Business Writing With Buzz

Put the zing back into your marketing copywriting, sales copywriting and business writing

Have you noticed there’s a real passion for “passion”? This small, once-powerful word seems to crop up everywhere. “Kate is “passionate about her business,” and Sarah writes books with “passion”.

If you’ve got kids, you probably hear “awesome” and “cool” and “whatever” repeatedly.

When words are overused they lose their meaning – and become almost meaningless. And they’re boring to read.

What’s wrong with saying Kate “loves” her business, or that Sarah “enjoys” writing?

There are many recurring words and phrases in B2B sales, marketing and business writing. Feel their fatigue:

• Key
• Innovative
• Expertise
• Solution
• Pain-point
• Efficient/efficiency

Then there’s my personal favourites:

“In these uncertain times” and “in these times of change” and “our ever-changing world”.

I wonder if businesses who love “our ever-changing world” have considered how far we’ve come since the days of caveman. If the world and the people in it were not always changing, we’d still be rubbing sticks together to make fire.

How can you put zing back into your business writing? Here are 5 ideas to overcome word fatigue:

1.  Use a thesaurus. It’s handy, cheap and quick to use. Or try www.thesaurus.com.

2.  Edit. Be ruthless. Here’s a challenge for you: can you cut your copy by half?

3.  Edit again. Feel free to eliminate adverbs and adjectives, and be aware of how often you use “to be” and its variations, such as: am, is, are. These can often be cut or replaced with another verb.

Example: “We are going to install a new, state-of-the-art IT system,” can be written as “We plan to install a new IT system,” or “We will install a new IT system.”

Example: “We will be appointing three new partners in June.” Edit this to: “We will appoint three new partners in June.”

4.  Edit again and again. Can you shift a sentence around to make it shorter and livelier?

Example: “We will appoint three new partners in June,” could be written as: “In June, we will appoint three new partners." Or: “In June, three new partners will join the firm." Small differences, but they make a dull document more engaging.

5.  Edit again and again and again. Why use two or three words when one will do? For example:

• In order to…To
• Cost effective…Profitable
• State-of-the-art…Latest, advanced
• At the present time…Now
• With reference to…About
• Make use of…Use

Happy editing. For more help, give Rosemary a ring on 02 9314 7506 or 0411 123 216