Sending business proposals is quite an overwhelming task especially when one has to focus on quality over quantity. Businesses these days send countless proposals, emails, and reports every single day, and writing compelling ones becomes a burden in the long run. 

Business writing should not be formal, complex, and stuffy as it makes a negative impact on the prospect. It does exactly the opposite of the purpose of business writing. 

Hence it is important to know what good business writing is and how an individual can write compelling business messages and yield conversions. 

Here are some valuable tips and tricks that will certainly help in improving the quality of business writing, sound professional, and help achieve successful business deals. 

Good writing is always effective in attracting prospects

Effective and established correspondence with the readers is vital for any business to succeed. To master effective business writing one has to clearly define their goals:

• Boost website traffic
• Appeal to prospective investors to raise funds
• Scale up sales and operations
• Create converting content
• Engage more with the target audience

Focusing on these Business Writing Skills will certainly help in writing proposals, emails, reports, etc with a clear and concise tone. As a result, the readers also clearly understand the course of action after reading a business email, ad, or proposal. 

In a business setting the only thing that matters for the reader is “value”. Readers, potential investors, and buyers will only engage if the content is relevant and adds some value to their purpose. 

To fulfill these goals it is important to avoid common Business writing mistakes and figure out an effective way to use words that will make a prominent impact on the readers and help them take necessary actions. 

10 Common Business Writing Mistakes to Avoid

The above section discusses the core aspects of business writing, let us now focus on the common professional writing mistakes and how to avoid them. It will certainly help in boosting the overall presence of a business before prospective partners, investors, and customers. 

Avoid using an informal tone in business writing

Business writing is typically a bit more formal than sending emails to friends, family, or colleagues. However, it does not mean that one should completely keep their writing free from contractions. Business emails are best written with minimal use of casual tone or words. The tone of writing is equally important and should be correct and formal as the email can be read by anyone. 

For example when addressing an email to an individual consider addressing it as “Dear Ms. Mitchell” or “Dear Mrs., Mitchell”.

Similarly large organizations can use “Dear Sir” or “Dear Ladies and Gentleman” in their business emails. 

In instances where one is not sure of whom to address the email, it is best to do some research on the target audience. It is important to keep in mind that email conversations are completely different from talking face-to-face or over the phone. The person at the other may be known but the conversation always takes place in a formal setting. Disregarding this factor in business writing is likely to create a wrong impression and prevent organizations from yielding desired results. 

Avoid using confusing phrases or words.

It is one of the common Business writing mistakes made by business writers is using confusing phrases and words. Many people do not put much thought into their choice of work and how it can have an impact on their work. For instance, if the message is about asking someone to participate in a campaign or project, use the term “request” instead of writing “invite” or “ask” to make the message more effective. Both these words maintain a positive connotation, ‘request’ can sound bureaucratic in such kinds of messages. 

For effective business writing it is important to pick words and phrases that add a strong meaning to the sentences without confusing the readers. 

Avoid excessive use of Passive Voice

Passive voice is another common mistake seen in business writing. Passive voice is annoying and ineffective. It makes sentences sound less authoritative in a formal message. The sentence sounds like the subject is not performing any action but receiving it from a different source. 

For instance: The poster was designed by Arthur.

This sentence sounds more impactful when written in an active voice. If writers find themselves using passive voice, they must take a moment to reconsider sentences and rewrite them to make them sound more convincing and clear. 

Also writing sentences in active voice makes them easier to read and understand. Active voice engages readers and writers can make use of writing tools to identify and correct passive voice usage in their business writing. 

Avoid the use of vague language.

When it comes to business writing it is best to avoid the usage of vague language like “could”, “might”, “must”, etc. Here the best thing is to make use of specific verbs that give readers a clear understanding of the course of action. For example, the sentence “We must cancel our tickets” sounds vague. Instead, write “We have had to cancel our tickets”.

Excessive usage of exclamation points

Many business writers tend to use exclamation marks at the end of every sentence just to make it more impactful. Exclamations should be present only when it is about making a strong idea or one wishes to express extreme excitement. Instead of using exclamation points consider using numbers, statistics, and interesting facts to add credibility to the argument. 

