There is no wider ‘target audience’ challenge for a content writer than in the realm of corporate communications and investor relations.
Written content must appear to the board, senior and middle management, employees, contractors and ancillary staff, and sometime suppliers as well. Investors and shareholders need to be engaged just effectively with words.
Internal communications and external outreaches, on both traditional and digital platforms, require more language diversity then ever, with fast-morphing terminology that can curdle with ‘tradition’ if not integrated sensitively.
The corporate biosphere is deep and built on layers of staff interdependencies, so content writers may find themselves providing copy for a host of information sources:
- corporate brochures
- websites pages and blogs
- internal newsletter and circulars
- shareholder and market reports
- environment, social and governance (ESG) updates
- compliance and legal documents
Besides these, private client areas, commonly accessed via website portals, provide the opportunity for more personally styled language. Content writers may even get drawn in to the world of corporate hospitality: open days, roadshows and team-building events, where the corporate voice can be more relaxed and slacker, but no-less critical to business perceptions.
Digital platforms
Social media has limits on time and space, so words must be focused credible and relevant with a content strategy which is:
- dynamic and agile
- consistent and non-contradictory
- frequent and fresh
- informative and newsworthy
Language on websites, pop-ups, tweets and blog posts has changed as a consequence. It’s not English as we knew it, but it’s effective and understood.
When working in this arena, a creative content writer should advocate a holistic approach to sculpting the language across the corporate biosphere, or risk inconsistency creeping into terminology, style and brand values. Bu consistency doesn’t mean monotone. different chords, tones, and key notes resonate differently with the diverse audience. Juts make sure the song is in the business tune.
Corporate culture and personality
Every business has a culture it shows to the world and an internal personality. There is no absolute rule on whether the language of engagement should be formal or casual, friendly or formidable, hard hitting or reassuring, arms-length or up-close.
So don’t be surprised when a good creative content writer asks a plethora of questions which may prickle your comfort zone. As impartial onlookers, they must challenge the status quo and the inevitable ‘mental grooving’ a corporate culture carves out. It’s like sequencing your DNA.
Liken it to a personality MOT or a check up with a psychiatrist to ensure your corporate voice is thinking rationally.
As the axiom says: ‘the only constant is change’. But for creative content writers, the challenge with corporate communications is more often than not ‘changing the constant’.
