Legal and Business Writing Consultant : Lori Herz : Write For Clients : Professional Writing and Online Content Consulting

Service professionals often find it challenging to connect with clients on a human-to-human level. That’s because you’ve been trained to cultivate a business persona that’s distinct from the person you are in your down time with family and friends. The business face you put on typically reflects just how seriously you take your role as an advisor and advocate to people who need your help.

How service providers can bring more of themselves to their work is a topic that frequently comes up when I consult with clients about there business communications. So, I was very happy to read the practical wisdom and guidance that communication skills coach Joey Asher offers in an article titled Faking the ‘Real You.’

Although he’s writing about public speaking, Asher’s advice applies just as well to any kind of written or live communication. His premise is that people who tend to come off as stiff, formal and standoffish when they communicate have to learn how to “fake [their] own authentic communication style.”

In presenting this “authenticity paradox,” Asher states: “Great speakers know how to fake their own "natural style" even when they don't feel natural at all. It's learning how to act like your real self.” So, instead of being formal, cool and distant when communicating with clients and other business contacts, we need to mimic our “natural personality” – the friendly cadence, rhythm and energy of the communications we have with people that we feel close to and comfortable with.

There’s no doubt that service providers can use Asher’s approach to foster successful business connections.

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Service professionals who want to enhance their online presence and visibility need to understand the basics of search engine optimization (SEO).

Well-written content that’s relevant and useful to the people you work with and want to work is a cornerstone of any website. But, all that great content won’t do much for you or your business if the major search engines (think Google, Yahoo! and Live Search) can’t find your site.

That’s where SEO comes in. It’s the art and a science of creating Web pages that appeal to human visitors and rank well with the search engines. There are different approaches to SEO. The resources that follow will give you some practical tips and insights on organic (a/k/a natural or non-paid) search engine optimization.

You’ll find a solid introduction to organic SEO in this:

• Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization from SEOmoz.org
  

• SEO Tutorial from webconfs.com
  

• Post from SEO expert Lee Odden on Search Engine Optimization Basics
  

If you want to build on this knowledge base, you can subscribe to and regularly read the:

• High Rankings Advisor Search Marketing Newsletter 
  

• Online Marketing Blog 
  

• Search Engine Journal

• SEOBook 
  

To move further along the learning curve and see how you can incorporate SEO into your online business writing, you can refer to:

• Rhea Drysdale’s post on How to Write Good for Search Engine Marketing 
  

• Heather Lloyd-Martin’s instructive SEO Copywriting Preferred Practices Guide and e-book on the same subject

• Tom Pick’s excellent roundup of the best articles and blog posts from 2007 on optimizing website copy for SEO
  

• Karon Thackston’s article on What SEO Copywriting Is … and Isn’t and directive to Stop the Slaughter of Innocent Copy!
  

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When I started out as a lawyer 16 or so years ago, service professionals who wanted to use their business writing to gain visibility and grow their reputation had a choice of several print platforms, including:

• Trade journals

• Newspapers

• Newsletters

• Books

Among other common features, this traditional media group boasts:

• Static content

• One-way communication

• Space restrictions

• Limited distribution

• Gatekeepers

Fast forward to 2008. Traditional media is now keeping company with, and losing ground to, a host of new media (also called social media or Internet media) outlets such as:

• Blogs 
  

• Vlogs 
  

• Podcasts 
  

• Social Networks 
  

Real-time community, dialog and interactivity are key markers of this growing media space.

Service professionals looking to (1) build business relationships and (2) direct their marketing communications through new media channels will find solid guidance and practical tips via:

• Edith Yeung’s 50 Habits of a Highly Effective Blogger
  

• P.J. Fusco’s Five Getting-Started Blog Questions
  

• Kevin O’Keefe’s post on Why Every Client Should Want an Attorney Who Blogs
  

• Pam Slim’s inquiry into What the heck is a vlog? 
  

