Writing like a person

Beth Dunn, inspired by Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog, has some good thoughts on why you should write conversationally. She's been looking at a book with old-fashioned "sales copy" and doesn't like what she sees.

One of the reasons why it’s worth while to build relationships with current and potential donors, members, constituents, et al., by using social networking and two-way communication like blogs is so that we can dump these outdated, alienating, and only ever marginally effective methods once and for all.

I'll go a step further and challenge you to write conversationally in your other printed materials, too. Why let a committee suck the life out of everything you've written before you spend $3,000 on slick brochures? The message will be far more effective if someone can pick up your brochure and see it's been written by a real person. So ditch the committee of copy editors. Have 2 or 3 people check for typos next time you're writing brochure copy, and that's it. Just try it to see how it works out.