There’s a wealth of multimedia data floating out there on the Web these day. Podcasts, videos, webinars, all of these things are supposed to be somehow more engaging to web-surfers than just plain old text. You might be tempted to think that, amidst all this Web 2.0 buzz, the written word is as obsolete as Windows 95.
But hold off before you write off … well, writing. Studies performed last year by Enquiro, KnowledgeStorm and Marketing Sherpa, show that B2B buyers still prefer text based information over multimedia. And even beyond the B2B sphere writing continues to be vital, in email correspondence, in marketing materials, and in sales.
So today I’m showcasing some resources that might help hone writing skills. First up is a great webinar The Language of Success: How to Write Clearly and Persuasively by the Sant Corporation, a sales effectiveness applications group. Despite the fact that there’s a certain irony to using a non-text format to teach people about writing, Sant’s webinar is a great overview of some of the common mistakes in business writing, specifically in the area of sales. The, now retired, founder of the company Tom Sant offers some great advice about how to craft RFPs, respond to customers questions, and generally be an effective sales writer.
Sant’s not the only place on the Internet you can go for writing advice. Most colleges have some kind of writing center, meant to help students with their academic writing and most of these center’s have webpages full of handouts on all sorts of writing topics. Obviously some of it is focused on purely academic concerns, but there is also alot of general advice on writing that’s valuable for both those in school and out.
Here are a couple links I culled from the UNC and U Madison centers.
Writing Clear, Concise, and Direct Sentences (UM)
Adding Action and Clarity to Writing(U Richmond)
These are just a few; a quick Google of the phrase “Writing Center” will turn up more. Of course since these are targeted at students you’ll see words like “assignment,” “thesis,” and “professor,” but if you just read through them and think about how to apply it to your context there’s a lot of useful stuff there.
For the curious the studies mentioned at the beginning of the article can be found here
Knowledge Storm/Marketing Shrepa Connecting Through Content (must register to read)
No related posts.
