Crossing the T’s and removing the I’s

When it comes to content creation, concentrate on your customer (and grammar) and leave yourself out of it...

Writing first person commentary as a journalist is one thing, but doing that without mentioning yourself in the first person is a skill also worth honing as a business owner.

After years of putting opinion pieces out there, and digesting plenty of others, there was nothing that grated more than a first person editorial that kicked off with the word ‘I’.

“I am one of those people who detests such articles,” she mocked.

That personal pronoun sets the scene for dialogue that you know is going to be an 'I'-ful.

"When I finally discovered blah, blah… and then I thought I was going to blah, blah… I did what any blah, blah would do. You get the blah, blah drift."

That’s why reading content written in the first person can do your head in. More often than not, the I’s don’t have it when it comes to talking to your customers.

It doesn’t take much to turn things around once you get into the swing of it not being about you and your business but all about your customers and their needs.

By removing the egocentric personal pronouns from the conversation, I and me, and talking in a friendlier, more understanding fashion to your reader, or customer, the result is a much more pleasant and enlightening experience for them.

Check out how this article began...

It could have easily started: “I write commentary for a living so I know a thing or two about doing that without talking about yourself”. Irony aside, see what I did there?

Lots of I’s in that paragraph but not much for the reader or customer to feel welcome.

Taking the dictatorial ‘first person’ out of the conversation and writing in a more inviting, empathetic fashion to your customer is a style worth exploring when honing your business content. Less about you and what you can do, more about who they are, what they need and how you can help them.

After you’ve mastered the art of your business conversation, make sure you check your grammar and pick up any misspellings. Nailing a sentence like the previous one is a good starting point.