sentence. Although pure storytelling technique is fit for limited types of writing strategies, you can adjust its essence to practically every sort of written content.

how to write engaging copies

4. Hire a professional writer or editor.

It goes without saying that not everyone can write engaging texts. It’s up to you to decide if you hire a writer, an editor, or both, but strong expertise is essential in creating a winning writing strategy.

You can always differentiate between a personal Instagram page and a professional Instagram blog without even thinking about it. Well expressed information sinks immediately into the subconsciousness while clumsy writing is usually rejected.

5. Apply professional writing rules.

Strategies for writers vary depending on the type of text and target audience, but there are universal rules that work for all sorts of content. Even the amateurs in writing can dramatically improve the quality of their texts by following these professional tips:

Be precise and concise. The fewer words you use, the more information the reader will remember.
Be sincere. Your audience can easily recognize any hint of artificiality.
Cut unnecessary word combinations and tautologies (innovation is always new, a gift is always free and prospects are always future).
Avoid cliches and popular buzzwords that depreciate the value of your text.
Dodge jargon unless you’re sure all your readers are proficient in the given subject.
Choose active over passive voice to strengthen your message.
Break up your text into logical parts and make the information flow well from part to part. Use bullet points or visuals to simplify the information.
Be good at what you do and make sure your information is accurate, valid and valuable.
More tips.

6. Encourage imaginary participation.

It’s a well-known fact that participation helps to adopt the information much better. If you invite your readers to take part in your story, they are more likely to read it until the end and come back for more. By asking questions, you trigger the attention of your users even though they do not answer them aloud. Questions also appeal to your audience to compare their imaginary reply to the one specified in the text.

Backlinko blog is a great source of practical examples of writing strategies and tricks, including active imaginary participation. You can see how Jeff motivates his readers to share their personal opinion through the open questions at the end of every article.

backlinko blog

7. Ignite curiosity.

People are inquisitive creatures. We’re always learning something new throughout our lives. It is no wonder that a chance to get additional knowledge is accepted with greater enthusiasm than contemplations on the expected subject alone.

Supplement your topic with interesting facts, verified statistics or exciting news, but make sure to connect them to your subject thus reinforcing it.

8. Always proofread.

To err is human. Do not consider yourself an exception. Most likely your reader will understand if you make proofreading mistakes, but text with errors doesn’t make a good impression.

You also can use numerous available tools for checking your grammar and text uniqueness like Grammarly, but they are not perfect and will probably skip some nuances or mistakes. Hiring a professional editor is a reasonable decision that will give you a more reliable result.

In case you want to write on your own, make sure that you read the text aloud before hitting “Send” as you might need to change a phrase or two in the end. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Conclusion

This list of writing strategies could be limitless, so choose the tricks that are optimal for your business niche, audience, expertise and within your reach. If you buckle down and decide to deal with professionals, you’d better start with discussing your goals and the ways to achieve them. Once the targets are set and smart marketing decisions are made, your further efforts would be secure and risk-free.

We hope that these examples of writing strategies will come in handy, and we’re always ready to share our broad content marketing expertise with you in more detail.

8 Not-So-Obvious Tricks for Creating an Exceptional Business Writing Strategy

Top Writing Strategies To Leverage Your Content Marketing Efforts