A Newsletter is a frontline strategy in your business communication

By Rosemary

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

“Do people read your email newsletter”

I asked an executive I met recently this question. “Certainly do”, he replied. “I had 3 complaint emails from clients last month; each telling me there was a spelling mistake ‘centre stage’ in my newsletter.”

After a long discussion on the newsletter being a frontline strategy in business communications, I agreed to proofread his newsletter ‘with compliments’.

The executive was not happy when I presented him with my assessment. Issues went from his opening address of “Dear “ (no-one obviously), to complete lack of logic and flow, incomplete advertising information, inconsistent font, cramped text and so on. I did eventually find his key messages buried deep within the text of his three pages and I felt lucky. Read More→

Categories : Newsletters

Email Research – overkill or an essential communication strategy

By Rosemary

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

Email research says proofread your emails

The Email Research-scary statistics

The majority of email senders and email receivers believe that their email information is interpreted correctly. In fact, only half of emails received are interpreted correctly and half of email recipients have a lot of trouble interpreting emotion in emails[i].

There is a suggestion that this overconfidence in emails links to a difficulty detaching oneself from your own environment. This theory is supported by the rapid emergence of social media where the communication is fast, “off the cuff” and not always thoughtful. Furthermore, three quarters of email is opened within 6 seconds of its arrival in the Inbox and there is a significant recovery time for the worker to return to their previous task because the email task is prioritised over the planned task[ii] Read More→

Categories : Blogs and Article writing, Business writing

Tags : business emails, email etiquette, email research, emails

Content writing errors

By Rosemary

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

Yes great content writing

Common content writing errors in business documentation.

Content writing is the coalface of your business and online presence. There are some errors in content writing that keep presenting themselves. It is useful to keep reminding ourselves of these – after all it makes good writing sense. Read More→

Categories : Business writing, Grammar

Tags : business documentation, business writing, content writing, copywriting, grammar, online writing, writing

How’s the website content? On the blink do you think?

By Rosemary

Monday, January 21st, 2013

Communicate with your clients the modern way.
Website content sells your products.

Is your website content bringing in the bacon?

If your website it not bringing in the bacon so to speak, then maybe it needs a revamp. After all, not even great quality bacon lasts forever.

Your website needs to give your potential readers an experience that is relatively instant, logical and convenient. It needs to instantly prove credibility and trustworthiness. It must fulfil the reader’s need and certainly must fulfil expectations that are advertised either online advertising or on a Google search.

Your website readers are not really a harsh bunch, but they are accustom to modern technology, are busy and have the world at their fingers tips.

Let’s look at your website for a few moments. Read More→

Categories : Website

Want to win that tender your business so much needs?

By Rosemary

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

A feather helps in a winning tender

A winning tender

Knowing you are the right person to do the job and actually winning the tender can be too different things. A winning tender or bid can be thought of as a successful ‘silent sales representative’. The documentation is your sales pitch and represents the quality standards of your business – it must be perfect and complete.

Your documentation will either win or lose your tender irrespective of whether your business products are the best suited to do the job. Doesn’t seem fair? Fair or not, your tender documentation carries a lot of responsibility – so take your time with it, engage the right people to put it together even if it means outsourcing.

Be clear on the purpose of the tender

Read the specifications or brief at least three times so your understanding is clear. Understand the evaluation criteria as that will give you insight into how your tender will be viewed and where you could possibly outshine your competitors.

Your point of difference from your competitors will enable you to stand out from the crowd, offer the best value for money as well as meeting all the requirements and expectations of the contract. You need to provide a convincing case that you not only have the commitment to do the job your business also has the competence and capacity.

Some useful tips for that tender application:

Respond to all the requirements of the brief.
Support your information with specific information and appendix if needed.
Illustrate through your documentation that you understand the requirements down to the smallest detail.
Demonstrate your attention to detail through the thoroughness of your documentation.
Define the benefits of your service and how they will be delivered.
Be flexible in your approach and be clear on the value for money it will bring. This will also relate to your point of difference and show how you can exceed the requirements and expectations of the brief without increasing costs.
Create a quality document that is concise, clear and logical throughout.
Avoid waffle and stay focused.
Utilise creative flair by good use of headings, subheadings, effective use of white space and visual imagery where possible.
Keep your sentences short and to the point.
Keep your language simple and use active voice.
Stay grammatically correct and keep to Australian spelling of words.
Avoid jargon unless it is used in the original brief.
Use images, graphs or charts combined with a sharp and focused written explanation. This can be very powerful and reviewers will remember images more so than just the written word.

Be kind to your reviewers

After all, you want them to give you the contract. Reviewers get tired and may skim documents that present as ‘too hard’. Well presented, clear and fully responsive documents will go straight to their ‘A list’. Don’t make any assumptions or think the reviewers will ‘know that’. The only assumption you should make is that you need to define everything, clarify everything and respond to everything in the original brief.

A winning tender is a bit of work – but well worth it.

Categories : Tender

Tags : business document, submission, submissions, tender, winning tender

Keep ahead of search engines by using great SEO website content

By Rosemary

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

Original, clear and concise SEO website content

The answer is simple – high quality original seo website content. Written content that provides value to readers and potential customers is your best safeguard against future search engine changes like Panda.

Well, probably, the answer should be high quality original content is a great start to keeping your website visible and relevant to the online community. Search engines want to see well managed websites with information that informs readers about your particular product or service.

Know your keywords

Know your keywords; they are the heart of your SEO website content. Identify a few words that are relevant to your products and input them into Google’s Keyword tool to see what the global and the monthly searches are for that word and also the competition. Think about variations of the words that make sense for your business and put them in the perspective of someone conducting a search on your product. Some examples could be ‘how to set up blog posts’, ‘seo content writing’, ‘web content writing services’.

Don’t forget to track your keywords and their success or otherwise. Monitor and analyse your keywords and see what is working for you – don’t just leave them there and hope for the best. Your keywords can become the base for your seo website content pages and blogs. In the end, it does all contributing towards your branding and professional image you want to create.

Blogs

Blogs are a great way to keep your website relevant and fresh with great content writing. They can utilise tools of your website SEO like meta description and tags, and orientate around your keywords. They will inform your readers on your business products and services and if interesting enough, will invite readers to link to your website, thus providing backlinks.

Blogs are conversational and must be easy to read, clear and concise. Don’t forget to illustrate the benefits to your clients not just your services or products. At the end of the day, your readers will become your customers if they think you or your products are making their life easier and providing value. It is not always just about the dollar.

Product launches are also a great subject for your blogs or website content. You are the expert in your field, so if there is a new product or service available, tell your readers, but tell them in ‘everyday speak’, not technical jargon. Your customers will appreciate you keeping them up to date and aware.

Write naturally and let your keywords fall where they will in the writing of your soptimised website content. Use keyword variations and make sure they show context for your product e.g. content writer and copywriter.

Visual Content

Another useful method to keep your website and your blogs current and relevant is using visual content like video content and clear images of your products. Google likes this as well – so everyone will be happy.

Guest blogging

Guest blogging or articles on your website or blog is also another great idea. These writers will have a different perspective to you and will bring their own stream of readers and followers. Of course, you can always blog on someone else’s website and link back to your great content.

A definite no-no

A definite no-no is to write one great article and then use it on multiple sites by just rearranging a few words. We all know this has been done in the past – but the news is it no longer works. Google, and in particle, Panda, put an end to this.

Another story

Above all, write for your readers. Make sure it is logical, concise, clear and not full of typos. Clear and concise means no rambling – but then, that is another story.

Categories : Website

Tags : blogs, branding, branding and blogs, business, business writing, content writing, SEO, website content