Creating a Corporate Writing Style
Developing a corporate writing style will unify your company’s communications and create a unique ‘voice’ that enhances corporate recognition and brand awareness. To ensure that your corporate writing style is applied consistently, you need a style-guide.
Writing style refers to the words and expressions - as well as to the spelling, grammar and punctuation - a person uses when writing letters and memos. Each of us has a personal style of writing which, like our speaking voice, is usually recognizable.
To distinguish itself from its competitors your company also needs its own writing style, one that will make it recognizable and enhance brand awareness.
The problem is that corporate communications are written by many people, each with their own personal style. This is especially true where particular documents, such as newsletters, technical manuals and corporate brochures, websites and ezines, contain contributions from several people.
Thus there is a need to create a company writing style that unifies written communications and reflects corporate identity and image.
If you examine the brochures and websites of major corporations you’ll see that the style of writing varies - sometimes subtly but always distinctively - from one company to the next. You will also notice that the corporate literature of each particular company reflects a unified style, as if it had all been written by the same person, ie the same corporate personality.
The best way to achieve a unified writing style that is stamped with your corporate personality is to create a document called a style-guide.
A style-guide is a booklet that covers word, phrase and sentence usage, and approaches to be taken in structuring particular types of communications, such as brochures, technical manuals or ezines, as well as common errors in grammar and syntax. It lays down the ‘rules’ to be followed when writing corporate literature.
A style-guide should provide your corporate communications with a distinct vocabulary and cadence that is appropriate to your business. Obviously a writing style that is suitable for a financial services company or bank must differ greatly from the style of a fashion house. An appropriate style-guide will provide your company with the overall tone and word-quality you need to communicate successfully with your target audiences.
When devising a style-guide, an independent consultant is essential to preserve objectivity. Giving the job to an in-house executive may result in writing style that is contentious because everyone within your company is likely to have views on what is an appropriate and ‘correct’ style. An external writing consultant will have the experience needed to devise an appropriate style - it’s his main job after all.
The consultant will begin with an examination of your company, its marketing efforts, communication channels and target audiences. He or she will also peruse the company’s marketing communications and other corporate literature. This getting-to-know-you phase must be done thoroughly which can take time.
Once he understands your company, its communication objectives and typical audiences, the consultant will be in a position to draft a corporate style manual and agree its content with senior management. To illustrate the value of the proposed writing style, he or she should rewrite some of your recent corporate literature and show how the proposed style will enhance corporate recognition and branding.
You should always ensure that the final guide is delivered in electronic format so that it may be printed and distributed among your staff without restriction. Once it has been issued, you will also need to take steps to ensure that the writing ‘rules’ are followed in all communications with markets and stakeholders.
A well-thought out writing style-guide with clear understandable rules, which are applied consistently to all corporate literature - print and electronic - will ensure clarity and harmony in your corporate communications and reinforce corporate personality. It’s just as important as your logo and visual imagery.
About the Author: Paul D Kennedy is a business consultant and writer. His writing services solve corporate writing challenges and imbue business communications with clarity, impact and persuasiveness. http://www.writingservices.eu
10 Profitable Reasons To Add A Discussion
Board Or Chat Room To Your Web Site
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10485377/649011/211295582/2/
1. You’ll be able to communicate with your visitors.
They’ll begin to trust you and get to know you on a
more personal level. People will purchase products
quicker from somebody they already know and trust.
2. People will revisit your web site to participate on
your discussion board or chat room. They will meet
other people with similar interests and your web site
will become a hang out were they can chat.
3. You can learn important information about your
visitors by reading the conversations they have. They
may chat about your web site or products. With this
information you could learn to market your products
more effectively.
4. You could answer the questions your visitors ask
in your online communities. You’ll become known as
an expert by giving the answers to their questions.
This will give you and your business more credibility.
5. You could teach a free online class using your chat
room. This will give you an expert status and increase
traffic to your web site by offering the free class.
6. When your discussion board or chat room becomes
popular, you could sell advertising space on them. This
will give you an extra income stream for your web site.
7. You can network with other businesses by having
a chat room or discussion board. You could exchange
business ideas, leads, advertising, etc.
8. You could allow other web sites who don’t have
a discussion board or chat room to use yours. You
will get free advertising by allowing them to link to
your online community.
9. When you have a discussion board or chat room
you can get free advertising by listing them in online
community directories. You can also join web rings
with similar discussion topics.
10. You can make money by advertising your own
products and services on your discussion board or
chat room. You could also join other people’s affiliate
programs and make commissions advertising them.
Quote of the Day:
“How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” — William
Shakespeare
Thank you for being a valued subscriber!
