Is your BRAND STORY promoting
or damaging your business?
For the last 10 years, while working in the communications and public relations industry, I
have witnessed first-hand how clients from small business owners to local government
departments and public benefit organisations struggle to tell stories well. Or, even worse, tell
it littered with factual errors, typing mistakes, poor punctuation and grammar.
Like the first impression we make when we walk into a room, a badly told story or a poorly
written piece makes for a very difficult read and directs attention away from what you are
trying to say. Instead, the reader’s attention is drawn to the names you may have misspelt,
the obvious fact that you may not have proofread your copy after the first draft or that you
have not thought about what it is you wanted to say in the first place.
Small business owners use copy in various ways every day - be it in a brochure to advertise
products or services, on a website or in a newsletter. If your copy is not well put-together,
even the best graphic design work can be all for nought.
Sloppy copy can do your brand image a lot of harm. It can create the impression in your
target market’s mind that if you cannot be bothered to produce quality copy about your
services or products, whether the same could be said to be true when it comes to the kind of
experience your clients can expect when interacting with your brand.
Below are a few basic tips to help you create professional, clearly understandable copy from
the get-go:
1) Who is your target audience?
It is important to decide who you are writing for before you start compiling your content. If
you don’t know who you are talking to, you run the risk of conveying the wrong message to
the wrong audience, making mistakes in tone – you would not use the same tone when
speaking to the CEO of a company as opposed to a group of students – and perhaps even
choosing the wrong topics to address with your audience all together.