APOLLO FACT OF THE DAY: MARK THOMPSON TO STEP DOWN AS DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE BBC IN AUTUMN

Letters

It's often said that the art of letter writing is dying but, in fact, organizations still rely on letters. Companies still send out a huge number of direct marketing mailings; charities still send out to requests for financial support; and, if they really care about an issue, most CEOs would still like to have a letter published in the Times.

Whether you are trying to reach citizens, customers, colleagues or investors, letters are also among the hardest forms of communication to get right. Too many people take refuge in stilted, formal language that seems to belong to another century. Others try a gimmicky approach that irritates as many people as it persuades. And it's getting even trickier as attention spans shrink.

We have experience of drafting letters on behalf of some of the world's leading statesman where tone is critically important. We've regularly placed pithy comments by our clients in the letter pages of national newspapers. And we've written direct mailings for consumer brands. Whatever the audience, we always make sure we thoroughly research the reader, get quickly to the point, write in a language that the reader will remember and they themselves would use – whether they are a reader of the Star or the Financial Times. If a letter is going to be seen or sent to thousands of people, any error could find itself circulated online and seen by thousands of people. We'll thoroughly fact-check and grammar-proof it before it goes out to ensure that it doesn't say anything that could damage your reputation.