How to Write a Great Business Letter

Emails are by far the most common form of written business communication and are becoming shorter and more abrupt.  Text-speak is slowly but surely making its way into the business lexicon (OMG! LOL … :).  People are becoming accustomed to communicating in bursts of 140 characters or less. 

It seems like the ability to craft a well-written, well-formatted, convincing and persuasive business letter is a dying art.  However, at some point in your business life you’re probably going to have to write an important business letter: to get a sales appointment with a prospective customer, to close a sales opportunity, to be considered for a promotion, or to engage someone in creating a strategic partnership.

Here are some points to keep in mind when you’re faced with the daunting task of writing a great business letter:

• Understand the Purpose:  Before you even open up your favourite word processor you must understand what the purpose of the letter is – if you don’t then the letter will lack focus and effectiveness and you could lose credibility with your reader.
• Focus on One (and Only One!) Point:  Your letter will be more effective if you only focus on one key point.  Every word of the letter should support your key point.  This could be difficult if you feel that you have several things that the reader will be interested in, but isolate the most important point and focus on it.

• Make Your Letter About Them:  It makes little difference to them if your company has over 1,000 employees worldwide, offices in nine countries and has been in business for over 50 years.  None of this helps them at all.  If you want them to read past the first few lines then you’ve got to quickly get to the point where it’s all about them.
• Focus on Value:  Quickly establish what value they could get by dealing with you.  In the business world the value that most people are looking for is financial: they want to either increase their revenues or decrease their costs.  Many people focus on features – like how their product is so much faster or smaller or newer than the competition’s – but if you don’t emphasize the value that translates into (… our machine works 20% faster and can reduce your labour costs by the same amount …) then your reader won’t be motivated to engage with you.  There are other values that you could deliver, such as an emotional value, a social value or an environmental value but in the harsh world of business (and please excuse the pun) you’ll get more bang for your buck by focusing on the financial value.

• Use a Professional Tone & Format:  The only acceptable tone for a professional business letter is a formal one.  Refrain from using abbreviations and use a professional format (click this link for an example and check out our blog post on writing tone).  Typically you would print, sign and mail the letter but it’s becoming more common to send the letter electronically as a PDF or other non-editable document.
• Tell the Reader What You Want Them To Do Next:  In the final portion of the letter, set up what you want to happen next.  This could be a call-to-action to get them to do something (“Call us now …” or “Visit our website …”) but it could also be something less actionable (“I will call you next week to discuss this further …”).  Either way, the letter is only one part of a longer process and you should finish your letter with what the next steps in the process are.

Conclusion

If you’re in the business world you’re going to need to write a great business letter sooner or later.  If you truly understand what your reason for writing the letter is before you start, use every word in the letter to support that key point, focus on the value that the reader will get by acting on the letter and finishing with a direct and definitive path for moving forward, then you’re on the right path to crafting a professional, engaging and persuasive letter that’s got a good chance of achieving your objectives.

Other Blog Posts

If you liked this blog post, here are some other blog posts that you might also like:

• Don’t End Up Like Killface: 5 Grammatical Errors to Avoid
• The Importance of Tone in Business Writing
• Six Great Ways to Dissolve Your Writer’s Block

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.  Follow us on Twitter and ‘Like’ us on Facebook to join the conversation.

Amanda Hartley, Managing Partner

Fering Communications Inc.

Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: amanda.hartley@feringcommunications.com

A How-To Guide for Getting Your Online Content Found More Often

Do you want a fast and easy way to improve your search engine rankings so that your website and content marketing gets found more often?  Having fresh content that is rich with keywords and phrases is a must, but you also need to make sure that the search engines know about your site and make regular visits to see what’s new.

While we’re all familiar with search engines thanks to our friends at Google and Microsoft, people are generally less familiar with web directories.  Web directories are huge libraries of websites on the internet.  Unlike search engines that use “spiders” to automatically crawl through the different pages on a website and catalog the results, most directories are manually compiled by volunteer editors.  Search engines crawl through web directories so appearing in web directories will help your search engine performance.

