Communicating with conviction

Nothing is more convincing than your own belief. When you write an important message to introduce yourself, for example, or pitch a product, take a minute to reinform yourself of why that product or service is outstanding and why you’ve made it your life’s work. What drew you to do what you do — a passion? A commitment to solve a problem or help people? Why are you certain that knowing about your service will benefit the other person? Or, why are you the ideal person for the opportunity?

Try This: To further reinforce your positive spirit, experiment with proven techniques for calling up your confidence. Actors, presenters, and salesmen commonly use them, and they can help you infuse confidence into your writing. When you’re about to work on an important email, letter, proposal, or other document, energize yourself by assuming an assertive but comfortable posture and walk around that way for a few minutes. This technique exploits the mind-body connection, signaling to your mind that you are capable, resourceful, and so on.

Another strategy, drawn from the psychologist’s repertoire, is to relive a proud moment from past experience as vividly as you can, employing all your senses to re-create how you felt. Or: put on whatever music lifts your spirits and energy. Carry your conviction and upbeat mood to the writing task.

Good, well-strategized writing is inherently persuasive. Employ the basic techniques the chapters in Part 1 demonstrate to achieve clarity, brevity, and impact. The best quick self-check is to read your message aloud and identify the stumbling blocks to smooth delivery. Then edit until your copy reads easily and naturally. Humans are attuned to oral communication, and material that reads well aloud conveys credibility and competence. Also:

• Write for speed reading. The faster your message can be read and understood, the more likely people are to stick with it and remember it.
• Build sentences with action verbs. Take time to substitute lively verbs for dull passive ones (an online thesaurus helps you do this in an instant).
• Use short, easily understood words that are tangible rather than abstract — things you can see and measure. They’re the words we most often use in everyday speech.
• Alternate short and long sentences. This produces a rhythm that pulls readers along.
• Compose short paragraphs. Write paragraphs that are one to five sentences long, each focused on a single idea. Material that looks inviting and easy to understand gets read.
• Minimize the use of meaningless hyperbole. Exaggerated statements and clichéd words and phrases add nothing (for example, “innovative cutting-edge state-of-the-art breakthrough”).
• Skip the wishy-washy. Don’t hedge with qualifying words, such as “maybe” or “perhaps,” and hesitant phrases, such as “I hope you will find this idea of value.”
• Edit for totally correct spelling and grammar. If it looks like carelessness, or a mistake, you’ve shot your credibility.

And here’s my own secret sauce: Attend closely to all transitions between sentences and between paragraphs. Add extra transitions to help you clarify your own logic: You can always cut some in final editing. When you show clearly how each idea relates to the rest, you create a progressive argument that strikes readers as logical and unassailable (more on transitions in Chapter 5).

Connecting with your reader

Whether you’re asking for an appointment or writing a blog, the first essential is to get your message read. Assume you have about 4 seconds to entice someone to read your message instead of tossing it. Time yourself if you don’t believe me: Scan your email inbox and note how quickly you make decisions about whether to read a message, and note what kind of subject lines and leads draw you in.

Here are some techniques to help you make the most of your brief window of opportunity. Adapt them to your purpose.

• Characterize your audience before you begin writing. Imagine the ideal reader you want to reach and think about the message you’re delivering through her eyes. Remember WIIFM (what’s-in-it-for-me)? Gauge her reading level and what she already knows about your subject, and what she probably thinks of it. The right tone and language will come to you. (More on how to do this is detailed in Chapter 2.)
• Write action headlines. This applies to proposals, reports, marketing pieces, and other materials. Online materials, including blogs and websites, also need headlines that attract readers and crystallize your message to establish its relevance. Can you come up with a must-read angle? Use it! In the case of emails, treat your subject line as the headline. (Writing persuasive headlines is covered in Chapter 7.)
• Write organized, progressive subheads. Action subheads entice readers along and are worthwhile even in short messages. A good way to produce them, and also stay organized, is to plan them as a series of guideposts that deliver the high points of your message. Even a skimmer will absorb the important points, or may be drawn in more deeply.
• Keep the reader going with a compelling lead. Focus in on what is most interesting, useful, or relevant about your subject. Why should your readers care? Answer that question yourself to find your best opening. Professional writers probably spend 20 percent of their work life on constructing good leads. It’s worth the time.
• Use graphics and images to lighten and liven. In this age of diminishing attention spans, how your message looks is critical. If it appears dense and difficult, few people will dive in. Give every kind of document lots of white space. Keep type and format simple, and use images whenever possible to attract and entertain the eye and promote understanding.

