Bad Writing Costs Your Business Financially and Professionally

Bad Writing Hurts a Great Business

Writing is a primary area of business procrastination for many business people. They know they need effective marketing writing, but they’re too busy working and earning money to write. They simply cannot force themselves to focus and crank it out. They cringe inwardly because they believe that their writing or lack of it is costing them new clients, and the steady, reliable growth of their business.

It’s fairly common that, when business owners write about their business, it doesn’t sound anything like what they intend to say. They’re not professional writers; that’s not what they do for a living! When they write, it does not accurately and convincingly convey how wonderful their business is.

How Bad Writing Hurts Your Business

Bad writing is one of those things that can hurt your business—even badly—without your ever having full awareness of this fact. You might be "turning off" prospects so that they never even give your business fair consideration. You can end up giving an entirely false impression of your business—which you may even realize, but haven’t taken the time and effort to correct.

It Hurts You and Your Business Because You Don’t—and Can’t—Feel Confident

There’s no doubt that you clearly recognize the lack of confidence you feel and experience. These feelings come from your simply being inadequately prepared because you lack well written materials, and that makes you feel both anxious and unprofessional.

You can’t feel confident providing information to prospects. When they ask to know more about your business, you don’t have excellent materials to hand over proudly. You feel like an amateur because you lack up to date, professional, written tools.
It’s embarrassing to apologize when you respond to requests for more information. You go out to networking events, but your competitors seem to "have it all together" when you don’t. The written materials you do have are so out of date that you’re embarrassed to use them.
You have materials, but they are worthless or not working. Your materials are outdated, so you spend time explaining what’s no longer current. You try to squeeze in a sales spiel as a way to tout the missing offerings. It’s pretty obvious why your business isn’t considered a serious competitor in your market.
You’re unable to respond to requests with high quality materials.You end up feeling foolish because you don’t have the tools your business requires to attract your target market.
When prospects do read your materials, you never hear from them again. You give out your materials or send prospects to your web site, but they must not think much of it, because you never hear from them again. They don’t even call or email you with a question.

It Hurts Because Your Prospects Don’t Understand Your Business

Your target market is fuzzy. You’re aiming at a moving target or no target at all. This not only fails to attract your target market, but also fails to attract anyone.
You spend too much time explaining your business rather than making money. You can’t direct them to a well written web site, or hand over accurate and attractive written materials because you don’t have them.
It’s too hard to close business when prospects don’t understand what you do. Prospects won’t become clients when they don’t "get" your business or how it could benefit them. They never feel a desire to buy because they just don’t know what you do. You can’t sell what prospects don’t understand.

It Hurts Because Your Target Market Cannot Find You

No one knows about your business because you have no web site—your business does not "exist" on the web. When prospects conduct an Internet search looking for the solutions your provide, they do not find you.
You’re not getting out and getting the business because you don’t have any written materials to provide. You know that if you were to network regularly, you’d get more clients. Without good materials though, you are hampered in pursuing this strategy. When you do network, no one asks for your card—I mean REALLY asks from genuine interest.
You are not reaching your target prospects, and they aren’t coming to you for solutions. There’s not enough information about your business readily available to your target market—either when prospects search on the web or meet you in person. If they don’t know about the solutions you provide, how can they buy?

It Hurts Because Your Business Does Not Seem Professional or Competitive

Prospects don’t take you or your business seriously because you’re obviously unprepared to do business. You can’t present your business professionally when you have to fumble and mumble about your poor materials. You get beaten out by your competitors—and you know you’re better at what you do than they are.
You don’t get regular web contacts or requests for more information—on the web or in person. Marketing feels like pushing a rock uphill. Prospects don’t come to you.
Too much time is wasted explaining what you do. You’re the only source of that information. You can’t give them written materials or send them to a functional web site—because either you don’t have them or what you have is not effective.

How Bad Writing Costs Your Business

Besides the ways bad writing hurts your business, it actually costs your bottom line. When you don’t have a steady stream of prospects who turn into clients, profit doesn’t happen either—certainly not to the degree that you deserve. These are some of the costs you’ll experience.

