Creative writing teachers love the phrase “show, don’t tell.” Business writers should, too.
Paint your audience a picture. Photo by John Morgan (cropped)
If your marketing and communications have made a mantra out of declaring “Our product is the best,” but never offer any evidence or further description, you’re not convincing anyone. Give your audience the information they deserve, and you’re likely to see many more interested customers.
To improve business communications, step up your efforts to provide your audience with specifics. Illustrate your claims with vivid language. Lay out the benefits of your product or service. Be descriptive and avoid vagaries. When developing a tone and brand style for your company’s communications, commit to replacing imprecise, forgettable and overused phrases with details that set your offering apart.
To bring your business communications to the next level:
- Brighten your imagery with case studies. Show potential customers how current customers are using your product. Be specific. What features do they like most?
- Use data and statistics. Illustrate the scope of the need your product fills with hard numbers. Don’t say your product speeds up a business process, tell your audience how much time it saves the average client.
- Pair text and images. A picture is worth a thousand words, but that won’t help you if your images and text don’t work together. Make time to find or create great visuals, and incorporate them into your marketing documents in a thoughtful, well-designed way.
- When you edit materials, challenge yourself to make every element of your communications stronger, even as you trim excess. Study your favorite newspaper. Reporters learn to set a scene within a word count.
Applying “show, don’t tell” to business writing will look different than it does in fiction. In any type of writing, however, following this guideline will result in more vivid, specific language that will better engage readers.
______
While we’re on the topic of storytelling, learn to pitch your story to the media.