Maintaining reader engagement

Yes, you must capture your reader’s wandering eye, but good leads and writing style aren’t enough to keep him. For that you need solid substance. Before writing, brainstorm all your selling points and write them down. I address that challenge in many parts of the book, but here’s a recap of ways to deliver the message convincingly:

• Cite evidence of your expertise or the wonders of your product. Include reviews, testimonials, statistics, awards, signs of authority such as blogs or articles, and published interviews.
• Sprinkle your material generously with anecdotes, examples, and illustrations. This brings it alive and makes it both real and relevant.
• Center on benefits, not on features. What does the product or service do for people and how does it makes them feel?
• Create a vision of how life will be more wonderful. If your idea is adapted or your product is bought and put to use, how will some aspect of life improve?
• Call the reader to action. What do you want the reader who’s made it to the end (or skimmed to get there) to do now? Call? Write? Read your blog? Go to your website? Subscribe? This should be built into your conclusion.

Here’s a favorite technique to help you be your most persuasive: Figure out the main opposing arguments and build in the rebuttals. Take account of opposing ideas rather than ignoring or dismissing them. You become more credible. This affords you good openings for citing evidence, too. For example:

• One reservation you may have is that the system requires adapting to a whole new technology. We know there’s a learning curve, but we also know that users become 18 percent more efficient. And we have a good training program ready to go.
• It’s true this strategy was tried 10 years ago, but at that time, we couldn’t tap big data to fine-tune each step.
• You can produce a new website less expensively. But a Second Opinion site generates twice as many leads for our clients than any of their previous sites.

Giving people time

When you sell a service, product, or new way of thinking, it’s wise not to expect overnight miracles. Decisions are grounded on trust. Think “one goal at a time.” A good letter can gain you entrée to meet with someone; a well-crafted email pitch draws people to your website; an interesting tweet leads someone to read your blog; a free webinar brings in people ready to pay for a service; effective blogs lead readers to trust you enough to buy your ebook.

Good teachers aim for incremental learning. They start where their students are and take them, step by step, toward more knowledge and understanding. Experienced marketers also know that persuading someone to buy a different product or adopt a new idea takes sustained effort and a consistent message across platforms. That’s what integrated marketing is about: knowing your core message (see Chapter 9) and using a range of communication formats to deliver that message and reinforce it.

Let’s turn now to some specific kind of writing you may need in your everyday life as an independent worker.

Spelling out services performed

Like all people, clients often have short memories. When I worked for a public relations agency that specialized in crisis communication, the bread and butter work was saving clients from disaster. The effort was intensive and the firm usually succeeded, but client gratitude often proved brief. The CEO’s directive: Bill clients immediately while the averted threat remained fresh in their minds. A month or two later, safe and secure, they might review the invoice and find it exorbitant. An unpleasant effort to collect followed.

In addition to filing your invoices ASAP after completing the terms of an agreement, write a detailed account of what you did. For example, if I write a marketing publication for a project fee, I don’t say:

For writing service rendered — Marshall & White overview brochure

My invoice reads more like this:

• For Marshall & White overview brochure: 16 pages, 4-color glossy to serve as linchpin for major marketing campaign:
  • Meetings with Executive Team (June 1, June 8, June 22, July 7)
  • Ongoing telephone consultation
  • Presentation to Board, June 14
  • Concept development: delivered three creative strategy ideas
  • Full treatment of chosen concept: 16 pp. mockup
  • Content recommendations: 6- page “Ideas” executive letter
  • Interviews with 9 staff members, 7 clients
  • Coordination with graphic design

And much more. Notice that the list doesn’t yet include copywriting.

Even well-intentioned clients only see the tip of your work iceberg. They observe a product, like a finished brochure or a workshop, and because the work is distant from their own specialization, have scant idea of what went into it. They also may overlook that preparing for and attending meetings consumes a lot of time (it’s just part of their fully paid workday), and that creative work involves a lot of thought that doesn’t stop at 5 p.m. Few clients like to pay a consultant for thinking, even though that’s often the crux of the service.

Keep track of all the tasks you accomplish for the cause and put them right into the invoice. And if what you provide is intangible — like consulting — spell out as many tangibles as you can: creating the survey instrument, the 32-page report, the PowerPoint, the graphs for the website, and so on. If you can cite early evidence of the project’s success, work that in, too.

