Know thy readers

The First Commandment of writing that gets results is Know Thy Readers.

Web guru Gerry McGovern (www.gerrymcgovern.com) proved how crucial audience research is. When researching search terms for a discounted-airfares website, he learned this:

In the USA, over 80 times more people search for “cheap flights” than for “low fares,” but in the UK that figure skyrockets to 6,500 times more people who search for “cheap flights” instead of “low fares”.

That’s invaluable when you consider most airlines like to say “low fares”. The lesson? Your readers can think very differently to you. Whether you’re writing a proposal to win $1m of work, or a monthly report, the better you know your readers the more successful your writing will be.

Here’s a fast track to figuring out your readers’ “hot buttons,” building rapport with them, and using the right level of jargon:

1. Internet searches: Google their name, but narrow your search results by using inverted commas: “Joe Bloggs”. Also try searching on social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook.
2. Read what they’re reading: This will help you talk in their “language,” as well as learn what issues are top of mind for them. E.g. if your reader was in HR, you’d read HR Monthly, etc.
3. Read what they’re writing: If your target is the CEO of a company, search her website for speeches, press releases or newsletters she may have written or contributed to.
4. Talk to their contacts: No, don’t stalk your target, but finding a natural way to learn more about them by talking to their friends or staff can be worth it.
5. Talk to them: People are often more approachable than you expect, and may give you time if you frame your meeting as a win-win. For larger audiences, consider surveying them, e.g. with Survey Monkey.

How else do YOU research your readers? Share the love and your thoughts in comments below…

Exterminating Errors

Nothing says “I’m careless” more than errors in your document. But no matter how hard you stare at the page, sometimes you just can’t spot you’re mistakes (see?). So how to find them?

These proven proofreading tips will save your skin:

1. Fresh eyes: The Golden Rule is to put your writing aside and look at it with fresh eyes later – preferably after a sleep, during which your brain “resets” itself.
2. Buddy up: The freshest eyes of all are someone else’s! Why not become someone’s “copy buddy,” and shoot important copy (writing) to each other to check?
3. Several passes: Go through your document several times looking for one thing at a time. E.g. in one pass, just check content; then in another, check for typos; then in another, check your grammar, and so on.
4. Read aloud: Reading your copy aloud helps stop your brain skipping over mistakes.
5. Print it: Reading on screen is slower and harder. You’ll find more errors on a printout (use recycled paper).
6. Change font: Surprisingly, temporarily changing your font can help you see errors.

Classic blunders

• Report cover for UK’s “Public Guardian”: “The Pubic Guardian”
• Newspaper headline: “Iraqi Head Seeks Arms”
• Sign in foreign hotel: “The manager has personally passed all the water served here”
• In a resume: “I have good attention too detail …”

What are your tried and true proofreading methods? Found any clangers lately? Let us know!

Links to help you think

When a hairy deadline is banging down your door, it pays to be organised so you can find what you need quickly.

Here are some writing resources and tools that have frequently helped improve or correct my copy. They’ll help you meet that deadline with confidence. Bookmark, and enjoy!

[N.B. Advertising funds many of them, so “block popups” first, if you haven't already.]

• Plain English: Plain English Foundation [see “Free guides”]
• Idea generation: Bubbl.us, FreeMind
• Writing advice: The Writing Show (also podcast)
• Writing tips: Magneto e-zine archive
• Grammar & punctuation: Grammar Girl (also podcast), wikiHow, Online Writing Lab (OWL)
• Dictionaries: Dictionary.com, idioms, reverse, rhyming
• Quotations: Quotations Page
• Thesaurus: Thesaurus.com

Survey results on “tone” research: So far a quarter of our e-zine readers got this wrong: “When talking face-to-face, how much of your message is communicated via your words compared to nonverbals, like tone?”
Quiz and answer here.

What do you need to read? What would you like to read in this blog? Tips on persuasive writing, brevity, layout? More? Please let me know in this one-minute survey.

Tone up your flabby phrases

Getting the tone of your writing wrong can be disastrous. The resulting misunderstandings can lose you business, relationships – even your job.

This was top of mind for me recently when I was training clients in Hong Kong and Singapore. Many Asians, careful not to “lose face,” are polite when talking to people in person. But when writing in English they sometimes sound too abrupt; e.g. “I want your report by Monday,” instead of “Please have your report to me by Monday.”

What’s tone? It’s how your writing sounds. It reflects your attitude towards your reader. Does it sound friendly and professional, or stiff and formal? Confident or arrogant? Helpful or bureaucratic?

