Fundamentals of Writing for Marketing and Public Relations

A Step-by-Step Guide for Quick and Effective Results

Janet Mizrahi

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781606491737
• eBook ISBN: 9781606491744
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Writing
• Index: Business

Fundamentals of Writing for Marketing and Public Relations will help anyone who wants to learn how to write or simply how to improve when writing for marketing and public relations. The author brings to light a fantastic, easy-to-follow guide that provides the basics needed to write promotional and informational materials.

Written in an approachable style, this book contains helpful samples and useful checklists that will make even the most timid writers confident that they have represented their organization's message in a professional manner.

Inside you'll find an overview of the marketing and PR writing styles and chapters containing step-by-step guides to the most commonly used marketing and PR genres such as:

• News releases,
• Newsletters,
• Brochures,
• Web copy,
• Social media (blogs and microblogs),
• Pitch letter and media kit.

Students studying business, marketing, public relations, or communication as well as small business owners and entrepreneurs will find this practical guide vital to their efforts to promote and inform various publics about their organization.

Chapter 1

Basic Writing Guidelines

The key to writing well is to remember that writing is a process—a series of steps rather than a one-shot deal. Whether you write an email to a colleague or create content for a start-up company’s website, your prose will be better and will take less time to compose if you look at writing as a series of tasks. Even if you suffer from writer’s block or shudder at the thought of writing, I can promise that when you break down writing into several component parts, the result will be better and you will be less frazzled.

AWE Writing Method

The task of writing has three separate steps, for which I’ve developed an acronym: AWE, short for assess, write, edit. These three steps should be completed for every piece of writing that will be seen by another person.

Step One: Assess

Before your fingers touch the keyboard or you put pen to paper, assess the writing situation by defining your audience and purpose. I recommend making this step formal: Write down your answers. Many advertising and PR agencies use forms called project briefs, which writers complete for each writing task. (We’ll discuss project briefs more completely in chapter 4.) They include, in part, the following criteria:

1. Know your audience. The language you use, the style in which you write, and the medium you employ are determined by who will read what you write. Use Table 1.1 to create a reader profile.
2. Define your purpose. The reason for writing any content falls into three basic categories: informing, persuading, and requesting. Informative writing includes instructions, notifications, warnings, or clarifications. Persuasive writing makes an impression, influences decisions, gains acceptance, sells, and recommends. Requests are written to gain information or rights and to stimulate an action.
   Unless you define the desired outcome of the written task, you cannot achieve that task’s objective. Are you writing a brochure to explain how to put up wallpaper or to convince a potential client to call a travel agent for more information? Are you issuing a press release to garner publicity for an event your firm is sponsoring or creating a newsletter to encourage your organization’s members to participate? Whatever the form of communication, know what you want it to accomplish before you write.
3. Research the topic. Gather the information you need. Interview experts, search databases, or actually do what you’re explaining in your writing task. Obtain whatever information you’ll need before you begin writing. Nothing is more frustrating than being on a deadline and realizing that you do not have the information you need.
4. Organize your information. First have all the facts physically on hand. It’s hard to manipulate 20 web pages on a screen at once, so print information when writing from multiple sources. On the printed page, highlight important points that must be included, remembering to reword anything you have taken from another source. It is plagiarism to use the exact wording of any copyrighted piece of writing without citing it even if the words are within quotation marks.
5. Categorize your information into sections. If you are writing a brochure about a bed-and-breakfast, put facts about the destination’s location in one pile, information about the inn and its amenities in another, and directions to the locale in another.
6. Outline the information you have gathered using headings and subheadings.

This first element of the writing process—assessing—should take about 25% of the total time spent on the task.¹

Table 1.1. Audience Profile

Audience characteristicRationaleAgeWriting for children differs from writing for adults or teens. Our tone, word choice, and medium may alter greatly depending on the age of the reader.Audience actionWhat do you want your audience to do after reading? Click a link for more information? Call to take advantage now? You must have a clear vision of your goal in communicating for a document to be successful.