Collecting on your invoices

No matter how carefully invoices and contracts are written, every consultant, freelancer, and entrepreneur has trouble collecting money at times. How to maintain a good relationship while pressing for payment?

Minimize the risk of losing your money and/or customer by asking for a retainer on signing, no matter how much you trust the person you’re dealing with and how steady a client she has been. People are known to leave jobs and those who replace them have been known to prefer suppliers of their own, or bring the work in-house. Companies have been known to go out of business and file for bankruptcy without warning. You may also encounter disputes about whether, in the buyer’s opinion, you delivered to the standard expected.

No one with honest intentions will ever fault you for acting in a businesslike way to protect yourself by requiring an advance. And don’t lay the groundwork for cheating yourself if the nature of the work means you’ll do a major portion in the beginning, like coming up with ideas or creating the blueprint. Set up the payment schedule to cover this aspect of the job should the agreement dissolve. A contract is only as good as the parties’ willingness to live up to it. If a client doesn’t like what you produce, legal enforcement may not be desirable or practical.

When payment is running a little late, minimize resentment by saying as little as possible in a perfectly neutral, blame-free, impersonal tone. Make the person you’re writing to a partner in the collection effort:

• Subject: Can you help?
• Dear Tardee,
• My payment for the Tyler project hasn’t come through yet, though the work was finished two months ago. Is it possible for you to nudge the machinery a bit on my behalf?
• I’ll appreciate it very much. —Marty

Or:

• Subject line: Friendly reminder
• Dear Tardee,
• I’m wondering if it’s possible to speed up the processing of my second check for the Curio Design work. In line with our agreement it was due September 4 but has not arrived.
• I’ll appreciate your help with this.
• Thanks, Marty

There’s never a reason to plead poverty. Don’t say you need the money to pay your bills. Late payment messages, unlike most I talk about in this book, work better when they are impersonal. The same minimalist approach is useful when you bear some responsibility. A friend was embarrassed to discover that she had neglected to deposit a check and it was too old for the bank to accept. She wrote to the client:

• Dear Mr. Black:
• In tracking invoices and payments for tax purposes, bookkeeping has brought to our attention that your check #9174 written on January 12 of this year was rejected by ABC Bank due to endorsement requirements.
• Our records indicate that the check was not redeposited.
• Attached is a copy of the check that was not credited to the Marketing Pro account.
• Would you please issue a new check to replace the one that was originally provided?
• We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
• Thank you,
• Marcia White

Assuming the editorial or kingly “we” along with the formal tone depersonalizes the request and presents it as a glitch between bureaucracies, though the writer runs a very small company from a virtual office.

Sometimes, however, a true “letter of record” is called for to document an event or problem or present your claim more formally. This kind of letter may have legal implications that involve lawyers. That’s beyond my scope, but I can share a strategy to keep in your back pocket for severely late payments and other confrontational situations: a chronological accounting. Here, it’s all about the facts.

Marshal all the relevant bits and arrange them in a timeline. Then create a letter that simply marches down each item on your list in a dispassionate, matter-of-fact way: no frills, no flowery adjectives, no emotion. Start each item with the date.

Suppose you’re an independent graphic designer and a client hasn’t paid your last bill, which was due six months ago. He now hints that the work wasn’t done to his satisfaction and won’t take your phone calls. You don’t want to go to court, but you do want your money.

Your letter can go this way:

• Dear Mel:
• On July 6 of this year, you contacted my firm, MorningGlory Design, to inquire about website services for your firm, Thompson, Ltd.
• On July 8, we met at your office for two hours to discuss Thompson’s needs and goals.
• On July 15, I sent you a summary of our conversation with our suggestions for a website to meet your specifications. You called and said “I like the approach very much, go ahead.”
• On July 22, I sent you an agreement specifying that MorningGlory would provide the services outlined (see attached contract pages 1 and 2) at a proposed fee (see attached contract page 3) and a schedule of payments.
• On July 22, we both signed the contract. You remitted the one-third payment due.
• On August 10, I presented the preliminary design. You said “with some revision it would be exactly what I want” and that you’d mail the second payment at week’s end.
• On August 19, I presented the revised version based on your input. You said, “It looks fantastic, let me take a more careful look with my staff, and I’ll check about the payment you didn’t receive.”

