Copywriting for Annual Reports will always be challenging. That’s where I’m at right now - writing away on behalf of a major UK organisation!
Annual Reports must rank as one of the most important documents any business will ever produce. Writing Annual Reports is all about balance - talking in an authoritative way about strategy, Key Performance Indicators, performance itself, people and plans for the future… but all the while making sure that key stakeholders will be able to identify with what the organisation does, where it’s going in the future, and how its achievements are measured and presented.
With all this corporate ‘background noise’ going on, writing effective Annual Reports is as much about acquiring and organising the right information as it is about a consistent copywriting approach. It’s vital to establish a structure from the outset, rather like a website sitemap. This should of course be established in close partnership with the Report’s designer. Decisions on page layouts, photography and graphics are dictated by content and how the information flows.
Achieving balance in the copywritten content is about combining readability with authority. It’s all too easy to slip into inappropriate informality when writing copy that must always be ‘accessible’ to readers of all persuasions. This blog, for instance, is written in a fairly informal style. Taking a similar approach to the copywriting for an Annual Report might cut it with certain journalists or shareholders - but it’s not going to work with bankers and financiers who are looking for a serious and professional analysis of the organisation.
They may go home and morph into ‘normal’ creatures like you or I - but for the purposes of Annual Report copywriting, it pays to watch your tone!