Here’s how to adjust your tone:

1. Delay sending. If your message or reader is important, put your writing aside for a while (preferably overnight) so you can review it with “fresh” eyes before sending. OR have someone else read it.
2. How well do you know them? Be more careful with your tone when readers don’t know you well (they’re less likely to forgive any misplaced tone).
3. Nice or nasty? Be paranoid about your tone when writing something negative (e.g. critical feedback). Better still, don’t write at all – talk to them.
4. Check your attitude. Readers can smell a bad attitude. If you’re annoyed about something, “vent” first to release your emotional hot air – talk it over with a friend or write what you’d like to say, but then delete it!
5. Don’t write negatively. i.e. “Write positively”! E.g. Before: “Please pay by Friday or I won’t be able to give you the special rate” (negative).
   After: “Please pay by Friday so I can give you the special rate” (positive).

Surprising “tone” research: When talking face-to-face, how much of your message is communicated via your words compared to nonverbals, like tone? You won’t believe this.

Now go tone up your flabby phrases!

Got another angle on tone you’d like to share? Please let me know as a comment below…

Writing in your underpants

Always remember your writing represents you. How does yours make you look? Do your letters sound respectable, as if you’re in a suit, but your emails sound like you’re in shorts and t-shirt? Too much informality ain’t good (see?).

Take it too far and you’ll sound like you’re just in your undies! Examples include using computer game jargon and text-message abbreviations in job applications – see “Graduates ‘SMS’ in job l3tt3rs” (Sydney Morning Herald).

That article cites a survey showing employers care most about graduates’ communication skills, more than their analytical abilities or academic records.

One area people come unstuck in is openings and closings:

• Openings: “Dear John” is good for letters; “Hi John” for emails. (But know your audience — a successful young businesswoman I know thinks strangers are rude and too familiar when they email her with “Hi X”.)
• Closings: For letters, “Yours sincerely” if you know their name; “Yours faithfully” if you don’t. For emails, “Cheers” if you know them well, and something like “Kind regards” if you don’t.
• Tip: How did your reader write to you? If they EMAIL you with “Dear John” and sign off with “Yours faithfully,” think twice before replying with “Hi Frank” and “Cheers”.

Like to take your writing up a notch? This article, “Writing Wrongs,” previously published in HR Monthly, is for you.

Survey results: Creative avoidance
Last month we asked for your most creative ways of avoiding writing. Full results are here [click "view"]. Highlights were plucking eyebrows, flossing teeth and vacuuming shoeboxes!

To overcome these dire afflictions, see my blog on procrastination!

Is writing becoming too informal? e.g. some people think contractions (don’t, can’t, won’t, etc) are too informal for business writing today. What do you think?

Procrastinator Terminator (don’t read this later)

Mark Twain wrote, “If you have to swallow a frog, don’t look at it too long.” Welcome, fellow frog-starers; this is for you.

The agony
Procrastination results in stress and shoddy work. Why? Because if you leave it until Zero Hour you:

• won’t be able to put it aside to let your subconscious mull over it, to generate fresher ideas
• will rush your work, and make errors in content, layout or punctuation, etc.

The ecstasy
You’re not doomed to procrastinate forever; like any bad habit you can “unlearn” it.

Here are four proven procrastination prescriptions:

1. Gimme five: Commit to doing the task for just five minutes – a tiny time period. When five minutes is up, decide if you want to continue. You probably will, but if not, at least you’ll have started.
2. Break it down: Need four hours to write a report but only have 20 minutes until your next meeting? Do something towards it – brainstorm some notes, call a subject expert, or draft your contents page. Then your brain will be engaged so you’ll have better ideas when you continue it later.
3. Daydream: Imagine the endgame – how will you feel if you do great work? What results will you get? What will your boss or client say? Now imagine the opposite of all that – what you’ll get if you procrastinate. That should motivate you!
4. A, not B: Is this you? “I can get any amount of work done, as long as it’s not what I’m meant to be doing.” If you busy yourself with priority “B” things instead of important “A” tasks, wake yourself with a slap, see point 3 above, then point 1!

How do YOU procrastinate?
Tell us your favourite ways to avoid writing, and your reward will be an EXTRA anti-procrastination tip — and it’s a biggie. We’ll (anonymously) share the funniest avoidance strategies next month. Tell us now (don’t put it off!).

OR you can share your thoughts for the world below…

Showdown: I vs. Me

A lady from a major bank wrote to me recently asking if I’d help her settle a $50 bet she had with her workmate about “I” vs. “me.” Which do you think is right?

1. Box a few rounds with Tyson and I
2. Box a few rounds with Tyson and me

Most people in my courses think “I” would win the round. But they’re wrong; “me” is the champ here. (So was the lady from the bank – she won her bet.)

But look out! “I” hasn’t thrown in the towel yet! Which of these is right?

1. Tyson and I boxed a few rounds
2. Tyson and me boxed a few rounds

With a sharp uppercut “I” knocks out “me” and wins!

Punch drunk? Confused? Here’s how to tell when to use
“I” vs. “me.”