And so on. Further entries might include the dates the invoices were sent, when the new web design went live, and every other relevant detail — the more, the better. The close:

• In sum, I have met every obligation of our contract in a timely manner and with your full approval. The site is online exactly as I designed it. But six months later, you have not paid two-thirds of the fee to which you agreed in writing. Kindly remit the balance owed immediately.
• Very truly yours, Natasha

This may be the only place in this book that I recommend a stilted, formal language with an archaic tone. Such a letter sounds as if a lawyer is advising you. Or at the least, your reader will recognize that you have a good case and are prepared to seek legal redress. If Mel doesn’t come through and you decide to take the legal route, your letter becomes part of that process and serves you well.

The approach works just as nicely when you’re on the other side of the fence. Moreover, if you don’t want to pay an unfair bill and clearly state that you have no intention of paying, the other party’s recourse may be limited, depending on the state you live in.

Underscore your letter’s legal undertones by mailing it — or better yet, certify it and require a signature to prove receipt.

Raising your fee structure

Most freelancers I know hate talking about money. Often, writing is a good way to do it. You can marshal your thinking points and articulate them more effectively without the person present, and give them breathing space to consider your request as well. Clients typically don’t enjoy these conversations any more than you do, and may blurt out a negative response that’s hard to reconsider.

Many successful consultants sidestep cost questions before presenting a proposal because they can write out all the work involved (similar to the invoice structure I suggest in the “Spelling out services performed” section). Writing also enables them to analyze and define the larger value of the proposed work to the company. This sets the stage for a better conversation.

One challenging need is a request for a fee increase. Most people who hire independent workers are content to continue in the same groove forever. I can’t recall hearing of any instances where a freelancer was offered a raise. Ask you must, whether your business and living costs are going up like everyone else’s, or because you’ve experienced “scope creep” — that is, you find yourself investing more time than your fee structure covers fairly.

The approach for collecting on invoices also works for this problem. List your possible content points. You will have specifics according to the situation, but here are some fairly universal points to make in framing the message:

• I’m raising my rate 5 percent.
• I haven’t increased my fees for three years.
• My overhead and operating expenses go up inevitably.
• My work is valuable to you, as proven by …
• My service this coming year will be even better because …

The last point is optional, but if you can think of something that doesn’t really cost you anything — like a staff expansion or new capability you planned on anyway, an offer to meet more often, or a way to repurpose your work for additional uses — you provide a mitigating factor that inclines the client to agree more easily. She’s spending more, but getting more.

Remember that a message like this will probably be passed up the managerial chain and reviewed by financial people, so supply your connection with information to help him win approval on your behalf. And use an impersonal but still friendly writing style.

When you spell out your basic points first, you spare yourself a lot of agonizing. Just follow the trail!

• Dear Jed,
• I’m writing to alert you, as a client of many years, that Marsh Sisters will raise our project fee rate by 5 percent this coming year.
• I know you’ll understand that just like Tailor Enterprises, our operating expenses steadily increase. We have not raised our rates for three years, and did so only once in the seven years we’ve worked together.
• Of course, we want to continue providing Tailor with the best possible service. We were very proud to earn the March Association Award of Merit for the Chancellor Project this past year, and even happier to know our work played a part in helping Tailor increase its Blue Division revenue this past quarter.
• We have plans to support you in meeting your business goals even more effectively. We’re implementing a new software system right now that will give you more detailed reports, with even faster turnaround.
• All of us at Marsh look forward to working with you this year and together, know we will achieve new heights.
• Sincerely,
• Maggie

Writing traditional “press releases”

This traditional press release format works best when you have “real news” to share — meaning something of interest to a reporter or editor is happening. For example, it’s of local interest if you’re holding a benefit concert and a well-known performer will appear; you’re being presented with a significant award; or your business is opening a new office. Such events are good fodder for a community newspaper or regional business publication.

If you’re fishing for coverage of your event, bear in mind that a static meeting or speech or presentation is not worth a journalist’s time. But you can provide an after-the-fact account yourself. If you handle this as a reporter would by writing in the publication’s style and supplying a good photograph, and if the editor has space to fill in that issue, your event may earn some of it.

You can make even a static event interesting with specifics. If a notable CEO gave a speech, for example, reporting what he said, providing it had value, is much more appealing than simply stating he was there. If a high school student was presented with an award, exactly what did he do to deserve it? What did he say at the ceremony? What are his future plans?

