A company’s corporate literature needs not only to give information to current customers and staff but also to attract potential new clients. In an age when consumers are bombarded with promotional material in the form of flyers, advertisements, newsletters, websites and so much more, organisations need to ensure that their message is clear, concise and engaging. It must also be consistent with the company’s brand image and house style, whether for distribution internally or externally.

Readership

An internal magazine or newsletter is just as much a company sales tool as an external advertisement – all corporate communications need to inspire confidence in the brand and product, whether their aim is to entice new customers or to inform current staff and engage them in the organisation’s strategy, challenges and successes.

Making it work

Sales and marketing documents need to grab the reader’s attention and retain it. A brief, coherent and logical expression of the benefits of the product, alongside eye-catching visuals, will serve this purpose more successfully than extensive explanations and overly technical details. The message needs to be memorable, but for the right reasons: plenty of readers will have vivid recollections of campaigns that stick in the memory because of a spelling mistake or other similar error.

Editing requirements

To ensure that a strong, relevant brand message is presented and errors avoided, an editor needs to:

• ensure that the 5 Cs are adhered to – that the text is clear, correct, concise, comprehensible and consistent
• eliminate errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation and formatting
• ensure adherence to the house style
• check that the language used is appropriate for the intended readership
• remove repetition and unnecessary verbiage
• check that the progression of ideas is logical and the argument coherent
• ensure that the organisation’s intentions are communicated in an effective and professional way.