While the reasons to be favoured by search engines and web directories are well documented, let’s quickly review why you want to let them know that you exist rather than waiting for them to happen upon you by chance:

• Improved search engine ranking – If the search engines don’t know about your site, you’re not going to rank in search results.  The search engine “spiders” will probably encounter your content sooner or later, but why wait?
• More inbound links – Registering your site with web directories means increasing the inbound links to your site, and that’s good for directing more traffic to your site but also for increasing the credibility of your pages.  Search engines keep a close eye on the web directories so showing up in the web directories will also help your search engine performance.  Also, web directories are searchable and some people use them to find companies that they’re looking for.
• Keywords and key phrase targeting – When you register with search engines and web directories you get to specify your keywords and phrases.  By selecting the keywords and phrases that are in your sweet spot and are consistent with your content marketing platform you’re going to show up in the searches that you want to show up in.

Here are the top search engines and web directories and a brief note on how to sign up:

1. Google – With 85% of the search engine market share, this is a must.  Go to www.google.com/submityourcontent and there are four options that you can choose from.  You’ll want to start by clicking on the ‘Website Owner’ tab and then the ‘Add your URL’ link but you should look at the other three options on the page.  You should also submit a sitemap so Google knows how to index your site – http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ is a great site that will build your sitemap.xml file, for free, that you can submit to Google.
2. Bing – While Yahoo has the second largest search engine market share, Bing provides the organic search results for Yahoo so by registering with Bing you’re also registering with Yahoo.  Go to http://www.bing.com/toolbox/submit-site-url, enter your URL and you’re on your way.  You can also submit your sitemap to Bing through their Webmaster Tools to make it easier for Bing to crawl your site.
3. DMOZ.org – This is the biggest directory on the web.  To submit your site, go to www.dmoz.org and drill down to your business category.  Drill down as deep as you can and when you’re in a deep as you can get click the ‘Suggest URL’ link near the top of the page.  Enter your URL, title and site description and you’re on your way.  Be careful in submitting: these entries are supposed to be objective and are reviewed before they are accepted so don’t use the site description part as a selling platform.  Simply state what your business does and include your keywords and phrases.

If you submit your site to Google, Bing and Yahoo you’ll have more than 96% of the search engine market covered, but if you want to go for the full 100% you should also register with Baidu, Ask, AOL, Excite and Lycos.  There are other directories that you can find through various search engines – see what other directories are available and appropriate for you particular business.

Conclusion

A strong content marketing platform is vital for many small businesses.  Creating fresh and engaging content that will resonate with your target audience is great, but you can boost its effectiveness by submitting your site to the major search engines and web directories.  By doing the minimum of submitting your website to two search engines and one directory you can significantly improve your online visibility and get more traffic to your marketing content.

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.  Follow us on Twitter and ‘Like’ us on Facebook to join the conversation.

Other Blog Posts

If you liked this blog post, here are some other blog posts that you might also like:

• Five Great Sources for Blogging Topics
• Social Media and Content Marketing: In-house or Outsource?
• Do Your Sales Quotations Leave a Positive and Lasting Impression?

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner

Fering Communications Inc.

Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

What Tweeting Looked Like Before Twitter

I know, I know, boo @ the cheesy title!  I thought I’d use this platform to share a neat story that happened to me as I left a client’s office last week.  As I headed through the parking lot toward my car, I noticed what I originally thought was a large stone a few yards ahead.  As I got closer, I saw that not only did the large stone have eyes but it was moving its head.  The large stone was actually a bird sitting in the parking lot watching the world go by.  As I got closer, I thought that this little guy might be injured so stooped down and gently put my hand on the ground beside him.  He hopped onto my hand and I snapped the above picture while I pondered how one determines if a bird is injured or not.  While I thought about this he flew away, making the conclusion a moot point.

