How To Balance Creativity and Clarity In Your Writing To Create Impact

Writing in your business is not easy. If you're a creative, typically you struggle to make yourself clear and if you're more of a straightforward, follow-the-rules marketer, it might be so clear then the creativity falls short.

 It's the balancing act that can be tricky.

Writing in business is incredibly important, probably the most important. Your messaging sets the stage for your business growth, for your sales growth, for your connection with your audience.

I have a client who was struggling to make sales in her business, despite the fact that her stuff was so good. She put so much work into everything she did and put out and her email list was growing and active but she just wasn't making sales.

She knew it was a messaging issue but didn't know what else needed to be changed.

She put a poll up on her Instagram stories asking if people related more to one term or another and she was surprised to discover that it was almost completely the term she had not been using. She is now working on changing things up. She had incredibly creative copy and beautiful sales pages but the writing wasn't clear for what people actually wanted. Despite the fact that both the terms were really similar (and kind of meant the same thing), the term she was using might have been an unclear term to her particular audience.

This is a common issue business owners face when writing for their business. They might love the technical terms, the coach-speak, the beautiful and descriptive writing (guilty) but it might not be clear enough or the term our audience has in their heads.

Here are 5 tips for balancing creativity and clarity in your business writing:

1. Start with a clear purpose

Establish your direction and the point of your writing piece. Know what you want to achieve. Think about both the result you want for your client from the piece but also the result that you want (yes, it will be different). 

Know what your audience wants and needs. Bring clarity in by selling them on what they want; from there you can get creative and give them what they need. 

Once you have a clear purpose for your writing, you can make creative choices while still having a clear direction. Simply having a clear purpose will automatically increase the clarity of your piece and if you're trying to sell, that is imperative.

2. Use vivid language selectively

Unless you are specifically trying to sell creative writing and show off those skills then try using the vivid language selectively. It's okay to use descriptive and imaginative language. Some experts will tell you not to use it at all, but in my opinion, a complete absence of it ends up being B.O.R.I.N.G.

Use it strategically while staying mindful of your clarity. When you use it occasionally it ends up creating a bigger impact and can draw the eye of your reader to important aspects.

3. Structure matters

How you present your information is also important. Present it in a well-structured, easy-to-consume way. Use bullet points and headings instead of a large block of text (see my blog structure). Find creative ways to present the information.

When you have a great structure, you are a step ahead when it comes to clarity. Having your work laid out effectively can make your message clear and allow your readers to easily follow, without taking away from your creativity to make it engaging.

If you have your information structured effectively, you can turn your focus toward creating content that is more creative, naturally.

4. Use Stories

My personal favourite! Teaching using stories is one of the best ways for people to learn. Stories have been used to teach generations of people in almost all cultures around the world and are still very important to many cultures, such as Indigenous peoples in North America.

How you tell a story is important and allows you the creative piece while, actually, making information more clear when leveraged correctly. Think about when you're trying to teach a tough and dense topic. You have to impart all the nitty gritty details that aren't very interesting and are quite complex to understand. Using a story to create a metaphor or describe the concept can end up making the concept clearer and more understood.

Looking to learn how to use storytelling in your copy to increase your sales? Grab my free (for now) guide here to get started.

5. Edit/Proofread

Once you've written your initial draft go back through and read what you've written. Don't just look for spelling and grammar mistakes (if you'd like a great editing tool, check out Grammarly) but also look for whether it's clear and gets the creative check in the box. Not everything you write will be clever and creative all the way through and that's okay. You're looking for a balance.

Make sure your piece makes sense, it's engaging and your point is clear. I highly recommend asking a friend to read it over to be sure. I often ask a non-business friend to read my business stuff. She can be quite honest about things and since she doesn't know the subjects, she can tell me if a random person on the internet could understand it. She's very smart, so if she can't get it, it needs a bit of a rewrite.

Not everything you write will exude creativity and fun. Some things are okay to be straightforward and more on the clear side. I don't put a story in every point or everything I write. One or two adds the little extra.

Figure out how to strike a good balance of both. What you're writing will dictate the percentages of creative vs clear. 

Happy writing!