Sincerely,
Martha Petrizza
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10485378/649011/211295582/2/
P.S. Making money online is easier than you think… Start
NOW with The Home Biz Guy’s Plug-In Profit Site service at:
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Virginia 22554
United States
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
Since Twitter launched, there was one question to rule them all: What’s the point? The point of Twitter is still debatable, but a few hundred thousand people funneled in anyway, people from all kinds of backgrounds and interests, people with all kinds of connections. Only one problem: To find people, you had to depend on luck, or at least stumbling through a maze of faces and followers with the hope of finding someone interesting or relevant.
We love feedback. Check out Twellow, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
Enter Twellow.com, WebProNews’s Twitter people search and directory platform, a yellow pages for Twitter, or, as blogger David Risley has described it: this is awesomesauce. We don’t want to brag, especially since we made it, but it is kind of, well, awesomesauce.
Here’s the basics: Based upon Twitter’s open API, Twellow allows Twitterers to search for people on Twitter or, if they don’t exactly know who they’re looking for, they can search by categories sorted by keywords related to such things as industry, interests, or hobbies. If a user is looking to connect with someone in publishing, for example, Twellow will bring back Twitterers who have indicated that on their profiles, ranked by number of followers.
It even brings back what they’re most recent tweet was. Maggie Mason, for example, author of No One Cares What You Had for Lunch, a book on better blogging, tweets about her struggle with tissue paper and gift boxes, which suddenly becomes a metaphor for death. Not bad for a 140 characters. Call it flash non-fiction.Though we’ve been quietly nudging people about it for a little while, once the blogosphere got a good look at it, this new Twitter directory saw a spike in usage of over 600 percent in under 16 hours.
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“It kind of got out of the bag before we intended,” said Twellow lead developer Matthew Daines. By “we,” he means himself and WebProNews publisher and iEntry, Inc. CEO Rich Ord. And by “before we intended,” he means Twellow’s still at the alpha stage, just two months after conceptualization.
Nonetheless, Profy.com’s Leslie Poston blogs that despite its alpha status, Twellow “is surprisingly complete.” Once people started talking about it, and they did talk about it at sufficient length on blog after blog, a chorus of “one more thing” came spiraling through our blogospheric ear canals: Now that I can be found and indexed, how do I control what Twellow says about me?
Because Twellow pulled from how people had categorized and named themselves on Twitter before there was a Twellow around, some were surprised or dissatisfied with how they were now appearing in public, as though caught picking up the morning paper off the porch (nice slippers!). Not a problem, users can now edit their own results.
See, we’re swell. As Twellow grows, those wishing to come out from behind their shrouds of anonymity and obscurity would be wise to complete their profiles so Twellow and. . .Twellowers? . . . know what to make of them.
After the jump, more awesomesauce: What bloggers had to say about Twellow, and an interview with lead developer Matthew Daines.
What Bloggers Are Saying about Twellow.com
“Straight from the ‘why didn’t Twitter build that’ category. . .” Scott Clark, Finding the Sweet Spot. Clark’s own interview with Matthew can be found here. “. . .could fundamentally change the way people use [Twitter].” Adam Ostrow, Mashable.com.
“Once I started using it, I was hooked. . . .A lot of folks, myself included, make sure to use useful key words in their Twitter profiles, and now there is a reason other than SEO. You can be indexed in Twellow!” Michelle Lentz, bub.blicio.us.
“The site is actually as much news service as directory. . .a godsend for specialist journalists who can quickly build up a list of twitterers in their field.” Online Journalism Blog.
“I think you will find this invaluable for building a solid network of people who are interested in what you have to say - personal or professional.” RSSApplied.
“Twellow has absolutely made my bookmarked list of Twitter tools.” Leslie Poston, Profy.com.
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About the Author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.
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6 Qualities of a Good Domain Name
Choosing a good domain name is crucial to the success or failure of your business. You may wonder how something so small and slight could have an impact on your business, but the best way to compare this is to think about how important location is to an offline business? If you do not have a good location, you are likely not going to get many visitors. The same holds true for a good domain name as well.
Here, you will discover the six qualities that a good domain name must have to ensure maximum success.
1.) Memorable
A good domain name must be memorable. Yes, we have the option of bookmarking a site that we enjoy; however, the hard truth is that many people do not take advantage of bookmarking. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that your domain name is one that is easy to remember and makes an impact. It should be easy, memorable, and straight forward.
Avoid complexity and it is usually a good idea to avoid initials in most cases. The only exception to this rule would be if the letters represented the website name or business and was still easy to remember.
2.) Short and Sweet
Twenty characters is the maximum that you should use for a good domain name, ten is even better. A long and complicated domain name is not going to help you. Your best bet is to keep it short and sweet. A great domain name is less than ten characters; a good domain name is less than twenty characters. A bad domain name goes over twenty characters.
