I get it. You are a new brand or business and you have a new website. You paid an arm and a leg for an amazing video about your company. Your Instagram looks beautiful and your business is something everybody needs.
But…it’s not working. All of that money. All of those perfectly staged product pics. The clean website. The promo video that could be submitted to film festivals. It’s not working.
I have a suggestion.
Words. Better words.
When it comes down to it, people do things because words tell them to do so. The wrong words telling the wrong story will only hurt your business.
It doesn’t matter how good everything looks if the words don’t move customers to engage with your products. (This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a clean website, great video, and killer social media, by the way).
Words tell stories and stories grow companies. And words are easy to change.
So here are 5 free ways good writing can help grow your business.
1. Use active language
Readers are lazy. They don’t want to read what you are writing and will find any excuse they can to not read your words.
Unless you take them somewhere. When you use active language, your customer stops reading and starts moving. They will forget the words on the page and instead imagine what it will feel like when they finally get to where you are taking them.
Here’s an example:
Consider a Donation – Passive language
Donate – Active language
And here’s another example:
If you think you might be interested in our services, feel free to reach out some time to chat. – passive language (and clunky)
Schedule a consultation now – Active language
Not only does active language involve action words (buy now, schedule a consultation, take a tour), but it is direct. Active language decreases the friction between your customer and the desired outcome.
This means your customers are more likely to do what you want them to do.
2. Remove Adverbs
Adverbs are the appendix of the English language. At best, they are useless. At worst, they can kill you (or at least your sentence).
If you are using active and direct language, you should never need to use adverbs to get your point across. Adverbs modify verbs, but if you are using the right verbs, your verb doesn’t need to be modified.
Here’s an example:
This widget will wildly change the way you effervescently engage with your Instagram audience [while quietly sitting at your exorbitantly expensive desk in your mildly inappropriate jammie bottoms.] - Bad writing
This widget will change the way you engage with your Instagram audience. -Good writing
If words tell stories and stories grow companies, you need to care about which words you use. And in the writing world, adverbs are almost always “bad” words.
The difference between a potential customer and an actual customer often comes down to whether or not a customer finishes the sentence. Every adverb you use makes a customer less likely to read it.
(Readers are lazy. Remember?)
3. Avoid insider language
Nothing kills a good product faster than insider language. Insider language is what it sounds like—words and phrases only someone on the inside of your industry will understand.
Most likely, if someone is coming to you for a product or a service, it’s because they are not in your industry! So, don’t talk shop!
When to use insider language: When you are at the Vacuum Maker Conference giving a lecture on micro-fusion and the effectiveness of trans-molecular negative fission for hard floor surfaces (Yes, I made that up.)
When to not use insider language: When you are trying to sell the vacuum cleaner that uses micro-fusion and trans-molecular negative fission to a dad who just needs a vacuum cleaner that won’t break every time it goes over a Lego.
When describing your business, think of it from the perspective of your customer, not your co-worker. What is the simplest way to describe what you do to someone who knows nothing about your business?
If you’re selling vacuums, tell people it will suck up everything, including Legos, and watch your sales go through the roof.
4. Be scannable
Words are a visual art.
Since readers are lazy, (except you, of course) the way your words appear on your collateral makes a difference.
A scannable website, pdf, pamphlet, or proposal reassures your customer they won’t have to work hard to understand what you are communicating.
Making lists, using headers to summarize points, pulling phrases out and putting them in separate spaces, help customers pay attention.
The more customers pay attention, the more they will interact with your company.
5. Write Short Sentences
Yes. I know. Some of the best writers in the world use long, flowing sentences. But you are not trying to be the best writer in the world.
You are trying to grow your company. You are trying to sell that thing you worked for months to make. You are trying to offer a service you trained for years to provide.
You are not writing Russian literature. You are not mommy blogging. You are growing a company, so get to the point as quickly as possible.
Every time you write something, try to decrease your word count by 20-30% in the second draft.
6. Give them a little more than what you said you would
Do you see what I did there?
Your business should always give customers more than they expect. Be generous with your time, your talent, and your resources.
Don’t be cheap. You need to make money. But you don’t want to just sell something, you want committed customers, and that takes time, relationship, and generosity.
At StoryWright, we believe that words tell stories and stories grow companies. If you want to implement these five writing tips, but don’t know where to start, schedule a consultation today.
We can help you find the right words to tell the right story to grow your company.
Schedule a Consultation today at to see what the right words telling the right story can do for you.