So how can I tie this into professional writing and presentation services?  Well, I’m not sure if I can directly.  However, I can offer that one of the goals of your company blog might be to make you and your company human and likeable.
In the story above, I’m hoping that people see me as a kind, caring possibly-hurt-animal-loving kind of guy.  And I’m also hoping that I hit a soft spot with some of the readers of this blog and maybe they’ll like me and my company just that little bit more.  And if they like me that little bit more and have professional business writing and presentation needs, maybe they’ll decide to visit our Contact Us page and connect with us.

Conclusion

Your company blog can be used to achieve a great many goals: increasing traffic to your website, showcasing industry expertise and thought leadership, converting blog or website visitors into leads.  But your blog can also provide softer benefits, including adding a personal touch to your business and letting your prospects and customers know that there are human beings behind your corporate machine, which may differentiate you from your competition and give you the winning edge.


Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.


Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

The Importance of Tone in Business Writing

Writing is one of the most common tasks that you’ll find yourself doing during a regular workday.  In 2011 the average corporate user sent and received an average of 112 emails every day.  And that’s just email, it doesn’t include the sales proposals, technical documentation, business letters and other documents that you’ll work on.

Just as important as the content of business writing is the tone – the writer’s opinion and emotion toward the reader and subject matter.  Just like your tone of voice in a spoken conversation, the tone of a written conversation is as – and sometimes more – important as the actual content.

When crafting a piece of business writing – a quick email before you dash off to a meeting or a hundred page sales proposal that you and your team slaved over for weeks – you certainly have to make sure that the content is appropriate but you have to make sure the tone is, too.  You can’t take chances when you’re communicating through writing – you can’t read facial expressions or body language and you might not get a second chance if your content and tone miss the mark.

Not Good:  Joe, get me the final specs quick or you’ll cause us to deliver late.

Better:  Joe, we really need the final specifications before we can finalize delivery.  Would you be able to send them over at your earliest convenience to avoid delays?

One of the most important considerations in establishing the tone of your writing is to be honest, authentic and sincere.  Most readers will pick up if you’re not being true and you might lose your credibility.  If the reader doesn’t trust you there isn’t much of a chance that they’ll be convinced by your writing.

Your state of mind plays a large role in your tone: if you’re in a bad mood, if you’re feeling playful, if you’re feeling happy – all of these emotions will come out in your writing.  If you are in a bad mood or feeling stressed, you might want to stay away from your keyboard – those grumpy feelings will seep into your writing whether you like it or not.

At all times, you should maintain a professional tone, even if you are very comfortable or have a friendly relationship with the recipient.  Talking about the baseball game you went to, how your kids are doing in school or your kitchen renovations might be appropriate for the person that you’re writing to directly but not for those that the recipient could forward it on to and you can’t count on them deleting the friendly chit chat before they do.

Finally, you should favour a concise and precise tone in business communication over a verbose and flowery one.  The person reading your writing doesn’t have time to wade through linguistic pyrotechnics fancy words and filter out your message.  Also, there’s a good chance that instead of coming off sounding eloquent you’ll end up sounding pretentious.

Not Good:  We would like to inquire about your upcoming availability to arrange a mutually convenient brief conference call, if possible on next Wednesday morning, so we might gain some additional insight into your requirements for the upcoming project.

Better:  Are you available for a short call next Wednesday at 10:00am?  We have some questions about the project that we’d like to ask.

Conclusion

The tone of a piece of business writing is just as important as the content.  If you’re in a positive frame of mind, are honest and sincere and keep your message concise then you’ll infuse a positive tone in your writing and generate a readable and convincing piece.  And if you decide that you need help with any sales and marketing, technical or business writing projects that you’re working on, we’re only an email or phone call away.

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.


Amanda Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: amanda.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Social Media and Content Marketing: In-house or Outsource?

