Pauline E. Ranger For some reason, written communication is often underestimated.
Sales professionals spend an average of 36.2 hours per day writing emails. With such limited time, it is no surprise that many employees prefer sending emails “as-is” without revisions or rereading.
Your sales reps need to pay attention to spelling and grammar. According to a new study, 53.4% of respondents said they are not interested in working with a business if their sales reps make email typos. 26.3% of respondents said they wouldn’t bother to respond to an email with typos.
Business writing is more than just emailing work. This includes marketing and sales material, pitch decks and ads, blog posts, social networking, RFPs, contract drafts, guidelines, product descriptions, and more.
Written communication must be taken very seriously. The consequences of not taking written communications seriously can be very costly.
What is the cost of poor writing
Indirect and direct costs of poor writing are high. Ineffective business communication, for example, forces employees to spend more time clarifying unclear parts. Poorly written articles or product descriptions can discourage customers from purchasing from your business. Mistakes in grammar and punctuation can also make a contract void and result in money loss.
Josh Bernoff, in a survey from 2017, estimated that bad business writing costs American companies nearly $400 billion each year. The most common signs of a poorly written or ineffective text are “too long,” ‘poorly organised,” and ‘unclear.
What are the effects of bad writing on your business
A poorly written text can confuse the reader and distort your intended message. Many potential customers won’t bother to read a text that is overly complicated or full of typos and mistakes. You’ll eventually lose your audience and profit.
Bad business writing can also affect team productivity–especially for white-collar employees who deal with writing daily. It can negatively affect their performance and ability to contribute to your company if they consistently produce inefficient or poor texts.
Employees who have dyslexia also make mistakes a lot if they don’t receive the proper accommodations and software. They may confuse similar letters or arrange them incorrectly due to the condition. They are also often unaware of these errors. Many emails contain typos or incorrect spelling.
Uncertain instructions or guidelines to employees can lead to poor performance, mistakes, and financial losses for your business.
Simple language
Clarify the concept you are writing about. Avoid overly complex copy. Your goal is not to impress the reader but to communicate your ideas clearly and concisely. Eliminate four-line sentences and academic phrases. Also, avoid ambiguous idioms. Use plain language, and be sure to stay on topic.
Style guides are helpful
A company can now hire workers from anywhere in the world. Despite the benefits of remote working for companies and employees, there are challenges. Business communications can be negatively affected by the language barrier and cultural differences. It’s therefore essential to inform employees about your company’s style guidelines by giving a set of writing rules.
Write and rewrite
Urgency is often the cause of many mistakes made in business writing. If employees are given enough time to finish their texts, they may put them aside and return later to improve their writing. This results in an increase in the quality of text. If authors are given the chance to check their work, they can avoid many simple typos and errors.
Proofread your text
It’s a good idea to hire someone to proofread essential texts. This will help you catch any typos or errors you may have missed. A specialist often reviews technical documents and product descriptions. Test your marketing and ad text on your target audience before launching a full-scale campaign.
AI Writing Assistants
AI-based writing assistants are a great way to improve the quality of your business writing. These tools are designed to improve your writing by ensuring no typos, grammar, punctuation, or syntax errors.
They can also give you suggestions for correcting mistakes or improving the wording. You can paraphrase any sentence, not just those that contain errors.