A media release is traditionally structured as follows. Let’s assume your subject is an event.

• Date and full contact information — a specific person reachable day, night, weekends!
• A compelling action headline.
• Subhead with supporting information.
• Lead focused on most interesting or relevant information for the editor’s audience. Important: Is the public invited? Is the editor?
• A few paragraphs with essential information. The guidelines are to cover Who, What, When, Where, and Why and may include an interesting quote and any photo ops.
• How the editor should follow up. Is there a schedule of events?
• “Boilerplate” statement describing your business in a few lines.

Writing email pitches

A good alternative to writing a traditional release is the email pitch, and in fact, many editors prefer it. But it must be carefully thought through. Know your story. Here, too, you need a compelling headline for the subject line. Then you must construct a few tight paragraphs that make your happening interesting, important, and relevant, and also answer the who-what-when-where-why questions. For example:

• Subject: Clever Computers Help Disabled Nursing Home Residents Discover the Internet
• Dear Mike:
• Nursing home life is a lonely enterprise for many of our community’s elderly. The busier family members get, the less they are able to visit, and many residents have few chances to leave the limiting premises.
• My colleagues and I at Clever Computers have been teaching nursing home residents how to socialize with family and friends on the Internet, and pursue their personal interests through online resources and online courses. But we discovered that a number of these seniors cannot handle the keyboard well enough.
• On Monday, July 24, we’ll show ten residents of the Maple Tree Home who are unable to type how to access the Internet’s wonders through voice control alone.
• We’d be delighted if you, or a member of your staff, can join us and witness first-hand how these senior citizens experience their power to open up the world for the first time.

• Clever Computers ([email protected]) is a 14-year-old community-based company serving the business community with computer troubleshooting, networking systems, and training.

  [Event time, place, date, directions go here]

• Call me any time for more details. A photographer is most welcome.
• Sharon Fisher, CEO

A somewhat more structured approach is to invite coverage with a Media Alert at least a week before your happening:

• From:
• Contact:
• Event: (Headline)
• Event date:
• Place:
• Description of what will happen and its significance, who the organizer is (total three short paragraphs)
• More information about organizer (with website address)
• Direct invitation to attend

A local publication (unlike a national one) is likely to respond to either form of pitch. Local newspapers, regional magazines, and business publications are increasingly short-handed and show up only at high-priority events. Therefore, the editor may invite you to send a write-up after the fact, or a high-resolution photo and caption. Then, the better you do the reporter’s work and deliver well-written, ready-to-use material, the better your chances of gaining some media space.

If you want to contribute a full-fledged article, or columns based on your special expertise, it’s wise to pitch the idea in the same manner before writing. If interested, the editor will provide guidelines to help you produce what she needs. My advice on writing blogs in Chapter 12 can help.

Don’t overlook your local online news channels, which are always starving for news. And consider local television. But to draw a video crew to the scene, you must be able to promise strong visuals. Because video technology grows so much better all the time, you might be able to produce acceptable footage of the event yourself and submit it. Or hire a local videographer.

Finding ideas for the media

You may have thought in reading this section that you don’t have interesting activities like teaching nursing home folks to use the computer, or running a charity concert, or opening a new office. Companies and nonprofits identify good ideas in two basic ways: First, they constantly keep eye and ear open to notice what the organization and every member of it is engaged in that is share-worthy. Second, they create activities that merit publicity.

Clever Computers, for example, might have decided to initiate its nursing home program because someone recognized the need. Or, they might have thought about what they could contribute to the community that would be of value and justified media attention. The desire for publicity is a motivating force behind many wonderful programs. Every enterprise today wants to be known as a good community member and looks actively for ways to connect with that community through good causes.

If you are doing something wonderful or truly innovative in your industry, look to the wider range of possibilities. Trade and professional publications need material, too, and if you have something to offer, their doors may open. Pitch editors as I outline in the foregoing sections, taking account of your suggestion’s value to the audience.

News venues also thrive on relationships. Do your homework and become familiar with your local outlets: what interests them, their presentation style, their scope. Find out how to reach editors and reporters. On a local level, find opportunities to talk to them. On the national and regional level, remember that most major publications today scout for ideas and accept pitches through social media. They’re happy to connect if you can offer them something of value and demonstrate an understanding of their needs. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook and learn about them on LinkedIn, and you’re much better equipped to connect productively.

Next we look at applying the writing techniques we looked at in earlier chapters to typical management writing challenges.