The quick way: remove the other person and see if it still makes sense. So, “Box a few rounds with Tyson and I,” becomes, “Box a few rounds with I,” which is obviously wrong. Then you’d know it should be, “Box a few rounds with Tyson and me.” (Prove it works for yourself: try the same rule on “Tyson and me boxed a few rounds.”)

The technical way: it depends on whether the pronoun [I or me] is acting as the subject or the object of the sentence. [The subject is what does the action; the object is what the action is done to.] “I” can only be used as the subject of a sentence; “me” can only be used as the object of a sentence. Ditto for she/her, he/him, we/us, etc.

You’ve been saved by the bell! Now you know when to use “I” or “me” you can replace your mouthguard, climb back in the ring and sock it to ’em!

Has this helped you? Please let me know by leaving a comment below…

Apostrophe Catastrophe

The apostrophe is the most abused, confused punctuation mark of all. Use it incorrectly and this small mark can cause you big embarrassment.

Is it “the cats pyjamas,” “the cat ’s pyjamas,” or “the cats’ pyjamas”? “Its a nice day” or “It’s a nice day”? “DVDs” or “DVD’s”? The bind moggles.

(See some real-life howlers at the Apostrophe Protection Society.)

Apostrophes are actually pretty straightforward. They have two main uses:

1. To show one or more letters are missing, e.g. “It’s a nice day.” The apostrophe here stands in place of the missing “i” in “It is”. Other examples: don’t (for “do not”), can’t (for “cannot”), and won’t (for “will not”).
2. To show something belongs to something else (i.e. the possessive use), e.g. “The dog’s bones.” That’s the singular version, meaning the bones belong to just one dog. If there were two or more dogs, it becomes “The dogs’ bones” (the plural version).

It’s exceptional
The exception to the rule that tricks many, is “its.” You could be tempted to write, “The cat hurt it’s leg,” because the “leg” belongs to “it,” the cat, and you’d be obeying the possessive rule in point 2 above, right?

Wrong. The correct version is, “The cat hurt its leg,” because the exception to the rule is “its.” Remember this:

ONLY use an apostrophe in “it’s” when it means “it is.”

DVD’s or DVDs?

Let’s see how good a student you are. Using what you learned above, vote here on which DVD version is right. As soon as you vote you’ll get the answer.

Are apostrophes your greatest bugbear? If yes, has this helped you? If no, what IS your biggest punctuation problem? Let us know with a comment below…

Influence through “Scarcity”

Social researcher Cialdini tells of an experiment in which two groups of people were asked to rate choc-chip biscuits.

Group A took theirs from a jar containing ten biscuits; Group B took from a jar with just two biscuits.

The result? Group B rated the biscuits higher on almost every measure – even though the biscuits were identical.

This is scarcity at work. And it’s a very useful “influence” technique.

Here are some ways to use “scarcity” to get better results from your writing:

• Scarce time – Imposing deadlines on your readers will motivate them to act sooner rather than later (because “later” is probably “never”!), e.g. “Offer ends 30 June.”
• Scarce amount – Your product will be more attractive if it seems rare or exclusive, e.g. “special edition,” “Limited offer” or “Exclusive release.” Be specific if you can – “Just five left” trumps “Just a few left.”
• Scarce information – Research shows if you limit access to a message people value it more and find it more persuasive. Can you structure your message so your readers believe it’s restricted information, e.g. “Exclusive members-only offer”?

Booster 1: “Scarcity” works better when people think something’s newly scarce – i.e. when it hasn’t always been in short supply, but suddenly becomes so. E.g. “Unprecedented interest means only 45 seats left!”

Booster 2: It works better again when people realise they’re competing with others for scarce resources. A common real-estate sales ploy is to tell wavering buyers someone else is also interested in the property.

Have you seen other examples of scarcity at work? Please let us know with a comment below…

Influence through “Social Proof”

Feeling sheepish? Your readers are. Well, they (like all of us) can act like sheep when making decisions.

Ever notice yourself checking what others are doing when you’re unsure what to do? We all take cues from others about whether to eat chicken with fingers or a fork, how fast to drive, and how to dress at work.

This is Cialdini’s Social Proof in action. How much more “sold” are you on an Amazon book when you see hundreds of others have “rated” it highly? “All those people can’t be wrong!” (you think).

And the more similar your “reference” is to your reader, the better (e.g. a banker’s testimonial will sway an accountant more than one from a plumber). See how SalesForce do this.

Humans like shortcuts and often react based on only partial evidence. Here’s how to leverage that in your writing:

• Testimonials. Ask for them straight after you’ve worked for clients, and include them in your marketing. But keep them short.
• Case studies. Especially powerful when you include specific, measured results you achieved. Keep these short, too (example).
• Big names have big impact, so highlight well-known and respectable companies who’ve used your business.
• Pictures of your typical target audience enjoying your product/service will reassure your clients they’re in the right crowd.

What other examples of social proof have you seen? Let us know with a comment below…