Advice for Small Business Owners » writing

Bolster Credibility by Writing

Elie Kochman — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:45:15 +0000

At a marketing course on how to be asked to be a guest speaker at universities, an observation was made:

If you want instant credibility, write a book.

Interesting logic, considering that many writers are people I wouldn’t necessarily want speaking at an event, or even consider credible because of their writing. For some, writing might have the opposite of the desired effect, by demonstrating their own lack of credibility.

However, for someone who does have credibility, just an inability to demonstrate that credibility, writing can provide a simple route to publicizing credibility.

First, the fact that you could come up with sufficient material for a book on a given topic shows that you have knowledge on the subject (though the quality of that knowledge would require actually reading the book).

Second, writing can help you organize your own thoughts on the subject, and help you define what it is your own expertise entails. The fact that you went through this process provides a measure of your credibility.

Having written copious amounts on this site over the past 2 years (over 400 posts and approaching 200,000 words), I considered this exercise of writing a book to be interesting, to say the least. Whether or not I choose to publish a book, the act of writing one could prove to be useful, and if ever I should need to demonstrate my credibility to someone who does not know me, I can always send them a copy of my book.

Writing Proposals

Elie Kochman — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:45:48 +0000

I recently had reason to draft a proposal for something out of the norm for my line of work. I was asked by a family member to assist in writing a formal proposal for an after-school program, with the added twist that the program had already been approved in principal, pending the formal proposal. Not really familiar with how such documents are written and structured, I spent some time reading through templates and examples, and finally assisted her in writing her proposal.

What I discovered along the way is actually pretty simple. There are two parts to a proposal – content, and context.

The content of the proposal is intended to answer a few basic questions regarding what is being proposed. It usually starts with a general summary, followed with some details regarding the proposal itself, some discussion about the benefits to both sides. There will be a section with supporting documentation, and another about the merits of working with this particular provider, along with a summary of the qualifications of the provider.

The content alone is not sufficient to win a proposal, though. The context is also important.

The context is how you present the material. It doesn’t need to be fancy, or presented in a particular style. It does, however, have to impart additional qualifications about the author. A graphic artist would make sure it’s in a style that showcases their skills as an artist. A financial planner might include some portfolio summaries. In all cases, there will be a single page that can be used by all readers of the proposal to find the information they need to make a decision.

One of the suggestions I made regarding the writing of the proposal was to keep the sentences short and the paragraphs simple. There should be frequent headings, and the entire document, in this case, should not exceed 3 pages (not including the cover). The reason is basic – the document became easy to read, thereby increasing the chances that it would, in fact, be read in its entirety. The frequency of headings resulted in the document being easy to navigate – and negated the need for a table of contents.

Do you have any tips for writing good proposals that you want to share?

Professional Communications

Elie Kochman — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:45:46 +0000

I’ve been told, and like to believe, that my writing is of fairly high quality in general, even when unedited (as an example, most of the articles on this blog are completely unedited). I try, to the best of my abilities, to maintain a high standard of professionalism in my writing at all times, since I never know who might end up reading it. That’s not to say that there aren’t errors in my writing, but that they are generally of a grammatical nature, not with inappropriate content.

I’m not referring to use of certain crude words or phrases – while I try to keep such language out of my writing, I do understand that for some people, this is considered normal content. I don’t think such phrasing belongs in a professional communique, but that’s just my opinion.

However, there is never an excuse for including personal information in an email which is not relevant to the recipient. Yes, gossip does move around, and some people are more prone to involving themselves in such conversations. But to include that in an email, in a business environment, to someone to whom this information is completely irrelevant, is completely and totally inappropriate.

When I saw an email from a business owner in which there was not a single correctly formed sentence, I was shocked by the lack of professionalism in her writing. When I read the content, and found comments about a former employee, I was astounded that she was able to keep anyone working for her. Inclusions of phrases commonly heard, but rarely written (for example, I was like thinking) which are heard because people often start talking before they’ve thought out the conclusion of the sentence, indicated to me that I had no desire to continue written communications with her.

