The list of writing endeavors can feel interminable. Writers in our industry are called upon to create project and service descriptors, sales brochures, resumes and bios, blog posts, articles, press releases, social media content, award submissions, white papers, solutions briefs, training materials, presentation content, web content (landing pages and homepages), email distribution and newsletter campaigns, and so, so much more.
My advice is to not get stuck on the distribution vehicle. Rather, focus on creating quality content that services one of two possible audiences—your own people or your client/potential client. Initially, by simplifying the writing effort to be about determining who is to benefit from this content, you are free to invest your energies where it really matters, which is answering the question, “Why should this audience care that I am sharing XYZ?” Later, once you have sweated over, fully vetted, and triple checked your language, well then, you are free to adapt or modify according to what is appropriate for the various platforms, channels, and formats.
Most people understand the importance of customer-facing marketing, but internal business-facing writing often receives the red-headed stepchild treatment. In my opinion, this is a colossal lost opportunity for a company. The actual process of hashing out and distilling language is beneficial to engage in with your people. It is important to nurture the capacity to prioritize news events, company achievements, and project chronology in order of importance for a company’s target audiences and, then, be able to explain the reasoning behind the ranking. When your people finally go out into the world to sing your company’s praises, they will be equipped with tools with which they are thoroughly familiarized. More importantly, the messaging contained in that writing will be embedded deep within their recall and, therefore, will flow naturally when speaking with prospects.
And, the worse case scenario? Well, this is when what a client reads about your firm is inconsistent with what your people say about your firm.