There are lots of different opinions on whether you should use in-house resources to quarterback your social media and content marketing presence or whether it’s better to use an outside company.  At Fering Communications, we humbly submit that using an external company gives you the best advantage.  Here are five good reasons why:

1. You’ve Got Better Things to Do:  Honestly, you do.  If you’re like most people I know, you’ve got a million things to do and that’s when you’re not busy.  Setting up and implementing a social media strategy is seldom going to make it to the top of your to-do list.  Luckily, if you work with an external company they’ll give you a content calendar with 30, 60 or 90 days of content activity and all you have to do is make sure that they do as they say they will.
   
   
2. You’re So Close You Might Miss the Obvious:  Sometimes, people are so passionate about their businesses that they suffer from tunnel vision and only focus on what is most near and dear to them.  In the meantime, all sorts of good and marketable stuff can be going on that you might not notice or might neglect to recognize the significance of.  By keeping in reasonably close contact with your social media and content marketing company they will pick up on things that should be spun into new content and broadcast across the social media spectrum.
   
   
3. Don't Overwork Yourself:  One of the first things an outside company will establish is your content marketing and social media strategy and activity calendar.  This will contain a schedule for when you can expect premium content pieces, blog posts, Facebook posts and tweets.  But what happens if something unexpected happens in your company that should be shouted from the rooftops?  If you’re managing your own content in-house you have to find time to incorporate this on top of everything else that you’re working on.  If we’re doing it we can reorganize our resources and priorities to fit you in.
   
   
4. Benefit From A Fresh Perspective:  We spend a considerable amount of my day talking about, thinking about and doing social media and content marketing.  On any given day we can touch any number of people who have different ideas and perspectives and where appropriate we can bring apply these ideas and perspectives to work for you.  Your internal resource is so tied to one strategy (yours) and is going to see the same set of faces (your team) day in and day out that the chances of fresh ideas or new perspectives creeping into the picture is smaller.
   
   
5. This Writing Thing Isn't As Easy As It Looks:  Sure, we all learned how to write when we were young, but I learned to swing a hammer when I was little and as my wonderful wife can attest, being able to swing a hammer doesn't mean I know how to finish a basement.  You rock at what you do and that’s why your customers buy from you but unless you’re into social media and content marketing (and I’m puzzled by why you would hire us if you are) then we’re probably better.  When I want a computer I buy a Dell laptop running Windows 7 because those are the best tools available for my needs.  When we’re hungry we head out to the local Pita Pit and grab a pita.  You could probably do a decent job yourself, but who shoots for decent when great is just a phone call away?

Social media and content marketing is a low-cost-high-return way to market your business.  Like anything else, doing it poorly can do more damage than good and can be worse than doing nothing at all.  Involving an outside company to create a consistent stream of content and social media activity will help establish you as an expert in your field, engage your customers and keep them coming back for more, and boost your lead generation.  Fering Communications provides social media and content marketing services so if you are convinced that an outside company might be right for you give us a call, we’d love to talk to you.

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner

Fering Communications Inc.

Website: www.feringcommunications.com

Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Starting Your Follow Up Strategy with a Handwritten Thank You Note

You’ve just had a great meeting with a prospective customer and now what?  Should you go and sit at your desk and wait for them to call or email you?  Should you stand by the fax machine and wait for them to fax a purchase order across?  Clearly I’m being facetious but the reality of the situation is that you need to have a great follow up strategy if you want to keep the momentum going.  I read recently that 80% of new sales are made after the fifth contact so regardless of how good your first meeting is you need a solid follow up strategy.

Many professions don’t bother to follow up at all.  Maybe they assume that prospects will call them if they have any questions or are interested in making a purchase.  The problem is that most people that you’ll encounter in life are extremely busy and don’t have time to remember who you are, find your contact information and track you down.  Most business people will forget about you if you don’t give them a reason not to.  If you have a world class product or service then maybe you don’t have to worry because prospects will go out of their way to find you, but most business professionals are more likely to deal with people who show up in front of their faces on a regular basis and whose information is easily accessible.