• Darren Rowse’s vlog post on how to Differentiate Your Blog

• Openculture's Podcast Primer

• Dennis Kennedy’s Podcasting for Lawyers

• Jessica E Vascellaro's WSJ article on Social Networking Goes Professional

• Business Week’s Social Networking 101
  

• Denise Howell’s and Ernest Svenson’s exchange on Social Networking for Lawyers
  

Although a few of these posts target a lawyer audience, service providers working outside the legal profession will also find them relevant and helpful.

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Professional service firms across the country are concerned with navigating the chasm stretching between the values of older employees and those of the Generation Y - or Millennial - professionals now entering the workforce.

Study after study has shown that this younger cohort is more dual-centric (placing equal priorities on career and family) and less work-centric (putting higher priority on their jobs than family) than previous generations. With an eye on attaining work-life synergy, they’re impatient to progress and define rewards in terms of financial success, flexibility, freedom, opportunity and meaning.

According to a recent news release, along with its dual-centric outlook and value system, Gen Y also has a unique communication style. Its members “respond to humor, passion and truth” and need direct and “timely feedback, frequent encouragement and recognition of efforts.” As this article on talking across generations explains, Millennials were raised in an age of tech-fueled instant gratification. So, they need to receive a steady stream of information “to feel in the loop and included” at work.

While older generations are used to communicating with co-workers and clients face-to-face, Gen Y prefers the ease and speed of e-mail and their constant companion – the Blackberry. If you feel behind this e-communications eight ball and want a handy tip sheet for connecting with the Millennials in your work and client space, check out David Pogue’s piece on The Next Generation of Online Shorthand.

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My mantra is that business writing is all about relating to your intended audience. When service professionals write newsletter columns, blog posts, trade articles or basic e-mails, more often than not, they’re trying to connect with clients and prospects. Whether they succeed in making that connection depends on several factors.

First and foremost, as communication expert Joey Asher points out in Lessons From a Lousy Law Lecture, business writing has to be audience-centric. When your writing fails to focus in on and address their needs, challenges and concerns, readers will quickly lose interest. They’ll turn the page, click the back button or hit delete.

So, how do you grab and hold the reader’s attention?

Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen suggests that you take some guidance from Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation at this year’s Macworld. According to Reynolds, Jobs was so engaging and effective on stage because he:

• Developed rapport with the audience. “Right off the bat he was acknowledging the importance of the audience and that they are they important ones, they are who this presentation is for.”

• Gave them an idea of where he was going. He didn’t offer a detailed itinerary, but just “a bit of a road map of the journey [he was] taking them on.”

• Showed his enthusiasm. Although his opening included the words: “Incredible, extraordinary, awesome, amazing, revolutionary,” Jobs delivered them with genuine and sincere zeal. It wasn’t a put on.

Yes, Jobs gave a live presentation. But, what worked for him in real time will work just as well for most business communications, including your business writing.

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We’ve all experienced moments when we’d give anything to be invisible. At those times, it seems safer and easier to just disappear. Then there are times when we really want to be noticed. To get that attention, we’ll step on a soapbox, dress flashy or walk on the edge.

Whether we embrace or shun it in our personal lives, visibility has become a prerequisite for success in the business world. Your clients and prospects won’t know the first thing about you or your services until you grab their attention and engage them in a meaningful dialogue. There are many ways to make yourself stand out as a service professional. But, for years, the Web has been a main line to visibility.

Whether you’re a solo professional or practice in a firm, you can create a Web presence and online communications that attract attention and build strong client relationships. Here are some tips and tactics to help you along:

As Kevin O’Keefe reminds us - by channeling Robert Scoble - your goal isn't to attract the widest possible Web audience. A better aim is to become a credible and indispensable resource in your “niche area.” I've found that you can jump-start this process with a who-what-how intake.

Ask yourself and your team these questions:

• Who do you want to draw through your Web door?

• What problems do they have that you can/want to solve?

• How do you solve those problems?

Once you’ve brainstormed the answers; you can design (or re-design) your website and site content for maximum relevance and benefit to your target visitors-clients.

To learn more about the makings of innovative Web content, tune into an ongoing series on the topic at Brian Clark’s Copyblogger. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen is another great source of information on how you should write for the Web.

