Is your writing killing your business?

There is a simple fact that everyone in business should grasp. Go to marketing seminars and there is one theme that you will hear time after time:

You must write as widely and as frequently as you can. A lack of writing can be fatal.

Perhaps this needs a little explaining.

The visibility of your business is obviously crucial to its success. The rapport you build with customers, partners, staff, and the marketplace as a whole can have an enormous effect on your ability to turn recognition into sales. Writing allows you to build both visibility and rapport and need not cost any money at all.

The problem for many is that this just doesn't come easily: there's a lack of time or writing confidence, uncertainty about what to write or where, or a struggle to turn ideas into words.

I think everyone can write well, given the tools, so on this blog I'm going to share some of what I've learned about the power of language. I've had a career in business and spent some years writing fiction, so hopefully there'll be some different perspectives on some really relevant issues.

I'll cover a number of important areas, from common writing mistakes, through website and article writing, to techniques for writing with personality. Over time I hope some of the readers of these blogs will share their writing experiences and problems. If any particular themes emerge I'll tackle them in a future post.

All I want to get across in this opener is that writing is something that you should be building into your marketing plan (even if that plan is still in your head because you haven't got round to writing it down yet ...).

Here are three things you may not know about the power that writing has to build your business:

• you can boost your search engine rankings by posting articles and blogs on information-hungry sites across the web and linking back to your website;

• editors of industry magazines and newspapers are always looking for informative content to attract and keep readers. This is better than advertising (and free);

• people like to buy from experts, and there is no better way to build that perception of expertise than to be seen in print.

For now though, your business needs you to be a writer. Start today and see what you can achieve.