There aren’t many better ways to lead off your follow up strategy than with a professional looking and well written thank you note.  There are many places you can get both cards and notes but you’ll probably want to keep them clean, elegant and simple.  Including your company logo is a great way to add a customized touch.  You can also use this as an opportunity to distinguish yourself from your competition even more by using a good quality thick paper stock or even eco-friendly plantable seed paper.

Don’t use the note as an opportunity to continue selling.  Your prospect might get turned off by the idea that you’re going to stuff your product down their throat every chance you get.  Be sincere and thank them for the time that they spent meeting with you, maybe even mention that you appreciate that they have a busy calendar and you realize that it isn’t trivial that they made time to meet with you.  Offer your availability should they have any questions, comments or concerns and promise to touch base again a short time later.  If you can coordinate your next follow up a few days after they would receive your note then they’ll still remember the positive feelings from receiving your card.

Make sure that you follow up as you promised in your note.  There’s nothing worse than dropping the ball on a promised follow up – if you’re not true to your word when you’re trying to win their business, what are the chances that you’ll stay interested once you’ve won their business?  A phone call is a good next step as it continues the personal touch and allows a chance to continue building the relationship.  It will also give you a chance to ask if the prospect is ready to move forward after they’ve had time to think about the outcome of your initial meeting.  If they mention the thank you note then you know you’re on the right track!

As you continue to engage the prospect you can use less personal and less invasive methods of communication.  Maybe after the phone call you should follow up with an email to see if things are moving along or if there is anything else that they need from you.  If you’ve successfully built a good relationship then you don’t need to be in their face all the time but you do want to stay fresh in their minds.

On a final note, while the personal touch of a hand written note is a good thing, your prospect needs to be able to read it.  If your hand writing looks like the work of a doctor writing a prescription it’s OK to get someone with a neater hand to write the note for you.

Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner

Fering Communications Inc.

Website: www.feringcommunications.com

Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Does Your Resume Pass the 15 Second Test?

For any small to medium business owner, hiring new employees sucks.  The time to post a position, sift through the tidal wave of resumes, shortlist the best applicants, and whittle this down to a single hire can add up to tens of hours spread across several weeks.


I recently had to go through such an exercise and once again I was shocked by how poor some of the applications were.  Out of 113 resumes, 80 ended up filed under “60 Seconds of My Life I’ll Never Get Back”, 23 were filed under “Not Totally Unreasonable” and seven ended up in the “Worth A Look” category.

In these harsh economic times there are lots of people competing for every job that’s posted.  Luckily for me I can be ruthlessly barbaric when I’m filtering through resumes.  When I open your application, you’ve got less than 15 seconds to get my attention otherwise I’m closing it forever.  Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when you’re writing a cover letter and resume from a guy on the other side of the desk:

• Personalize each application:  If you get some of the basic details about my posting wrong, I’m immediately disinterested.  If I posted the position on Monster, don’t write that you’re responding to the position I posted on my company website.  Take a few minutes to specifically address some of the requirements listed in the position or mention something specific that you saw on my website.  Throw me a bone that you care enough to go beyond putting my company name at the top of your cover letter and emailing it to me.

• Don’t Dare Make a Spelling Mistake:  Just don’t do it, it’s that simple.  If you can’t be bothered to push the F7 key to launch your spell checker, I don’t want you working for me.  End of thought.

• Formatting Makes a Difference:  If I spend one minute to open an email, open the attachment, decide how I want to file it and move onto the next one, and I do that 113 times, I’m spending at least two hours straight staring at my computer screen.  And chances are, my eyes are going to get tired about half way through.  If you’re considerate enough on my poor eyes to consider the font and font size (11pt. Calibri with 1.2 line spacing is a nice combination), spacing (white space is a good thing) and your application is presented cleanly, I’ll like you.  And if I like you, I’m probably going to be more lenient when I’m deciding which category you end up in.

