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It’s no joke: The power of using clear and simple language in business

*Business language under scrutiny in comedy show W*nkernomics*

There is a segment in comedy stage show W*nkernomics: Just Touching Base where the two employees are trying to find out what it is the company they work for actually does.

They visit the website and instead of plain English find it stuffed full of wordy corporate language that leaves them none the wiser.

Employees not knowing what their business does may be an absurd notion, purely for comic effect, but company websites that do not clearly state what they do are far more common than they should be.

You know the sort of thing:

End-to-end workspace solutions = office fit out
Curated collaborative environments for the modern workforce = serviced offices
Optimising asset performance across the built environment = building management

This language might sound powerful and clever, but it isn’t.

Phrases like this can feel evasive or lacking in confidence.

It begs the question, why don’t they want to clearly say what they actually do? Why are they hiding behind unclear language?

Then there is visibility.

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Audience and content reach: Does size matter?

Does size of audience matter? Photo by Wan San Yip on Unsplash

Social media has opened up the potential audience reach for business content, but is size everything?

Some metrics feel important, and going viral is no doubt a buzz, but it can be fruitless if the right people aren’t seeing and responding to your content.

On the very few occasions I’ve gone what could possibly be considered viral on LinkedIn, it’s mostly ended up in more ‘random’ people seeing my content and a raft of spammy comments.

Yes, you want your content to be seen, but quality should trump quantity.

The best audience for your content

I was recently asked to talk to the marketing team of a European commercial property developer about press relations and tactics for getting more coverage.

One question asked was about the value of getting press coverage on a freely accessible news website versus coverage on a site behind a subscription paywall.

Freely accessible might imply there is a bigger audience, but that doesn’t mean more people or even the right people will see your quote or op-ed.

If someone has subscribed to a website, they are already invested in the type of content being published.

It is also highly likely that the publisher will send subscribers emails with the latest headlines or round-ups of key stories and articles.

That means the news story or article you appear in is going into the inbox of an already engaged audience, so it arguably stands a better chance of being read.

The question is whether you would rather the piece you’ve been quoted in appear in the inbox of a smaller number of engaged readers or an unknown number that may or may not be interested.

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Make it an event: Delivering successful round tables

A group of men and women in business attire sat around a long narrow table. They are listening to one person speaking. — *Moderating a round table at MIPIM 2019*

Round tables can be a great event format for generating high-trust, peer-level conversations rather than one-way marketing, but what makes a successful round table?

You can use round tables to:

• Bring together senior industry stakeholders

• Share real industry challenges and workshop ideas.

• Kick off a campaign or as part of a campaign

• Means for gaining qualitative insights

• Generate a variety of insightful content

• Build a reputation as a leader within the industry and a brand around which experts gather.

How to deliver a successful round table?

PURPOSE: Have a clear aim. What do you want to get out of the people that you are gathering together in one place?

How do you want to use their knowledge and experience? Is there a particular question you want them to answer or a problem you want them to solve?

GUESTS: Think about the best combination of guests to deliver on your purpose.

You don’t want a group that is going to say similar things, so make sure there is a variety of voices with different experiences.

Will the people around the table learn something from each other?

Are there people who will challenge thinking and, therefore, help drive the conversation in a more interesting way and deliver better results?

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Content marketing challenges: Getting team buy-in

A big part of the content marketing battle is taking non-marketers with you, so that the content they create is purposeful and effective.

How do you build team trust with the content strategy and get buy-in, particularly when there are no quick wins?

Here are some common problems marketing teams might face and ideas for how to navigate them.

Doing your own marketing? Some of these ideas will help you with content creation, too.

The content problem: Too busy

“I’ve not got time, I’ve got work to do.”

Solution: Think of ways of making content creation easier or more manageable.

Can you help come up with content pillars, 2-4 content themes to help with idea generation, or pre-approved topics to post about?

If writing is challenging and time-consuming, can you come up with a framework for structuring a simple post or article?

For those who prefer talking rather than writing, they could try dictating their thoughts and ideas into a notes app on their phone or directly into Word.

Transcript apps like Otter.ai are also available.

This gets people past the blank page and makes it an editing job rather than writing from scratch.

For longer thought leadership pieces, ghostwriting might be the best option.

The content problem: Playing it safe

Staff stay in their comfort zone, such as simply sharing a company post without adding their own thoughts or don’t create a post from scratch.

Solution: Evidence, such as data, can show the impact of personal posts vs company posts.

But equally, is there someone in the team who is off and flying with LinkedIn content that you can point to as inspiration?

Maybe get them to talk through how they approach posting or share their top tips.

Content pillars and a framework can help here, too. Think of small steps they can take to help them get going and build confidence.

On LinkedIn, this could be adding meaningful comments to posts to get comfortable putting thoughts and ideas ‘out there’. This can build up to posting.

Commenting is a good strategy regardless of whether you are posting or not.

The content problem: Writing for the wrong people

Content isn’t written with the intended target audience in mind (eg, a particular client group) but instead is written for the author or to impress peers.

Solution: Help people understand who they’re writing for (and why), perhaps by identifying key audience members.

Can you make the people they are writing for real? For example, pick 2 or 3 people in the target audience that they know and then get them to think about what would be interesting to them.

The questions they typically ask or the challenges they typically have can be a good starting point.

The content problem: Copy is too salesy

People treat content as a barely disguised sales pitch.

Solution: Reframe the purpose of the content.

Rather than directly selling, the job of content is to make readers smarter or help them in some way. Ask the question: If a competitor wrote this, would you want to read it or engage with it?

The ‘sell’ of content is being a business that is helpful and knowledgeable: building know, like and trust with potential clients.

It’s about being visible and building a relationship, so when they want to buy, they know who they want for the job.

The content problem: Sporadic posting

Lack of consistency in content creation, particularly when results aren’t immediate.

Solution: What systems can you put in place to make it easier to post and add some gentle accountability?

Think of pre-written prompts, shared calendars or regular content planning chats.

Encourage posting on LinkedIn by sharing small wins such as a comment on a post, a new follower, a connection request and profile views.

The stats for individual posts will give most of this information.

What other small successes can you highlight? For example, has regular posting led to a conversation in DMs or offline, or have they been recognised at an event because of their content?

The content problem: Don’t appreciate the skill and strategy

Everyone is an expert editor and content marketer.

Solution: Create a simple style guide or checklist that people can easily follow when creating and reviewing content.

Reframe the marketing team as editors working to protect contributors’ credibility, not just rewrite their content.

What common problems have I missed? Let me know in the comments.

🖥️ Ready for more hands-on help with content creation? I offer content audits, ghostwriting services, writing and LinkedIn training. Get in contact to find out more.

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B2B content mistakes to avoid (part 1)

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