Ever opened an email or letter to find that your name has been spelt incorrectly? No matter what the content of the correspondence, this signals rushed and sloppy work and the sender’s professional credibility dips pretty low. I’ve known plenty of people to hit delete or bin the material at this point, figuring it’s not worth their time to read on.

If you want to avoid your promotional material suffering the same fate, it’s worth calling on the expertise of a professional writer who is trained in the spit and polish of communication. They will produce clear, concise and accurate text that will convey professionalism and hopefully, depending on their talent, add an element of color. If cost is a concern, consider their rates against the potential revenue more registrations will bring in.

A good professional writer will:

• Make obvious the benefits of attending your event.
• Draw on emotion and humor to connect with potential registrants.
• Write in a style that is appropriate for the intended market and avoid losing attendees through unintentional faux pas.
• Clearly direct people to act – Register now – and leave no room for confusion about the details of your event or how to attend.

They will also know that online copy must be written in a different style to your print material, and for your website they will advise you:

• Keep the sentences and paragraphs short.
• Use highly contrasting colors, fonts and background.
• Choose key words and make them links to places you want people to go, i.e. the Registration Form.
• Use lots of….
   

White Space

If they’re truly on their game, they will know about writing for SEO (search engine optimization), how the text on your site affects your website ranking (in importance) in search engines and the tricks to:

• Using title tags.
• Using key phrases in the body text.
• Choosing key phrases to also serve as links.
• Getting other related websites to link to your site.

If you’d like to learn more about writing for SEO, I recommend these links:

Suggestions from Google on getting your site listed:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

Google tools for webmasters:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Google’s recommendations about hiring a SEO company
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about this article.


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