Table 1.1. Audience Profile
Gender	Writing for an all-male audience will differ from writing for an all-female audience. Likewise, if the audience is mixed, we may make different language choices than we do for a homogeneous group.
Language proficiency	The reader’s knowledge of English will affect your word choice, sentence length, and other stylistic elements.
Education level	We may be writing for an audience with a 10th-grade reading level or one comprised of college graduates. Each audience will have different expectations and needs, both of which the writer must be aware.
Attitude toward writer or organization	We must know if the audience is skeptical, frightened, pleased, or hostile toward the topic or the organization. Writers who anticipate an audience’s reaction write in a fashion that will support the document’s purpose.
Knowledge of the topic	A document may be geared to people who are experts in a field or who know nothing about it. Even within an organization, several audiences will exist. The writer may emphasize different aspects of a topic depending on the readers’ knowledge levels.

Step Two: Write

Many people think that good writing flows out of the brain, into the fingers, and onto the page. Nothing could be further from the truth. Professional writers know that writing, like any acquired skill, requires dogged persistence. The essence of good writing is rewriting. So enter the second step of writing knowing that it is not the last step. A draft by definition is not final.

The purpose of a draft is to transfer the information you have gathered onto the page. Begin by referring to the outline you’ve created, and write section by section, point by point. If you have trouble with one section, move to another. Your goal at this stage of the writing process is to put something down on paper (or on the screen) that you will revise later. It’s a waste of your valuable time to labor over any individual word or sentence as you write your draft; that word or sentence may be eliminated by the final version. If you cannot think of the precise word you need, leave a blank and return later to fill it in. If you are having difficulty wording a sentence smoothly, leave a bracketed space or perhaps type a few words as a reminder of the gist of what you want to say. The important point to remember is that a first draft is one of several stabs you’ll take at this document.

Before you move to the next step, print a copy of your draft. But don’t read it immediately. Let it marinate. It’s too hard to edit our own copy immediately after we’ve written it. We need to let some time pass before we return to a draft so that we can be more objective when we edit.

This portion of the process should take about 25% of the total amount of time you work on the project.²

Step Three: Edit

I saw a great T-shirt at a meeting for the Society for Technical Writers. On the front was the word Write in boldface. Following that was line after line of the word Edit. The final boldface word at the end of the last line was Publish. Of course, the idea is that writing requires more editing than writing.

Global editing. Editing is a multistep process that begins by looking at the overall effectiveness of the piece. This is called global editing. As you read your draft, return to your audience and purpose analysis: Have you written a document that meets the needs of the audience while it accomplishes your purpose in writing? Does the document provide all the information end users will need to do what you want? Does it make sense? Is it well organized? If not, go back and make changes.

Local editing. Once you are certain that the content is correct and complete, it’s time for paragraph and sentence-level editing, called local editing. This is where you’ll need a good style guide (see the discussion “Writing Tools” later in this chapter), unless you are one of the few who has perfect recall of all grammatical rules. Begin by examining the effectiveness of each paragraph. By definition, a paragraph is a group of sentences about one topic; that topic is generally stated in the first sentence of a paragraph and is called a topic sentence. Good paragraphs have unity, which means they stay on topic, so first check each paragraph for unity. Make sure your paragraphs aren’t too long. In all marketing materials, we need to make sure our documents are reader friendly, and long paragraphs scare readers off.

Next check your paragraphs for cohesion, meaning that each sentence leads logically to the next. A common writing error is to jump from one idea to the next without providing a logical connection between those two ideas. Unless each idea expressed in a sentence logically segues to the next, your reader will not be able to follow. Writers link ideas in several ways:

1. Using transitional words and phrases. Transitions are broken down into types: adding information, contrasting information, comparing information, illustrating a point, and showing time.
2. Using pronouns that refer back to a specific noun.
3. Repeating key words to remind a reader of a central idea.

