When it comes to business, written communication can be more important than in-person spoken communication. This is because you mostly interact with partners, investors, customers, and other businesses via email.

8 Tips for Effective Business Writing

You also need to be able to write business plans, presentations, reports, proposals, and other types of business documents to present to others. That’s why you must know the basics of professional business writing.

This article breaks down business writing using 8 simple tips you can start applying today. Here’s how to do effective and meaningful business writing.

1. Set an Objective

Before you even start writing, you need to set a clear objective. What do you want to say/achieve?

Think about the main purpose of this piece of text you’re about to write, and make a note that will define it. For instance:

• offer collaboration
• inform about a new deal
• ask for feedback
• suggest a workshop idea

Setting a goal will help you focus your writing and create a meaningful piece of text.

2. Create a Draft

Drafting is a great practice in business writing, especially if you’re writing a longer piece of text. It’ll take you less than a minute to:

• list the points you want to cover
• add notes on what you want to say and include

Here’s an example:

• introduce the new product
• list the benefits
• explain how to use it in real-life
• explain the financial aspect
• offer collaboration

Your draft will be your guiding plan and help you summarize what you plan on writing.

3. Write a Strong Introduction

Now that you know what you want to write, it’s time to start your business copy.

Remember, most people don’t have the time or aren’t interested in reading every single business email or message they receive. So, open strongly to get their attention instantly. What does this mean?

The opening line needs to:

• introduce who you are (if the recipient doesn’t already know you well)
• summarize the point of the message

Here’s what we have in mind: Hi Jordan, I’m Sarah from XY company and I’m writing to introduce our new product that your business could benefit from.

4. Stay Concise

As you continue to write and cover the rest of the points from your draft, you should always aim at staying concise. That means you should:

• make every sentence informative and important
• remove any words, phrases, or sentences that only embellish your copy
• make your text dynamic

People don’t want to enjoy reading your copy, but they want it to be worth their time and energy. So, just stick to the point and write concisely.

5. Create a Structure

How you format and organize your business writing is equally as important as what you’re writing. Why? Because most people won’t even read your message if you present it as one huge piece of written content.

Instead, make it more compelling by using:

• short paragraphs
• subheadings with catchy titles
• bullet points
• lists
• visuals

You need to break it down and make it easy for the reader to scan it, skip to the parts they’re interested in, and instantly understand what’s the main idea of the whole text.

6. Know the Recipient

Another thing you should ask yourself is who are you writing to. Knowing the recipient well will help you adjust your writing to their specific sensibility.

So, imagine you’re talking to this person live, and try and:

• set your tone
• choose the right style of communication

And, if you’re writing to someone whose native language isn’t English, consider translating your business writing. You can check professional translation services price to see what they offer. This gesture will certainly get the recipient’s full attention and might win you extra points.

7. Use Proper Vocabulary

Just because you’re writing for business, doesn’t mean you have to be extra formal. Naturally, you won’t be using slang or inappropriate language, but you don’t want to overdo it either.

So, make your business writing natural and semi-formal. Don’t use complex and technical terminology unless it’s absolutely necessary.

8. Proofread

No mistakes, no typos, no weak spots.

When you’re writing for business, your writing is the reflection of your professionalism and credibility. If you make mistakes in something as simple as writing, who would want to do business with you?

So, always proofread and edit several times before you send anything. Use proofreading tools such as Grammarly to check every word precisely.

Final Thoughts

Your business writing skills are a presentation of your professionalism. You need to develop a writing style that shows you know what you’re doing, you’re knowledgeable and responsible.

Apply the 8 tips for effective business writing that we’ve listed above on all your future business writing and make sure every word you write works for you.

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