
Hello {name}! Welcome to the June edition of
business writing ideas from Word Constructions!
Can you believe it is
almost a new financial year again? Just over four weeks to go and it
seems like only a few weeks ago I finished last year's
accounts and records! Now is the time to be thinking about it,
though, and
preparing things to maximise any tax incentives you are entitled
to. For example, making personal super contributions or claiming
self-employed super deductions, sending out invoices and getting
records up-to-date.
I often find this is a
good time of year to assess your own learning - usually because I am
thinking about maximising my tax return so actively look for the
books and seminars that I have noted to get at some stage! As well
as keeping up in your own industry, there are many skills to running
or managing a business and those areas can be helped by books and
training. If you are preparing budgets for the year ahead, I suggest
including money for training, too - yourself as well as your staff -
as knowledge can bring in new ideas, increased efficiency, new
skills, increased morale and greater confidence.
During May I listened
to Les McKeown talk about growing your business and discussing his
book,
Predictable Success: Getting your organisation on the growth track.
His book is about knowing the stages of business and then choosing
where you want to be. One tip I gained from his talk was to do
something everyday to find and/or engage with your profitable
market. I admit I haven't kept tabs on doing this everyday as such,
but putting more conscious effort into this area is reinspiring me
and my business so maybe you can get value from his tip, too.
Short, practical tips
are my favourites - they are easy to remember and therefore much
more like likely to be implemented. 'Doing something everyday' is a
great tip as I can follow that on even the busiest of days by doing
something quick and easy, as well as putting in more effort on other
days. I can see the difference in traffic, for example, when I
regularly put effort into my blog compared to when I post less
frequently.
Until next time, use
your words wisely,
Tash
Recent blog posts you
may find useful:
When writing is important for business
Repeat what works
business profiles
Meaningful posts people love to read
Blogging when you're not around
Making your sentences effective
P.S. To help you prepare for 30 June, I am offering 5% off all
writing and editing services to my newsletter subscribers who
purchase one of my eBooks (work to be booked in June). When booking a
project with me, simply mention this offer and tell me which eBook
you bought and I'll deduct the 5% for you.

The
instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our
neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it
becomes the property of all.
~
Voltaire

Planning a communications calendar
By Tash Hughes of
Word
Constructions
As well as writing for clients, I sometimes am involved in planning
upcoming communications for clients; that is, we plan a
communications calendar so we know what is coming up for the next
six or 12 months. For a small business or overwhelmed communications
person, this sort of planning can seem like an impossible task or at
least a task to be left for 'tomorrow'.
However, some of the reasons to consider establishing a
communications calendar are:
-
you can distribute your communications evenly across the year
rather than sending out 3 emails in December and nothing at all
over winter
-
you can prepare future communications during the quieter times
of the year
-
you have time to find appropriate support and materials, meaning
less stress and probably less expense too. For example, in
January this year I wrote 14 emails for one client and had a
designer prepare them nicely so for the rest of the year, it is
very easy to send out their monthly emails even in chaotic weeks
-
being prepared for any responses - you can ensure no one is on
holidays or hire temporary staff for the week you send out a
major campaign or increase production leading up to a promotion
-
having the ability to tailor campaigns better. For example, do
separate emails for men and women or different newsletters for
younger and older subscribers. Putting together a campaign in a
hurry makes it virtually impossible to prepare two versions or
separate out relevant demographics for the split so you just end
up with a more generic campaign and miss an opportunity
-
you can coordinate multiple approaches such as have your website
update with matching banners before you launch an ad or email
An offline back up is great for accidental deletions, not just for computer
failure or fire!

Possessive
pronouns
By Tash Hughes of
Word
Constructions
A pronoun is a word that can be substituted for a noun; the most
common pronouns are she, he, we and it.
Possessive means to possess or own something.
So a possessive pronoun is a generic word used in place of a
groups of nouns or a noun for a group. So instead of 'this house
belongs to John, Mary and I' we write 'the house is ours', and
instead of 'the cars of the teachers' we can write 'the cars are
theirs'.
The most common possessive pronouns are theirs, ours, mine, its,
his, hers, yours and whose; the most common mistake with these words
is to add an apostrophe. These words show possession by default so
do not need an apostrophe added before the s.
'Her meal arrived on time but ours was slow' and 'the book is
hers, not yours' are correct.

Plan your schedule, collaborate with your team, follow your income, and let your
clients help themselves

Sometimes, the easiest
way to learn the correct way to do something is to see it done
poorly so in this section of my newsletter, I show you some
real-life examples of writing that need a little help.
This is from the
contact page of a website aimed at new mothers (I
changed the name to Pacme but the rest is as I read it on
their site)...
Example:
With the nature of Pacme, being an online
virtual health centre, our specialists are situated throughout
Australia. Due to this we prompt you to contact us via email so that
we can forward your query to the appropriate Pacme specialist.
Issues with this
example:
There are quite a number of issues here
unfortunately, so I'll put them briefly as points to keep it simple:
-
'with the nature' implies something goes
with it whereas 'due to' means the nature is part of a cause and
effect
-
adding the phrase 'being an online virtual
health centre' is long and presumably unnecessary if people are
trying to contact the site. "Being an online health centre"
covers the first 11 words really
-
'online virtual' if a business is online
then by default is it not virtual? You certainly don't expect
to visit an online centre
-
'we prompt' - seriously, who says we prompt
you to call us? 'Call us' is much simpler, but if you want the
longer version words like invite, welcome, prefer, suggest and
urge would work better than prompt
-
'contact us via email' is a long way of
saying 'email us'
-
two sentences starting with a version of
'due to' is boring and unnecessary - if the first sentence is
the explanation of the second one, merging them into one
sentence would be easier to understand
-
the overall impression is official and (to
me anyway) pompous. An approachable health centre would appeal
to more people so a friendlier tone and simpler language would
be more effective.
An improved version would
be: (without changing the meaning)
As Pacme is an online health centre, our specialists are located
across Australia. Therefore, it is easiest to email us so the
appropriate Pacme specialist can respond to your query.
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