It Costs You Sales, Revenue and Profit

You don’t make enough sales, and your sales cycle is too lengthy and difficult to the point of closing. Marketing and sales always seem like a struggle and it doesn’t seem easy to get prospects to understand how they could benefit from working with you.
Without the right materials, you struggle to bring in the revenue. It seems like a vicious cycle. You don’t get the business because you don’t have the materials you need, but you also don’t have the materials you need because the business is not thriving.
You attract minimally profitable clients or those who are otherwise not ideal or pleasant to work with. Rather than working with your ideal target market clients, you "bottom feed", and you’re forced to "take what you can get" by way of business rather than attracting and selecting the right clients for you.
You don’t end up with delighted clients who send you referrals. Because you aren’t working with your target market, they don’t get the best results you are capable of providing. They don’t feel delighted and eager to refer others.

It Costs You Because Your Business Is Not a Recognized Brand

You lack a clear marketing message so you don’t do a good job of explaining your business. You seem to be selling something slightly different according to who you are speaking with. If you can’t put together a clear and convincing description of your business, how could prospects get clear that they wish to spend their money with you?
Your target market cannot understand what you do and doesn’t develop interest in your business. They move on to competitors who are better at making their business offerings clear and accessible.
You get tired of trying to explain your business effectively and rarely have that experience that prospects really want to choose working with you. Even when they do buy, they don’t always seem to fully know or understand exactly what they have bought.

It Costs You Because You Are Not Marketing Effectively

You don’t market enough because you’re lacking the basic materials. You’d rather stay home than feel that creeping flushed face you get when you have to hem and haw in response to a request for written materials.
You waste too much time on non-productive would-be "marketing" and don’t spend enough time on providing services and getting paid for it. You pursue all sorts of marketing "efforts", but they don’t produce clients. You follow the crowd in doing the "latest greatest", but cannot present a cohesive business description to your target market.
You lose out to your competition because they seem more professional. They’ve "got their act together" when it comes to written materials and a web site. To your potential clients, your business does not look impressive—even though you know that what you deliver is much better.

Common Writing Problems That Cost You and Your Business Money

Many Outstanding Business People Struggle With Their Writing

Clients suffer from a variety of challenges when they need to get their marketing writing done.

One of the most frustrating issues is that when we write about ourselves, we are “too close” to the content. We aren’t able to pull back and view our writing through the eyes of our target market, to actually “be” that target market, and to aim the writing so that it attracts those ideal clients or prospects.
Another common issue is that we want to throw in every possible bit of information to cover every potential situation. The result is an overwhelming mass of untargeted statements—that does nothing but confuse and repel our target market.
When we do not understand the marketing concepts that will get the attention of ideal buyers, we end up with amateurish and ineffective materials and wonder why no one buys, or even asks for more information.

The Unspoken Embarrassments of Writing

There are also other issues that many successful professionals encounter when it comes to writing their business materials. Many simply do not enjoy the process of writing. In fact, this is very common. For instance, you may find that you are very fluent and impassioned when talking about your offerings, but the words come out like “clunkers” when you try to write them.

Some—non-native speakers, or those who struggled with language skills as children—have special challenges. Because they aren’t confident with their written skills, they fear “looking bad” or being humiliated. Perhaps you were embarrassed in a classroom setting in your youth. Maybe you’re unsure of spelling, grammar, punctuation and all those language details you did not want to learn or couldn’t figure out when you were young. This makes you highly resistant to even attempting to write now. Again, this is very common, and nothing to be embarrassed about. Some of the most brilliant business minds struggle with these same issues.

One Final Important Thought

Take Action Now!

Will you be able to produce effective written business materials on your own? Will your writing bring you the business and financial results you desire? Will you be able to overcome your internal obstacles to doing the writing yourself? Will the poor quality of writing actually cost you business and income in the end?

Only you can answer these questions. There’s a high likelihood that you may pay a price for your marketing writing issues. Most clients have a nagging sense that their “failures’ in the area of writing are costing them—in income, in clients, in embarrassment, and in confidence.

So it’s up to you. If you want to do this all on your own, that is your choice to make. If you want to take a shortcut and start getting results a lot sooner, these services are exactly what you’re looking for.

Where to Next?

Now that you know how bad writing costs your business, go to Who We Work With to find out more about the kinds of clients we work with.