5 Quick Tips for Putting a Professional Shine on Your Reports
Written by Annette Elton
Reports have a variety of uses. As you likely know, they can be used to motivate opt-ins. They’re used to establish credibility and authority and they can be used to virally market your business. The more professional your report looks, the stronger of an impression you’re likely to leave – of course a terrible looking report would leave a strong impression too but that’s not the image we’re after!
Here are 5 quick tips for putting a professional shine on your reports…
#1 Establish a format for the entire report in advance.
Choose your margins, tabs, font, spacing and justification in advance. Go to your menu options and choose the “Apply to entire document” option. Taking this step ensures you’re entire document will have a consistent look.
#2 Set up your headers, footers and page numbers.
At the very least, you’ll likely want a footer with your copyright notice and page numbers. Additionally, you’ll likely want your website URL or other contact information. Headers require a slightly different approach. You can position your book’s title in the header. This is a common practice. Or you can get a bit more technical and if there are chapters in your report, you can place the chapter title in the header for each corresponding chapter.
#3 Speaking of chapter titles….
Chapter titles and subheadings can actually add quite a lot of impact to a report. Get creative with them. Make them interesting. Seth Godin does an interesting job of this in the books he writes. When in doubt for a chapter title or subheading consider using the question approach.
Use a question as the subheading or chapter title and then answer the question in the content. For example, the subtitle for this tip could be “How Do You Choose Attention Grabbing Titles and Subheadings?”
#4 Make it visually interesting.
Photos, graphs and charts help break up the content and they add a professional touch to the report. Screen capture software can help make your images look professional. If you’re using images found on other websites, make sure you give them credit for the image or the information. You can do this by adding a caption or a label to the image when you place it in your report.
#5 Proofread.
Enough said, right? Everyone makes mistakes with spelling and grammar. However, simple errors can wear away at your credibility. Take the time to edit and proofread your content. Or hire someone to do the job for you.
There are of course other things that lend themselves to a professional looking report including a good cover graphic and easy to read formatting. Take the time to present a professional image. It can make a tremendous difference.
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About the Author
Visit Annette online at AllCustomContent.com
Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
Alice Seba says:
Nice tips…reports don’t have to be fancy, but polished sure goes a long way for readibility and credibility building.