3.) Be Choosy On Your Extension
There are several domain extensions available to you such as .com, .net, .org, .tv, .info, .gov and so on. However, some of these work better than others and are more memorable at the same time. It is important to understand that some extensions also have restrictions such as .gov is reserved specifically for government websites. The .com domain name extension is the best by far, because it is the most widely used.
The .net extension is the second best, but be prepared most people will type .com before they will .net if they cannot remember which extension you use. The type of extension you use might also have a bearing on the type of website. Some people have come to expect certain things when a particular extension. For example, .org is typically used by not-for-profit organization and educational websites. The .info extensions are generally used for informational websites.
4.) Spelling Means Everything
Having a difficult to spell domain name could cause you some trouble. Again, many do not even make use of bookmarks; therefore, if your domain name is hard to spell, they may end up at a competitor’s website.
A good domain name contains only words that are easy to pronounce, have a good combination of words or letters that are used in every day language, and does not contain foreign words that may be difficult to non-native speakers.
5.) Tells a Story
A good domain name should be descriptive and tell a story. In other words, when your visitors, customers, or potential customers see your domain name they should instantly be able to tell what they are going to find. For instance, if it is your business, a business name is good.
6.) Avoid Fancy Symbols
It is never a good idea to use numbers or hyphens within your domain name. Even if your domain name is memorable, many people will not pay attention to the symbols, which could lead them to someone else’s website.
About the Author: Joseph Nyamache has the worst domain name. Learn not to make the same mistakes at expired domain names blog.
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Test Your Way To Greater Conversions and Internet Success!
Testing your website pages, especially landing pages, squeeze pages and sales pages is one of the most profitable things you can do to tweak your pages and gain higher conversions. On top of that, you can learn more about copywriting though split tests and other means of testing your web pages than any other way.
Back in the days of mail order marketing, testing sales letters and catalogs gathered more real information about new concepts and ideas than through most other methods of research at that time. In these days of the internet, the bell even rings louder.
You can test whole concepts of your pages to find out what emotional triggers and core desires your market truly respond to. Simply test two or three versions of your sales page that each focus on a separate theme or slant on the product or service. The page that pulls the most conversions will give you the answers you are looking for.
In this day of fierce online competition, testing is something you should, no MUST do to gain the highest conversions from your website and pages. If you’re not actively testing your pages, your competition will soon pass you by.
What Exactly Should You Be Testing?
The simple answer is: Everything! Everything on your pages and in your sales message is a contributing factor to your conversion rate. This includes your headline, opening paragraphs, body copy, your offer, post scripts, background color, font, font colors, images and every imaginable component of your page in between.
Volumes of information have been written about what to test and how to test your web pages. This work is extensive, so when you begin to test, I suggest you concentrate your first efforts on the three areas that have been shown to have the most impact on your sales page, the headline, the first three (or four) opening paragraphs, and your offer.
In this article, I will focus on Headlines as they are the critical element of your page.
Testing Headlines
Headline changes can have the most impact on your conversion rate and response of these three components. 75 - 80% of your visitors will never read past the headline. It doesn’t matter how wonderful you have written your sales page, if the headline doesn’t work correctly and do its job of getting people to read on, your page will be a failure.
In order for your headline to be effective, you have to discover the biggest core desires within your market to feed. The best headline test are based around the different core desires and motivating reasons why people would be interested in your product or service.
Testing different headlines around different concepts will tell you which one is more appealing to your market audience. Once you have the key concepts and desires tested and you have discovered which one works best, you then go to work tweaking your headline in more alluring and persuasive ways.
Split testing is generally used to test headlines. In the beginning, you will probably want to use simple A/B split testing but if you are dealing with high volume traffic and high price sales, you may want to consider speeding up the process with multi-variate testing. You can find out more about these tests by going to: What Is Split Testing?.
What Type of Headline Format Do You Test?
There are some classic headline formats that have been shown to be effective over time that you can begin with. There’s the “If/Then” headline, “Amazing Secrets of …” headline, the “Who Else Wants to …” headline, and of course the classic “How to …” headline.
Test as many headlines as you can think up for your web page. In fact, you should never stop testing different headlines on your page. A simple 10% increase in your conversions could result in hundreds to tens of thousands of dollar or more. Testing your headlines could bring an increase of 50%, 100%, or even 200% or more in the response your web page brings.
The next time that you feel that your landing page, sales page or squeeze page should be converting better, think about testing the component of your page to increase the effectiveness and response that it should be eliciting.
Continue reading more about this fascinating arena of online marketing by going to: Testing Your Web Pages.
About the Author: Jim Bruce is a SEO Web Consultant and writes frequently about search engine optimization techniques and search marketing. You can find out more about these topics by going to Ristvin Marketing.