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Dear
SPARKers, welcome back to our first
official fall issue! Can you guess why we
are so excited? A) Gold is one of the
season’s hottest looks? B) We get to
pick apples and run through piles of leaves?
C) We can’t wait to provide you with
the most highly anticipated and novel fall
marketing ideas? Yep, you guessed it! (If
you failed the quiz, go reheat this
morning’s coffee and try again). On any
given day in our digital workplaces, we may
find ourselves sending e-mails, composing an
e-newsletter, posting to a blog, or chatting
it up in the social networking community. So
in this issue, we thought we would reveal 6
of our best kept secrets about the right way
to write for the web.
1. I’ll Take Mine
Skim
Scary fact: Most readers open and read your
e-mails in about 15-20 seconds. Keep these
communications short and sweet and break up
your writing into shorter and easily
digestible chunks of text. Know who your
target audience is and keep in mind that you
are not writing for print, which is more
verbose.
2. You Lost me at
Hello
Do you ever get those e-mails that someone
has passed along to you in hopes that you
will decipher the chain of 15 e-mails prior
to that one? Stop sending those already!
Instead, use bullet points or numbers to
emphasize specifics. Here is an example of a
strong and clearly written e-mail— “Dear
Tom, I will need those paper supplies
delivered by 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. Please find
more specific details listed below.”
3.
KISS Me You Fool
This one seems easy, but you wouldn’t
believe how many folks really struggle with
this concept. KISS, aka “Keep it Simple
Stupid,” should be the basis for all of your
business writing. Define all fancy acronyms
and jargon for your reader, don’t try and
dazzle them with an SAT word sprinkled in
here and there, and don’t cram your thoughts
into one long sentence. The intent is to
communicate as quickly and efficiently as
possible.
4. Passive Voice is So Passé
Always choose active voice over passive
voice, this is the difference between boring
your reader to the point where you lose them
and engaging them so that they do want to
continue reading. Passive voice—“Marketing
budget plans are being developed,” versus
Active voice—“We are currently developing
marketing budget plans.” Stay active and
don’t get caught in that place where you’ve
lost us and you’ve got us wondering if
anybody saw our head bob when we zonked out
for a minute.
5.
Step Away from the Crazy Fonts and Crayola
Colors
Alright, even we creative types fight the
urge to use fun colors and fonts in our
signature lines, but that’s impractical in
the business world. Give people what they
are used to seeing, so that they don’t skip
over the message entirely. Make sure that
your text color is easy to read in all of
your web communications. For example, dark
blue text on a black background is a no-no.
6. Check Yourself at the Door
and Spell Check
We can’t tell you how many times we receive
web communications or inquiries with
misspellings or typos that were hastily
composed. If you fail to take the time to
perform a quick spell check, then your
company’s reputation could suffer, a client
or customer may think you are
unprofessional, and you could ultimately
lose money and/or business. So take those
last final moments to perform that spell
check and breathe a sigh of relief.
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