Write Like a Pro: Essential Writing Tips

Effective writing is crucial for any organisation to build trust and increase member engagement. This guide provides essential writing tips, including how to define your audience and goal before you begin. Learn how to improve readability by using a consistent tone, keeping content simple and concise, and front-loading the most important information. By mastering these key communication skills, you can create powerful marketing messages and professional content that resonate with your audience and drive a clear call to action.

Some people’s ability to turn a phrase is honestly mesmerising. In 1935, Dorothy L. Sayers wrote, “How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks,” and honestly, 90 years later, I have no notes. What a perfect summary of humans’ fickle nature. The good news, however, is that you don’t need to be an award-winning, best-selling novelist to write compelling and engaging content for your club or association. 

 

 

The ability to communicate clearly and effectively with your members is crucial. Regardless of the form of communication you use (emails, videos, blogs, news posts, direct messages, website copy), good writing is the backbone that makes it all more effective. Clear, engaging writing builds trust and credibility. Conversely, confusing emails or an unprofessional website can make your club look disorganised and deter people from joining.

Today, we're going to cover a bunch of easy, practical writing tips that will help you create better, more engaging content in emails, on websites, in event descriptions, in grant applications, and pretty much anywhere else.

Before You Write: Planning Your Message

Before you sit down to write anything from an email to an event description, there are a few key things you should consider first. Taking a moment to plan will make your writing as engaging and useful as possible.

1. Who Is Your Audience?

Who you're writing to should have an impact on the style, tone of voice, and level of detail you use in all communications. The way you'd speak to a membership of twenty-somethings should be quite different from how you speak to a membership of retired people. Likewise, an email to existing members can assume a certain level of knowledge and understanding of jargon, while an email to the general public or brand new members should probably do more explaining and less assuming of knowledge.

2. Define Your Goal

What is the single most important thing you want to achieve with this message? Is it to inform, persuade, or prompt an action? Start with a clear, singular goal, like "I want members to register for the AGM" or "I want to attract five new members this month." A clear goal ensures every word you write has a purpose.

Before we move on to the next stage, here is another turn of phrase that I love, this time by Douglas Adams, “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.” 

That is a great example of a disimlie or reverse simile, which makes the sentence much funnier and more memorable than if he’d just stuck with a regular simile. 

While You Write: The Art of Clear Communication

When it actually comes to sitting down and writing out your email, video script, news post or anything else, there are a few things you should bear in mind as you write. 

1. Reading Grade: The Key to Engaging Content

The readability, or reading grade, of your text is a crucial factor that often goes overlooked. Reading grade refers to the level of education someone would need to comfortably read what you've written. What may surprise you is that pretty much everything you write for your club or association should aim for a reading grade of eight or below, meaning a 14-year-old should easily be able to read it. In fact, most well-written content, from emails to website copy and journalism, is typically around a reading grade of 8-9.

The only real exceptions are technical and academic writing, which can be much more difficult to read. However, even when writing for highly educated audiences, like a medical association communicating with doctors, a lower reading level will make the text easier and less of an effort to read. This, in turn, will reduce the number of people who simply skim or abandon your writing without reading it properly.

What Influences Reading Grade? 

A few key things play a big role in determining how difficult a piece of text is to read. These include:

• Sentence Length: Shorter sentences are almost always easier to read than long, sprawling ones.
• Word Complexity: Simple, common words make text more accessible than complex or overly technical vocabulary.
• Sentence Structure and Flow: A clear, logical sentence structure that flows nicely is much easier to follow than one that jumps around or feels disjointed.
• Jargon: Using too much industry-specific jargon or complex terminology will immediately raise the reading grade.

Essentially, to write text that anyone can easily understand and read, focus on using short sentences, simple words, and a clear, logical structure.

2. Use a Consistent Tone

The tone of voice you use while writing is very important and something we already touched on in the knowing your audience section. The tone in which you speak to your audience really matters; it is an extension of your branding and a reflection of the professional style of your organisation. 

For example, an email from a chamber of commerce might start with, "Dear Mr. Smith, we are writing to you today to…" In contrast, an email to members of a 4WD club with an average age of 30 might be more like, "Yo, we got a drive coming up this weekend…" Neither of these approaches is wrong, but the casual tone that works for the 4WD club may feel inappropriate for a more formal association, and vice versa.

