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- Ask questions and understand your assignment: How can you write correctly if you don't understand exactly what you want your prospects to do when they've finished reading? You can't. At this stage, you should focus on grasping the project's goals and objectives. Acquiring deep knowledge here means you'll write right.
- Review content and evaluate obstacles: If selling promotional products was easy, everyone would do it. As a promotional consultant, you must continue to ask questions, explore and review your content until you understand every eventuality you need to address. Learning what obstacles your buyers face lets you address those concerns and make the sale.
- Research your audience: Knowing how to "speak" to your target audience impacts word choice, style and depth of detail. You can't address all promotional products buyers in the same voice, just as they can't address their target audiences with one item. Do your homework and learn about your clients and their clients. You'll translate this effort into reader-centric copy and results.
Once you've engaged a thorough pre-writing process -- write! And write again. Then put your copy aside. Go back to it, and write some more.
Think that's it? Think again.
Proofreading your copy is as important as pre-writing. It enables you to double-check not only spelling, grammar, style and other good writing components, but also to assess how well you achieved the goals established in the pre-writing process.
Yes, we all make mistakes -- but these mistakes can be costly when writing promotional material. Careless mistakes reflect your focus and attention to detail -- or lack thereof.
Multiple mistakes make the customer question your ability to get her orders right. While losing a customer can be costly, providing her with the wrong offer or information could cost you -- directly. If it's in writing, you're committed. Writing mistakes are costly roadblocks to your success.
Try the following proofreading tips and improve your promotional copy:
- Read backward.
- Read changes out loud.
- Triple-check phone numbers, addresses, URLs, e-mail addresses, names and titles.
- Do it one more time.
Your clear, correct copy will keep customers coming back for more.
Source: Roger A. Shapiro is president/creative director at Mitchell Rose, LLC, A Communications Consultancy. He is the author of Write Right, 26 Tips to Improve Your Writing. Dramatically.
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