• Keep It Brief:  Whoever decided that resumes should be shorter than two pages is a genius.  If you can’t convince me to set up an interview with you in less than two pages you won’t be able to do it in a hundred pages and I’ll think that you’re trying to substitute quantity for quality.  To the guy who listed in significant detail (and I’m not even exaggerating here) the 31 projects he worked on at a previous company:  my eyes will never forgive you.

• Don’t Suck Up (Too Much):  I’m not Microsoft, Apple, Dell, General Electric, Samsung or any of the other mega-corporations out there.  I’m a wee little company trying to make the world better one project at a time.  If you use the words prestigious, distinguished, illustrious, glorious, wonderful or anything else that strong, I think that you’re sucking up and I don’t trust anything else you’ve written.  On the other hand, if you say that you’ve done your homework on me and my company and in your eyes we’re alright, I’m cautiously appreciative of your kind remark and (unless you’ve blundered some other way) you’re likely headed towards my “Worth A Look” pile.

On a serious and sincere note, I don’t intend to make light of people looking for work, especially those in the unfortunate position of being unemployed.  My point is that given the current economic climate competition is stiff for every position that’s available.  Rather than sending out 10 generic applications, spend the time to focus on one or two well written, good looking and carefully tailored ones.  In my experience, it’s not really that hard to stand out from the crowd and any edge you can get over the next guy or gal is worth spending time on.


Got something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.


Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com

Starbucks Made Me Wait ... And I "Liked" It!

A couple of weeks ago I hit a Starbucks in the lobby of a hotel where I was attending a conference.  I needed a little bit of help getting going that morning.   A grande (pronounced GRAWN-day, I learned while ordering) vanilla latte was sure to do the trick.  Upon placing my order, the young lady behind the counter asked one of her colleagues if she replaced the vanilla syrup yet.  Apparently she hadn’t but slinked off to the back to retrieve that critical ingredient.

I stood, credit card in hand waiting to pay because ... well, that’s how it works at Starbucks, right?  A few seconds passed before the young lady behind the counter suggested that I should wait down near the other end of the counter and my coffee would be ready within a couple of minutes.  I reminded her that I needed to pay, to which she replied with a sweet smile, “Today you can pay with your patience.  It’s going to take a little longer than normal.”  I happily wandered down to the other end of the counter and, as promised, a few minutes later left the store with a free grande vanilla latte.

As I sat waiting for the conference to get going, I felt rather warm and fuzzy that I’d just got a free coffee.  I took a picture of the coffee and posted it to my Facebook page accompanied by a caption explaining that I was thoroughly enjoying my free coffe and stating that Starbucks rocked .  Then I tweeted to the same effect.

Over the next couple of days, my Facebook post collected seventeen comments and four “Likes”.  My tweet spun off three replies.  I can’t guess how many other people shared in my glee but because Starbucks had the audacity to make me wait for my caffeine-inspired jolt that morning, they got in front of lots of sets of eyes and briefly became the topic of conversation for a few days.

Now the same story is up on the Fering Communications blog for all of our millions and millions of followers to see.

I’m not saying that this is going to shoot Starbucks’ sales through the roof or anything.  I have no idea if my experience sent any of my friends or blog followers charging for the nearest Starbucks cash in hand, but because of a customer-service decision they got the benefit of my word-of-mouth marketing and given the variety of social media channels at our disposal that included quite a few people.  The social media channels that are so popular today magnify the effects of word-of-mouth marketing and you want to make sure your customers and prospective customers are saying the right things about you and your company.

Got something to say?  Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you!  Got a question that we can address in our blog?  Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.

Steve Hartley, Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
Email: steve.hartley@feringcommunications.com