Whether this is new material or simply a refresher, you’ll be able to write better advertising and marketing copy for your legal nurse consulting business, no matter whether you are writing a letter, email, blog post, website content, or brochure.
As a side benefit, if you get really good at this skill, you might consider becoming a copywriting consultant. Companies and entrepreneurs, especially other consultants, need and are willing to pay for copywriters who have a record of success.
Here are the first 3 of the 10 Top Tips in this blog post series:
Vary Sentence Length
Be sure to write short, medium, and long sentences, as this will create a sense of rhythm within your writing. Too many long or complex sentences can make your writing difficult to comprehend and may even seem boring. Too many short sentences in a row will make it look like you hired your third grader to write your copy.
Don’t write like this:
My service is great. Lots of people say so. I deliver on time. My prices are reasonable. I am really nice. You will like me. Buy my stuff. Buy my stuff. Buy my stuff.
Try this instead:
I can send you a list of several past and current clients who were extremely satisfied with my services. I always deliver on time, and my fees are reasonable.
One of the things my clients often say is how easy I am to work with. I’m sure you’ll agree. Contact me today to find out if we are the right fit, and how we can partner together to improve your business results. Click here for details.
Notice that in the revised version above, the sentence length is varied, yet shorter sentences are retained for added emphasis or “punch.”
Also, the single paragraph has been broken up into three smaller paragraphs; we’ll discuss this technique in just a few minutes.
Cut Out the Fluff in Your Legal Nurse Consulting Work Product
Put those overweight sentences on a diet and eliminate words that aren’t needed, just like that extra helping of mashed potatoes and gravy you ate last Thanksgiving.
Keep your writing clean and crisp so it is easy to read and understand, and above all, don’t use fluff! Jane Austen and Nathaniel Hawthorne could get away with it, but not you, unless you’re trying to sell your services to a 19th century barrister. Since nobody has quite perfected time travel yet, you focus on your 21st century customers.
One way to cut out the “fluff” is to eliminate or reduce adjectives. Consider the words of Mark Twain, who once said, “If you catch an adjective, kill it!”
FLUFFY: Check out our new, updated, informational and educational online course!
LESS FLUFFY: Check out our updated and information-packed online course!
Another way to avoid “fluff” is to cut out and eliminate and get rid of and throw away needless repetition (yes, I did that on purpose). Here are just a few examples of words that are frequently used together, when one or the other would suffice:
- Absolutely essential
- Advance forward
- Alternative choice
- Added bonus
- Joint collaboration
- Each and every
This section could be listed under the “eliminating fluff” category, but it’s so important that I wanted to award it with a separate section. Prepositions are one of the worst offenders when it comes to “bloated” writing. We can’t (and shouldn’t) eliminate ALL of them, but most are unnecessary. One way to avoid using prepositions is to use the active voice instead: FLUFFY: “The car was pulled over by a police officer.” Or instead of using active voice, you might simply replace the prepositional phrase with an adverb: Read part 2 here. Fine tune your legal nurse consutling writing. Lawrence J. Clark, Ph.D. is an expert in persuasion. Learn how to persuade the attorneys you want to work with watching a replay of Dr. Clark’s recent 90 minute webinar. Whether you are a consultant or an expert witness, you’ll learn how to effectively persuade others to listen to your analysis or opinions. Get details about the webinar at this link.
LESS FLUFFY: “A police officer pulled over the car.”
WRONG: “The suspect responded to the accusation with great vehemence.”
BETTER: “The suspect vehemently denied the accusation.”