On Words and Business

Does word choice matter?

Friends have heard me say again and again that the purpose of language is to communicate. So it doesn’t matter to me if, on occasion, some thoughts or words are a bit muddled, as long as I understand what they are trying to convey. This is true with friends and family. None of us is perfect all the time, right?

This isn’t true, however, in business. When communicating with customers and potential customers, it is important to take the time to determine what you want to communicate and the best way, and the best words, to do that.

It starts with the headline. You gotta grab ‘em and pull ‘em in.

Michel Fortin discusses some principles of communicating effectively with headlines.

Jargon abounds in all industries, as we all know. Check out this take on the jargon used by marketers: The Devil’s Marketing Dictionary, Part 2

Then check out parts 1 and 3, and explore the “bad writing” thread. Hilarious. And a bit frightening at times.

The Four Noble Truths of Blogging.

A fabulous approach to thinking about blogging, and some pretty modern thinking about Zen Buddhism tossed in for good measure.

My favorite line in the whole post: simply showing up and keeping at it will teach you more than anyone else can.

Popular wisdom says that you only have a few seconds to capture your client’s interest in written communications.

That’s the time it takes to read the headline and maybe the first sentence. If you’ve captured them, then you only have a few words to help them understand why they should keep reading. And so on, and so on.

Communications with customers and stakeholders shouldn’t be all bullet points or headlines. Sometimes you do need to communicate more information to your customer. But make sure they want and need that level of detail. Because sometimes there is no way someone is going to slog through anything past the first paragraph. So maybe you don’t need any more words than that.

A fabulous tip from Dan Santow’s blog Word Wise.

Be careful how you describe things in your marketing materials. If you want to give the impression of having a lot of items available, it is probably best not to start that description with the words “everything from”. You could just be telling the world that you offer one of everything ever made; and that you don’t think as much as you should about the words you use.

Capital letters, “bolding,” and Quotation Marks used to highlight something “Important” the writer is trying to “convey.”

If something is a “proper” noun, then it can be capitalized. If It is truly a Quotation, from a Famous Person, for example, then by all means use the marks. And if it Truly is a new or “important” point, please feel free to put it in Bold Lettering.

But when Words are just “capitalized,” or bolded indiscriminately, or put in Quotation Marks just to Stand Out, it “detracts” from the Message.

Just Something to “think” about when communicating with your customers.