Creative writing and business are two very different landscapes. You may be aware that content is a key aspect of marketing success: however the rules in business writing and starkly different to novel writing.
For those who are stepping into their first business worrying foray - one rule to never forget is keep it short and sweet.
Long sentences in creative writing are like poetry and can take you on a journey of discover from one place to the next - but in a business setting, it can become boring and unnecessary. Today we want to talk about some of the main reasons why long sentences in a business setting don’t work, and how you can avoid them to make your marketing efforts stand out in a good way!
Long sentences can be confusing
A business should be an authoritative figure, and should provide concise information from a trusted source. Being an authoritative body means that you should write in a way that anyone can understand. You never want to alienate some of your followers so this means keeping information short, sweet, and to the point. One useful pop-culture example of this is in the show Friends. Joey uses a thesaurus on every word in a sentence to make himself seem smart - but this was the result:
‘They are humid prepossessing Homo Sapiens with full-sized aortic pumps.’
What does this mean? You may ask.
Well, the real sentence should have been:
‘They are warm, nice, people with big hearts.’
See the issue here?
Overcomplicating content as a business is never good and a lot of the time it makes a simple piece of information confusing and nonsensical. Keep it simple, short, and sweet.
When formulating sentences keep your words clear, and try to stay below 20 words to make sure most people are comfortable reading it.
People don’t read
It is a simple fact that people don’t tend to read much when browsing. If your product descriptions, web content, or social media captions are super long - be prepared for no one to take notice. No one likes to sit reading paragraphs of content in their downtime and in fact, it will make them more likely to scroll past your content altogether. When creating marketing content make sure to keep it short and simple, because long sentences are just a waste of your time and everyone else’s.
Be bold
The most important part of writing content for a business is to grab the attention of the audience. Consider your customers and where they are when they see your content. Most people will be either at work in a loud office, on a busy commute, or at home in front of the TV. In order to cut through the noise and reach your customers - your message should be short and sweet and easy to understand. Make sure that any content you write can be read and digested in a short space of time and even when it’s busy.
Use these reasons to shorten your sentences and create better business content.