How To Write So People Will Listen

Business copywriting is a complicated business. At least, that’s what you’d think if you took the time to go out and flip through all the books on writing for business and media on Amazon alone! Communication is a vital part of any business role, and it’s going to be a huge asset if you can figure out how to do it.
You need to learn how to write so people will listen.
I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news. The good news is, writing so people will listen isn’t as hard as you might think. The bad news is, you’ve got some precise rules to follow, and failing to follow those rules is going to cause you to crash and burn. So let’s get started, shall we?
Rule #1: Get to the point.
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a book, composing a letter or copywriting for your website. You need to capture the attention of your audience in three minutes or less. (Much, much less, if you’re talking about content on the web.) You don’t have time to dither.
Get to the point!
If you’re writing a business communication, the main point should be in the very first paragraph. Journalists learn to write in what is known as a pyramid format; they get to the point, then add facts and ideas to make the story broader as they go along. If you stopped at any point in the message, you’d still have all the information you needed to understand what they were trying to say.
Rule #2: Make it interesting/relevant.
Emails that wander widely off topic, chapters filled with meaningless drivel cleverly disguised as details and totally irrelevant information are the death knell for any written project. You can write, but after a while no one is going to listen. Why? Because you’re not telling them anything that they want to hear.
Rule #3: Give them the short story.
This is perhaps more relevant when you’re talking about business communications and learning how to write so people will listen in a professional setting than in contemporary literature, so take this next section with a grain of salt. Give your readers the short story. Provide only as many facts as they need and no more.
For example, you could say, “The child’s face was burnt to a crisp from too much time in the sun and a sunblock whose SPF was far too low” rather than, “Well, he woke up in the morning and really wanted to play, so his mother went looking for a sunblock for him. When she couldn’t find the children’s sunblock and he started to get impatient she grabbed the tanning oil instead. The boy went outside and picked up the ball, but he didn’t like the first one, so he went looking for a second one…” and on, and on, and on and on and on. Which one was easier to follow?
Short story.
In Conclusion
Anyone can learn to write so people will listen. All you have to do is remember to write in a way that they’re going to hear.