Your words, or rather, your choice of words, have the power to:
- Connect with your audience (or friends and family)
- Get your product seen (and clicked on!)
- Entice people to buy your products or services
- Make someone else feel absolutely fabulous and empowered
- …End wars, create lasting peace, connect nations, resolve misunderstandings etc.
Wrong words, or unclear words, have the power to:
- Alienate your audience (or your best friend, partner etc.)
- Seem invisible (to Google or scrolling audiences)
- Be misunderstood
- Ruin someone else’s self-esteem entirely
- …Start wars, create international disputes, end marriages, and more
Hopefully, like me, you are aiming for connection and visibility with enticing, empowering, and peaceful words? To achieve this, I recommend being clear, thinking like your audience, and keeping them respectful. I’m writing about business, but you can apply this to almost any communication – business or personal.
Writing with clarity (and accuracy)
Clear, easily understood language is the cornerstone of good communication. I remember working for the Australian Public Service, writing for senior leaders with master’s degrees, and we were still taught to write to a middle high school reading level. The theory is that this is the level anyone can read with relative ease. And we want to make it easy to absorb our content, don’t we? These days you can use websites like https://hemingwayapp.com to check the complexity of your writing, which rated this article around the year 9 reading level.
Beyond considering how long your sentences are or whether you use too many big words, you also need to consider what your message is and whether you are getting it across.
Consider the following two sentences:
- Magic solution to your pain
- Remedial back massage that gets you moving again
They are both easy to read, but only the second one tells me anything meaningful.
Alongside clarity, is accuracy. Please get your facts from a reputable source, and use them in context. For example, taking one sentence from a chapter and pretending it encompasses the whole chapter you have not even fully read, can be a misrepresentation. As can relying on internet quotes to be true. If I use a quote, it’s usually from a book I’m reading or have recently read, used in full and in context, with a reference you can follow up for more information.
Similarly, I was at a conference recently where a speaker gave examples of where information is proven incorrect after time (their example was the height of Mt Everest) with new technology or studies.
It’s worth the extra time to be accurate and clear. If you can’t prove your quote conclusively, perhaps reconsider your need to use it?
Think like your audience (aka client)
I’ve always been a fan of writing for people not machines. In August 2022 the rest of the world caught up and Google released its Helpful Content Update to reward websites that provide a satisfying visitor experience. In short, it got smarter, even better at serving up the website you want, instead of the website that stuffed in keywords and tried to appease Google. So, write for your client, using words they understand, connect with, and search for.
There are some great websites to help with this, including google’s own Adwords, which allows you to test your ideas and see how often people search it. For example, you might think you want to rank for ‘hairdresser’ but review searches and decide to target ‘hair stylist’ instead. Small adjustments can help you get found online without compromising clarity. Indeed, sometimes, seeing what others are searching for enables you to find the word you need for yourself.
Keep it respectful
Kindness and respect cost nothing but can mean everything. You can be sweary and irreverent, self-deprecating, or a little rough around the edges, but keep it above the line. You know, the one where it becomes racist, incites divide or discrimination, insults people’s sexuality or choice of partner, etc. It’s a line. Don’t cross it.
To book a consultation to discuss your words, and play with the best way to describe your business, contact me today.