Dear PR Matters,
With your column, I am learning more about PR and why good writers often make good PRs.
That is because writing is essential in communication, and we are tasked to communicate when we sell, build a brand or simply let people know what is new with us.
Have writing styles changed with the rise of new media? How do we enhance and update our writing skills to make our writing more interesting?
Will appreciate your thoughts on this.
Sincerely,
Nora G.
Dear Nora,
Thank you for your letter. Although you did not mention what profession you are in, I am sure it is in line with communications. I am also impressed with your understanding and insightful thoughts about the importance of writing, which my colleagues and I feel is a skill that is often taken for granted.
Yes, writing styles have changed over the years, especially with the onset of the Web 20 years ago. In the article “Five ways to make your marketing copy a whole lot more engaging” in MarketingProfs.com, Nick Usborne said that in the past, writing—or marketing copy—“was a one-way broadcast affair. Companies simply pushed their promotional messages through mass media, and their audiences had no way to push back.”
Because the Web is a two-way or multiway medium, “it’s a place where you can really listen and get into conversation with your prospects and customers.”
Engagement is key, and even when writing for traditional media, it is good to make an effort to make your copy more engaging. Even in our day-to-day life, we try our best to make our conversations more interesting. And we should definitely make an effort when we are in the business of communications.
Usborne shares with us five simple ways to level up our efforts to create truly engaging messages:
- Don’t be that pushy salesperson. Usborne looks at the “pushy, adversarial approach to selling and persuasion” as a holdover from the early days of broadcast media. That’s because “back then, simply to be heard, you had to create messaging that was loud and pushy…because ads and commercials interrupted your favorite TV and radio shows. When a message is unwelcome, it won’t be heard unless it’s loud.”
Going online has changed all that and “we can tone down both the volume and tone of our messaging.” That means, stay away from communications that are self-serving and obviously meant to impress—as that doesn’t work anymore. Instead, communicate something that will be of interest to those you are communicating with.
- Use simple, conversational language. Usborne gives us an example of writing then and now, asking writers to “ditch that weird business writing style so many writers picked up at some point in their career.”
Then: “Frakbar Cost Management empowers organizations to monitor cloud spend, drive organizational accountabilities and optimize cloud efficiency so they can accelerate future cloud investments with confidence.”
Now: Looking for smarter ways to manage your cloud expenses? At Frakbar, we can help with that.”
He also advices one to read your communications, like your company web site’s About page out loud to your close colleagues. “If reading that page out loud makes you sound like a complete idiot, then it’s time to do a rewrite.”
- Get the language right by listening first. Remember how political candidates would first go into “listening” tours around their constituencies before announcing their candidacies? Or how retailers and restaurants ask their customers for feedback about their service? That is a good way, as they say in Les Misérables, hearing how the people sing.
Usborne said that sadly, there is a “disconnect between many companies and their prospects and customers, simply because the companies never bother to listen carefully and figure out the vocabulary, concerns and priorities of the audience.”
If you are a communicator, talk to those around you, research on writing styles, and you’ll be surprised that there are many words that truly date you.
“Collect, collate and study all the data,” Usborne said, “and you’ll be in a much better position to truly engage with your audience. You’ll be speaking their language.”
- Leave space for your readers with questions and stories. Usborne said that “the old-school way was to write both editorial and marketing materials in lecture mode: Writing at the audience. Writing in this way is a terrible way to engage anyone.”
You can leave room for engagement by asking more questions in your headlines and within the body text, which “signals inclusion, and makes space for the reader and his or her feelings and opinions.”
Another way is to tell more stories that are relevant to your audience, making them feel included and more engaged. No stories, please, of things that are just of interest to you and your small circle.
- Be imperfect, approachable, authentic. You can make “your business more human friendly if you stop trying to be perfect,” Usborne said.
Apart from having an approachable tone in your writing, “if you make mistakes, own them. Customers will almost forgive you when you own up to an honest mistake. It’s okay to be imperfect. People connect with that. They’ll feel closer to you.”
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.