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There’s something about being on the edge of a new year. There’s a sense of possibility that compels us to look at things from a fresh perspective. It’s a time that lends itself to renewal and renovation.

Like other aspects of professional life, our business writing can benefit from a new-year-inspired overhaul. Service professionals can accomplish this by trying out new channels of content delivery and distribution, including:

• Blogs
  
• Syndicated articles
  
• Press releases 
• White papers
  

You can also revamp the substance of the written content you produce to market and support your business.

It’s long been said that content is king on the Web. But, it reigns offline, too. As Amber Simmons eloquently writes at A List Apart : “[T]he words that shape the page lie at the very center of an engaging visit. If the words aren’t beautiful and meaningful, the sleekest design in the world won’t compensate for it. The body can never replace a missing heart.” When you write helpful material that engages your clients and prospects, you foster the human-to-human connection that makes you stand out in the crowded field of service providers.

For some more ideas on re-designing your business writing for the New Year, take a look at Bronwyn Jones’ article on Better Writing Through Design and this Dosh Dosh post on Using the Right Content Development Strategy. While both pieces address writing for the Web, their guidance applies to your offline endeavors as well.

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One of my favorite new (to me) blogs is Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits. Among other topics, it covers productivity, organization and simplicity. As a business writer, I appreciate the practical guidance offered in posts like this one outlining 15 Can’t-Miss Ways to Declutter Your Mind.

Babauta’s insights often remind me of a writing lesson I learned in law school.

Lawyers and judges are known for producing written work that’s dense, convoluted and jargon-filled. I experienced this first-hand as a fledgling law student. I spent hours and hours trying to decipher the cases anchoring the curriculum and classroom discussion.

I struggled without much success until a friend suggested that I approach the task like an editor and re-write the case facts and law in plain English; reducing them to their simplest and most essential form. He backed his suggestion by citing the principle of Occam’s razor: given any two approaches to the same problem, the simplest one will be the best.

This is a principle that I still hold near and dear. I often refer to it  when I help clients create content for their Web and print publications. No matter how it’s delivered, business writing benefits from simplicity. There are many ways to simplify your writing without diminishing its quality or impact. Here are some great tips from Mignon Fogarty’s Grammar Girl.

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From time to time, service professionals emerge from the whirlwind that’s work and life to find that they’ve fallen out of touch with people in their business network. Especially at this time of year, when closing out the old and ringing in the new, there’s a pull to fix these broken connections.

Many professionals send out holiday cards and gifts as means to this end. While these offerings certainly can connect you with clients and business associates you’ve lost touch with, they’re largely one-way lines of communication.

The better route to re-connection runs two ways. It’s an organic dialogue that lends a human dimension to business relationships. Face-to-face and phone conversations enable this kind of interaction. But, you can also encourage and evolve it through your business writing.

There are a number of ways to channel your written words of re-connection, including:

• E-mails

• Websites

• Blogs

• E-Newsletters

Whatever channel you choose, it’s important to convey why you’re reaching out to your network and to invite recipients to reciprocate by sharing something about themselves and their work.

Curt Rosengren nicely illustrated this point when he e-mailed me an invitation to his Reconnection Revolution. Curt explained: “[I want to have] “30 conversations in 30 days with people I've never actually spoken with (as in voice) before. No particular agenda to the conversations – just seeing what I learn, how I’m inspired, and what new ideas pop up.”

I know Curt from the blogosphere. Still, ours was an arms-length association at best. We reduced that distance during our hour-long phone conversation. We discussed our personal and professional backgrounds, goals and challenges and offered each other advice and support.

Reflecting on his 30-day mission. Curt said: “People start talking, building relationships, exchanging ideas, even finding ways to collaborate. Next thing you know – hey presto! – the positive potential has just grown exponentially.”

Although Curt’s experiment took place in real-time, his model can be adapted to written communications. If his 30-in-30 formula seems a bit daunting, you can easily customize it so it works for you: think 5-in-5 or even 5-in-10 and see what happens in time.

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