Advice on Improving Your Writing Skills and Developing Your Online Business
The Digital Era: How to Improve Your English Writing Skills for the Online Business World
Our world has never been as connected, and this can be seen in the world of business. With a laptop, anyone can start a business from home as a freelance writer. Moreover, established businesses can manufacture goods in China, hold business meetings over the internet, and sell their ware anywhere in the world.
Still, in this new digital world full of opportunities, you will have to face new challenges. The Internet doesn’t work as a form of magic. From a business perspective, the world-wide web is a fast and efficient communication tool. That’s why improving your writing skills in English has never been as important as it is today.
With more online interaction happening in our world, the more important it is to master English. In 2024, the corporate world spent approximately $4.2 billion on workshops and seminars on the craft of writing and art of communication. But why are these multinationals investing in improving their employees’ writing?
Vague, unclear emails can lead to uncertainty within an organization. Bad decisions can be a direct result of fuzzy communication. Every memo and white paper that isn’t clear can cost an organization time, energy, and money. Every poorly written blog post or press release may not offer the desired return on investment (ROI).
For such reasons, corporations invest consistent sums of money annually in improving English writing skills for their employees. For these reasons, your small online business or medium-sized company should have better communication inside and outside the organization.
We can state that writing well isn’t just another soft skill that employees and employers should have, but a key to an organization’s success.
How can you improve your writing skills in English for your business? There are a couple of ways to achieve this. Before continuing, we wish to recommend some other pieces of writing that you should read if you want to improve your writing skills.
> One interesting article on fixing grammatical errors to improve your writing skills instantly.
> A list of unconventional ways to improve your writing skills.
> Books that you should read if you want to improve your writing skills.
> The best free apps that you need to try if you want to improve your writing skills.
> How to improve your writing skills in English as a nonnative
How Can You Improve Your Writing Skills in English for Business Endeavors?
This article will not tackle grammatical or punctuation issues, nor will it offer stylistic considerations. In this article, you will discover how to improve your English writing skills from a business perspective. It’s not about style as much as it is about how to organize and manage your content so that you can achieve the desired outcomes for your small online business.
Now, let’s examine how to improve your writing skills in English for your business.
> Audit Your Content
If you own a small online business, you have already written online. Your website and social media accounts, as well as your ads, are just some of the pieces of content that you use to drive your business. In fact, you may have written even more if we count posts and comments on Reddit or other social media platforms. No matter how much you have already written, you need to do this.
Your first mission is to audit your online content. Verify every piece of content for inconsistencies and errors. Begin by checking if you have used the same voice consistently across your channels.
In business, consistency is key. If, in your blog post, you frequently use the second-person pronoun ‘you’ and write in an informal tone, but in your email, you use only the third person and maintain a very serious tone, your content suffers from tone inconsistency. Decide on a tone and stick with it throughout your content.
After doing that, you can check for spelling errors. Too many professionals don’t differentiate between the writing conventions in American and British English. For this, you can use an app that helps spot errors. Again, your mission is to reach consistency. That’s why mixing the spelling rules of American and British English can make you look like a clumsy writer and your company not as serious as you want others to perceive it.
Why do you need consistency? Remember that your company requires voice unity. This way, you will appear as a professional in the eyes of prospects. Besides that, if your organization has several employees, maintaining this unity will ensure that communication errors will not be a problem as long as voice consistency is present.
About grammar, you should keep this in mind. Content with grammatical errors simply appears unprofessional. This may lead to fewer prospects taking your business seriously. If you want to check out some of the most frequent grammatical errors in business writing, you can check out our articles on such errors.
> Build a Brand Voice
Now that you understand the importance of unity in writing, in general, and in business writing, in particular, it’s time to build your brand’s voice. This requires you to create a copy platform for your organization. What does this entail? To clarify the fundamentals of your brand’s communication.
You will have to make your voice, tone, and style clear. This way, everyone in the organization will use it to communicate within the organization as well as with outsiders.
Why is it important? By creating a copy platform, your communication will be
> more efficient
> more clear
Fewer misunderstandings will appear, and more opportunities will emerge. Learning to have a unifying brand voice helps you improve your writing skills in English.
> Practice Your Writing Having Business Objectives in Mind
To improve your writing skills in English for your business, you cannot write aimlessly. You need to have business goals in your mind when sitting down in front of your laptop, thinking of what to post on the company’s website. Having goals is what improves writing over time.
For example, whenever you are writing a piece you must always have the three most important questions in mind: What am I writing about? Why am I doing this? For whom is the piece?
Bear in mind that your readers are time-pressured, goal-focused, and solution-seeking individuals. Being direct is often viewed as a virtue in this environment.
‘What?’ clarifies the topic, i.e., what you are writing about. The ‘Why?’ helps you clear out why you are writing this. This question can set the tone and writing style for your piece. Finally, knowing for whom you are writing will clarify the diction that you will use.
Every time you sit down to write a piece of content for your small online business, ask these three questions, answer them, and make use of them in your writing. You will see how you will improve your writing skills in English over time, your writing becoming stronger, more concise, and more convincing.
Since we are on the topic of business writing, you should practice writing CTAs to improve your writing skills in English. A CTA is a call to action; it’s that piece of text that asks the reader to take a specific action. How does that work?
If you are writing an email in which you want to convince your reader to check out the latest offers on your online store, then, somewhere at the end of the email, ask them to take a specific action. In this case, click to check the store’s latest offer. Other CTAs may imply simply accessing the store, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing something.
You can start practicing writing CTAs by studying some that you can find in sales letters, landing pages, or emails. Study the wording carefully and try to craft your own CTAs. With practice, you will reach precision, clarity, and brevity, i.e., you will improve your writing skills in English.
Other Important Notes on How to Improve Your Writing Skills in English
These were some of the most basic ways in which you can improve your writing skills for your small online business. Audit your content, create a unifying brand voice, and practice your writing. Do these regularly, and you will improve your English writing, stand out from your competition, and achieve business success.
Besides these three pieces of advice, you should take into consideration some other aspects.
For example, you can hire a professional editor or proofreader. By doing this, you will have a professional to show you what you are doing wrong. This will drastically improve your English writing skills. If you don’t have the resources to hire a professional editor, then you can use an AI-based tool to help you with it, e.g., Grammarly or Quilt.
Also, you can create a feedback loop within your organization. Encourage people within your organization to read and offer feedback. This way, everybody gets accustomed to the writing style and fosters a culture of improvement. (If you don’t have an extended network of people, you can use ChatGPT or any other AI to assist you and offer feedback.)
How can you improve your writing skills in English?
As you have already seen, there are a couple of useful ways to improve your writing skills in English for business. If you are running a small online business, you have every interest in improving your writing skills. Not only does today’s digitized world require us to have a good command of the English language, but knowing how to write properly for the business environment can make a difference between success and failure.
We at Thumos Writing are dedicated to bringing success through vigorous writing. If you are searching for a reliable partner in the world of business, you can contact us via email and find out how we can help you.
Your online business deserves success, and we can help you achieve it.
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