Are my rules fair? Was I too harsh on her for not spending an extra few minutes on that email to clean it up?

Perhaps I was harsh, but I do feel it was deserved. If someone wants me to spend a few minutes reading an email from them, the least they can do is remove the irrelevant content, ensure that the phrasing is professional, and that the email flows from beginning to end.

A professional email:

Gets to the point
Includes all relevant information
Does not contain any irrelevant information
Uses proper phrasing and sentence structure

The more of those points an email fails to meet, the less likely it is that communication will be continuing smoothly.

One last point.

With the availability of tools to check spelling, there is no longer any excuse for a spelling mistake. If there is a single bit of editing that you do on your writing, it should be to ensure that a spell check does not pick up a single mistake.

The Quick (but not Dirty) Guide to Online Marketing

Jason Clegg — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:00:13 +0000

Jason Clegg is an entrepreneur with over 5 years of experience building business and marketing on the web. He manages a full service Internet Marketing firm and writes about entrepreneurship and business topics at www.JasonClegg.com.

If you know absolutely nothing or very little about marketing your business online, I’m here to help. I’ve spent the past 6 years studying online marketing methods for small business owners and, frankly, I know what works. The truth is lots of stuff works. There are endless opportunities for bringing more people to your website.

Fortunately for you, I’m not going to waste your time in this guest post. I am going to focus on just one tactic that you can start today and do absolutely free (or very cheaply) if you do it right.

As Elie has already pointed out on this blog, personal branding is absolutely critical for today’s small business owner. In the online world, you create trust through one primary means – content.

Blogs are a testament to this fact. Look around you. Anyone and everyone is blogging. Why? It’s simple: Blogging helps you control your personal brand and builds more credibility with your existing and your potential clientèle.

But everybody’s blogging. (I hope this includes you, of course!)

The strategy I want you to follow is sort of like blogging but, in some ways, even better. It’s called article marketing.

Article marketing allows you to build a higher degree of trust and credibility by leveraging the already existing power and authority of very large content websites.

My absolute favorite is EzineArticles.com — this is the best of the best because they have a great relationship with Google and a very clear system for evaluating and publishing only the best content.

How to Start Article Marketing

In the steps that follow, I’m going to show you exactly how you can make use of EzineArticles.com to build your personal or business brand. And here’s the good news — it’s not going to cost you a dime.

Step One – Setup Your Free Account

Go to EzineArticles.com and start your free account. You don’t have to pay anything to submit content to their website. You just have to follow the rules.

Step Two – Write an Article for Your Niche

If you’re selling dog training products, write an article about that. If you’re a Public Relations expert, write an article about that. Whatever it is that you do, create some content. Just be sure that your article is 100% new and unique and is at least 400 words long.

Step Three – Publish Your Article at EZA

The process for submitting articles is easy. Just login and click “Submit New Article.” Then copy-and-paste your content into the fields. Choose a category, add a brief summary, and voila!

Oh, just one more thing. Be absolutely sure you make the most of that box they call the “Resource Box.” This is where you’re going to include a little info about you and/or your business. More importantly, this is where you get to include a link to your website.

Hit submit and you’re done. The article reviewers will take a look at your submission and your article should be live within a few days. If you have to make changes, they’ll let you know exactly what to change so you’re not left in the dark.

(NOTE: The *really* quick method for doing this is to hire someone to write your articles for you. You can even pay a full service firm to submit too.)

Why Articles Are So Effective

Using EzineArticles.com is great because their articles rank high in Google. These days it’s pretty tough to position a new website without using strategies like this to drive traffic. In some cases, it’s basically impossible in the short-term.

But the greatest value you will take away from this process is an increased level of credibility. By the time surfers click through to your website, they will have already established a relationship with you. The chances of these visitors making a purchase or initiating contact on your website are much higher.

Give it a try. I’m not saying article marketing is going to transform your business overnight, but it is without a doubt one of the fastest ways to get more exposure for yourself and your brand online!