Once all paragraphs are edited, examine each sentence. Now is the time to nitpick grammar and stylistic elements. If you consider your knowledge level of grammar weak, don’t worry. With the right tools and dedication, you can master the most important grammatical issues. Pay special attention to egregious errors such as the following:

1. Subject-verb agreement
2. Comma splices
3. Sentence fragments
4. Run-on sentences
5. Dangling modifiers

Dangling modifiers are phrases that confuse readers by saying something other than what is meant. They often appear in an introductory phrase at the beginning of a sentence but omit a word that would clarify meaning in the second part of the sentence. Look at the following sentence:

After finishing the copy, the website was difficult to understand.

The website did not finish the copy (a synonym for written material); therefore, the meaning is obscured. Perhaps this sentence should read,

After finishing the copy, the writer/reader found that the website was difficult to understand.

Next find every pronoun to make sure it agrees with its antecedent and that the noun to which it refers is clear. Make sure you have written numbers in the correct way, using numerals and spelling out numbers appropriately. Stay in the same verb tense.

As you edit, take some time to read your copy aloud and make marks next to areas that require editing. This is the single best way to improve your writing. Professional writing should sound natural. If you find yourself stumbling as you read your copy, the chances are good that you have a problem; your ears will not allow you to pass over stylistic elements that your eye will just ignore. Listen for frequent repetition of the same word; for short, choppy sentences; and for sentences that begin with the same word or phrase. Make sure your sentences have variety in length, going for a good mix of short, medium, and longer sentences. Note whether you have started too many sentences with there is, there are, this is, or it is. Overuse of this wordy construction is a red alert for any professional writer to rewrite. (See the “Avoiding Wordiness Checklist” at the end of this chapter.) Finally, make sure you have used words according to their denotations.

About 45% of the writing task is spent editing. This portion of the writing process is the most laborious, but it is also the most critical.

Proofreading. The final element of writing is proofreading—editing your copy for typos and spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and formatting errors. Begin by double-checking the correct spelling of names. Then look at capitalization of nouns and titles and be consistent. Consult a style guide or dictionary if you are unsure of what and when to capitalize.

Next make sure you’ve used words correctly. Some words look or sound similar but have entirely different meanings (e.g., affect/effect and complimentary/complementary). If you have included a phone number or a URL in the copy, determine both are correct by calling the number or checking the link.

A warning about using Microsoft Word’s spell-check function: Spell check is far from foolproof. The omission of just one letter (say, the last s in possess) can change the word’s meaning, and Word won’t pick that up. Posses is a word (the plural of posse), but it isn’t the word you meant to use. Microsoft Word also won’t find names spelled incorrectly or words not in its dictionary.

Proofreading for punctuation is critical. Proper use of commas makes a huge difference in a document’s readability. Be especially on the lookout for inserting commas after introductory phrases and between two independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction. Likewise, tossing in a comma or semicolon haphazardly or omitting a comma or semicolon are common writing errors that affect readability. Both can slow flow and muddle meaning. Consider how the comma alters these two sentences:

That, I’m afraid, has not been the case.

That I’m afraid has not been the case.

The first sentence refers to a previous statement and conveys the meaning that an earlier statement is untrue. The second means that the individual claims to be unafraid.

Next examine your document’s format. Adhere to guidelines for the genre in which you are writing. Remember that documents not only must be well written; they must be attractive on the page or on the screen to maximize readability.

Proofreading should take about 5% of the total time of the writing process.³

Refer to the “Editing and Proofreading Checklist” at the end of this chapter.

Marketing and PR Writing Style

Writing promotional materials requires a high degree of professionalism. After all, the words on the page represent an organization. Everything from a company’s website to its brochures to an annual report reflects not just the writer who composes the materials but...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Basic Writing Guidelines
• Chapter 2: Writing News Releases
• Chapter 3: Writing Newsletters
• Chapter 4: Writing Brochures
• Chapter 5: Writing Web Copy
• Chapter 6: Writing for Social Media
• Chapter 7: Media Kits
• Notes
• References