Here are ten top tips to make your written communications brilliant. I know you’ll know them all. But do you do them all?
- Verbal better? Many written communications should never have been a written communication. Instead, they should have been verbal – phone call, Teams, etc. So, only use written if that is the best channel
- Engaging title. Your title is your first impression. So, it must be engaging. Calling something “FYI” or “update” is a dreadful first impression. Instead, the simplest, best way to engage is to include their #1 priority: “How to retire age 55″ is better than “financial update”
- Action-focussed. If you want someone to do something, you have to ask them to do something. So, every communication should end with a Call To Action
- Shorter length. Most written comms are waaaaay too long. Shorten yours. Remove everything you can. Background info goes in an appendix. Irrelevant info goes in the bin
- Shorter paragraphs. People love white space. They hate clutter. So, make paragraphs 3-4 lines long max. This is an easy one to master: just press the “return” key more
- Shorter sentences. Keep them short and punchy. Two short sentences beats one long one. So avoid joining words like ‘and’, ‘but’ etc. Don’t make them abrupt and rude. 8-12 words per sentence is fine
- Use ‘normal’ words. For some weird reason, when people write, they often turn into a corporate robot. We write stuff like “Prior to the commencement of”. But, if we were talking, we’d just say ‘before’! Write like you speak
- Use AI sparingly. AI can be brilliant. But not if you delegate everything to it. Use it wisely; or not at all. Don’t use it as a substitute for you
- EHSI. Using jargon and acronyms is not good (unless everyone understands them). For example, EHSI just stands for Everyone Hates Stupid Initials
- If in doubt, refer to #1. Go verbal more. It’s quicker, nicer, more personable… And much more likely to work
You know all these. Everyone knows all these.
But the Big Question for today: do you do all these?
Action Point
Review a couple of things you wrote yesterday. How many of these ten did you do? How many do your readers wish that you did? And then, most importantly…
…for your next written communication, how many of the ten will you use?