Business writing is a core part of any PR role. to master the art takes time and practice. In this section, I'll take you through the seven steps to ensure that you produce an excellent piece of copy every time. The first step is to get your brief. Before you start, you need to know who you're writing for. If you haven't been provided with guidelines, you should find answers to the following questions.
How long does the piece need to be? Where will it be published? Who is the target audience? When is the deadline? Who needs to approve it? And will they be available to do so the week before the deadline?
What format should it take? For example, is it a byline a feature an interview or a media release? Does it need to include a link? And if so, what is the anchor text? anchor text is the text that is actually hyperlinked, what messages need to be included? What's the turn and who will the Peace be attributed to author to the next step is to do your research Once you have your brief, research the market and read through examples of similar pieces.
This will give you a basic idea at least of what is expected of you, and will make sure you don't go off on a tangent. Step three, plan your piece of writing, whether it's a byline, a feature, a blog post or immediate release, planning is essential to getting it right. To do this, for each section, write a one line summary of what the key points will be. Then talk through this with someone, a colleague or a mentor. To make sure you have the correct messaging flow and content, they should really be able to understand what the pieces about from just your one line summaries. The next step is to start writing.
If you've done steps 123 properly, then this should be the easy bit. Your first draft should take a different format depending on whether it's the press release, a byline or a feature or a case study. We'll go through each of the format's individually over the next few lessons in the section. Step five is to edit. editing your own copy is good practice to edit start by running a spellcheck. Then look up every single name used and check that you have the correct spelling, and then check for grammatical and style errors.
I like to use a tool called Grammarly for this, check for duplicate words. If you've used the word already in the paragraph, then you need to find an alternative. confirm that the style is appropriate and confirm that if you've copied anything verbatim from another source, you've credited the source. Run through and see where you can remove words. Keep it simple, never use a big word where a smaller one will do. And then finally, double check that all the links work.
Step six is to get approvals. If you're writing on behalf of a client or a colleague or your boss, or if you include information on that client or colleague in your piece, then you'll need their approval. Ideally, get this in writing. So if there are any disputes in the future, you've got a record. Finally, present your piece present your piece of content to a colleague or a professional sub editor and get them to run an edit on it themselves.