While slang and an overly casual tone won't be appropriate for many organisations, it can work really well for others. Likewise, very formal language might be perfect for a professional association but seem odd and out of place for the average hobby club.

Ultimately, you should look at your membership and decide on a tone that best suits you. Once you have chosen your tone, it's crucial to use it consistently across all your communications, from your website to your social media and email newsletters. This consistency helps build a strong brand identity and a familiar, professional voice that your members can trust.

3. Keep It Simple

One of the most important rules in effective writing is to keep it simple. As we've already touched on with sentence structure and reading grade, professional writing should be straightforward and easily digestible. It’s not the time to show off your vocabulary; it’s time to get your message across as clearly and simply as possible.

Here are a few simple rules to remember:

• Avoid Jargon: Stay away from scientific terms or phrases borrowed from other languages that your audience might not understand.
• Avoid Clichés: You wouldn't start a story with "once upon a time," so don't start your email with the business equivalent.
• Use Short, Simple Words: Never use a long word when a short one will do.
• Be Concise: If it's possible to cut a word out without losing meaning, always cut it out.
• Write in the Active Voice: Avoid the passive voice to make your writing more direct and engaging.
• Break Up Text: Avoid long, unbroken blocks of text. Use headings and subheadings, as well as dot points and images, to make your content visually digestible and easy to read.

4. Front Load Information

People have short attention spans, and a lot more people start reading something than finish it. This means you need to put the most important information first.

That's where the “What's In It For Me?” (WIIFM) principle comes in. Your members are busy and want to know how your message affects them. To get their attention and keep it, you must frame every benefit from the reader's perspective.

For example:

• Instead of saying, "We are holding a fundraiser," say, "Join us to help raise money for [cause] and make a real impact."
• Instead of saying, "Our AGM is on Thursday," say, "Come to the AGM this Thursday to vote on next year's events."

By putting the most important information and the direct benefit to the reader right at the very beginning, you'll be much more likely to capture and hold their attention.

5. Add a Clear Call to Action (CTA)

Once a member has finished reading your message, they should know exactly what to do next. Always include a clear, action-oriented phrase at the end that outlines their next steps, whether it’s registering for an event or reading more. End your communications with a direct call to action.

6. Edit

No one likes editing, but typos and grammatical errors can quickly undermine your credibility. Even a single mistake can make your writing look unprofessional. Before you hit send, read your text out loud, use a spell checker, and, if possible, ask another person to read it. A second set of eyes can catch things you've missed, ensuring your message is polished and professional.

Personally, I find proofreading two words at a time helps me slow down and see what I’ve actually written, not what I think I’ve written. By that I mean reading a sentence like this: “A second – set of – eyes can – catch things – you've missed, –  ensuring your – message is – polished and – professional.” 

Use AI To Assist Your Writing

AI writing tools are a fantastic way to make creating content for your organisation quicker, easier, and more engaging. The best use of AI is not to replace your own writing entirely but to treat it as a powerful assistant. You can use it to speed up the writing process, help you reduce errors, and even brainstorm ideas for your next blog post or email. Think of it as a tool that handles the busywork, allowing you to focus on the creative direction and the personal touches that make your writing unique.

For example, an AI can help you:

• Draft a first version of an email, which you can then refine to match your tone.
• Brainstorm catchy headlines for a news post.
• Turn a list of ideas into a cohesive paragraph.
• Proofread your final text, catching typos and grammatical errors.

By using AI in this collaborative way, you can significantly reduce the time you spend on writing while still ensuring your club's voice and personality shine through. For more information on how to best use AI to help your writing, check out How To Use AI To Generate Content For Your Club’s Website. 

Putting Your New Writing Skills To Use

Now that we’ve gone over some basic rules for improving your writing, it’s time to start applying them. 

For some info on why you should be writing blog articles, check out Blogs For Your Club - Why You Should Use Them.

For some tips on applying those writing skills to newsletters, take a peek at 5 Steps To Write A Club Newsletter Your Members Will Love To Read.