For instance, sentences like “Using our product will boost overall productivity by up to 70%” Make an impactful point about using numbers to sell a product to a prospective buyer. 

Unclear flow and structure of sentence

Again this is a common mistake in business writing as writers often start creating content without proper planning. They usually assume that if the idea is clear to them the reader will also understand the same. 

For instance “This report discusses different challenges associated with the plan in hand”. This sentence does not give a clear idea about the topic. Another example-” The team has completed the task on schedule and within budget. However, there are concerns about the way of completing the tasks. 

This makes it difficult to clearly distinguish between the two statements and how they are associated with each other. The reader should be able to stay in line with the reason and back it up with a clean flow and a clear message. 

Following are some effective tips for maintaining sentence structure and flow:

• Write paragraphs that include both issues and their solution
• Add a clear discussion of the topic with bullet points
• Keep the idea on point, clear, and concise.

The writing should explain to readers why it focuses on specific recommendations and suggestions with a step-by-step approach. This will make the sentences appear more authoritative and gain the trust of the customers. 

Eliminate mistakes in grammar and spelling.

It is surprising to see people making grammar and spelling mistakes in business writing. The simple and effective solution to this problem is proofreading. Following are some tips that will certainly help in getting rid of grammar and spelling errors. 

The emails should be checked by someone other than the writer before sending them.

• Read content loudly to find errors
• Always take sufficient time to write business proposals, emails, etc.
• Implement proofreading tools for greater accuracy.

It is disheartening when a prospect turns down an offer only because of misspelled words in business writing. 

Lack of information

Lack of sufficient information in writing just because of laziness is likely to have a substantial impact on the overall quality of the content. Writers often tend to leave out factual data necessary for understanding the topic and do not provide sufficient evidence to support their argument, proposal, or product. 

For instance an article about why college students should consider leaving at home and not in a campus or dorm. This type of topic requires the inclusion of clear background information for the readers. It will `eliminate the need for including additional details and also prevent the readers from searching for answers from scratch.

Understanding the reader’s POV

Writing for a business without researching the target audience is a major issue that impacts the overall Business Writing Skills. Businesses will never experience good progress if they do not follow the natural flow of demand and supply chain. 

Certainly, businesses will never be able to sell a power tool to women who have been cooking all their lives. Hence it is vital to understand the customer demographics before starting to write any form of content. 

The following factors should be taken into account

• What does the business know about the customers?
• What type of readers will read the content?
• What are the requirements of the customer?
• What will shock or appeal to the customers?

Including these tips in business, writing will certainly attract the right set of customers to the website. For a business writing to be effective the requirements of the customers should be met. 

Excessive Technical Data

Business writings often include industry-specific terms and acronyms. The use of these terms is sometimes unavoidable and can occasionally be beneficial as shorthand. Business writing must comprise simple lines that could be easily understandable by the target audience. Writers must refrain from using technical terminologies unless the audience understands it. 

Whether it is an article, email, or proposal consistency and good structure always matter. If the content layout is not appropriate businesses are likely to lose the attention of their target audience. Besides, using transitions is helpful to ensure logical flow from one point to another. 

Final thoughts

Regardless of the format of business writing participating in a Business Writing Course can prove to be highly beneficial in transforming the writing skills of an individual. It will not only help in avoiding common writing mistakes but also improve their overall communication capabilities. The tips and tricks discussed above should help writers get over their mistakes and compose more effective and engaging content for the target audience. It is vital to write emails, ads, proposals, and articles that perfectly align with the brand theme of a business. Flat and unclear business writing is likely to make compelling ideas appear bland before the target consumers.

Mastering business writing skills can be quite a challenging task without proper guidance. Writers willing to get rid of their mistakes without compromising on diversity or quality must explore the Business Writing Course from Ostructure.com. They offer specially designed workshops to Improve business writing skills. The course enables candidates to create professional-sounding, clear, and concise content for a varied range of business settings.