An Easy Guide to Writing for Business: Where to Start and What to Do Next
Writing is a huge part of any business. With everything that needs to be written, it’s easy to see how a person could spend an entire day, every day, working on writing projects, from email correspondence to press releases, from website content to thought leadership articles. Not everyone has the time to devote to all of these projects, however.
So, when writing for business, where should you focus your writing efforts first?
Everyone knows a website is a necessary marketing tool in today’s world. It makes your company easy to find, provided your contact information is displayed prominently either on the home page or on the contact page, and it gives visitors an idea of the type of product or service your company provides. But what do you focus on after that?
Once you have the website up and running, there are other areas you need to focus on, and that’s what we’ll talk about today.
Responding to customer or prospect inquiries via email or snail mail should take precedence over any other writing activity. If you’re handling the business development side of things, you know how important it is to respond to client and prospect questions within a timely manner. Devote time to communicating with your customers and prospects to build a solid relationship with them over the long-term.
After you have responded to questions or concerns, focus on blogging and social media. The purpose of these two areas is to build relationships with your customers and prospects. Offer them value, show them that your company knows what it’s talking about, and nurture the relationship they have with you.
While you’re working on building meaningful relationships with your customers, start working on your marketing projects (i.e., brochures, advertisements, autoresponders, etc.). The strong, loyal customer/prospect base you’ve been building needs a call to action to buy from you, so now focus your efforts on your marketing and advertising projects. Listen to what your readers are saying, provide them with what they want, and sell it to them.
Next, start working on thought leadership materials such as research reports, white papers, and trade articles. The reason why this one is last is because you’ve already been providing your customers and prospects with valuable content through blogging which should already be on your website to keep content fresh and your website up to date. Thought leadership pieces enhance the image of your company, showing that it is serious about being in business.
This writing process is continuous. Determine how frequently you want to produce blog posts, then work all of the other writing projects around it. Maintaining consistency will yield the best results when you're writing for business.
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