Business owners, whether they are running a small plumbing business or a giant construction company, are generally busy. Social media posts are often quickly posted while on the run, and emails and advertisements are signed off on in between other important jobs – like selling products and providing services to clients.
The odd spelling or grammar mistake is often forgiven by regular clients – they already trust you and understand that you’re busy. But what of the new potential client who comes along and sees that spelling or grammatical error?
Here are the reasons you need someone like a copywriter, with an in depth knowledge of English, to proofread important copy like landing pages on your website.
Clients will go elsewhere
You might be thinking I’m crazy at this stage. Why would someone care about a word that has been spelled incorrectly? As long as you can provide the product or service that they want, what’s the problem? Well, a study in the UK found that a single spelling mistake on a business website, could cut sales in half. In half. I don’t know many businesses that can afford to lose half their sales, so you can see why spelling is so important in business. As was pointed out by the study, 99% of communication for online businesses is done through the written word so it’s important to get spelling and grammar right. Credibility is immediately affected by errors on your website or business copy and consumers want to be able to trust you completely. If you can’t get something simple right, how can they trust you are delivering a great product?
Consumers are quick
The UK study also found that over half of consumers spend 15 seconds or less on a website – so first impressions count! We live in a fast paced society. Even a flyer will only be looked at for seconds. That’s all the time you have to grab someone’s attention. Bad design, slow loading web pages and spelling mistakes are all turn offs, and your consumer will have moved on before you even realise that they were there.
Spell check doesn’t always cut it
Thank goodness for spell check on computers and phones – it’s a life saver for many people. But for it to work, you have to have a rough idea of how to spell the word to begin with – and this isn’t always the case. Plus it doesn’t check grammar. Granted, you can run a grammar check via your PC but even that is not always on the money. I often override the “errors” it picks up because I understand for example, that in advertising copy, not all grammar rules have to be adhered to. I also know that new words are being added to the dictionary each year.
Fresh eyes
You can be the world’s best proof reader, best speller, a virtual grammar queen…and you will still miss errors. It’s simply because you have been staring at the copy for too long and it’s your own work – you know what should be on the page, so you read it as such. In a way, you could say your eyes lie to you. Even with this website, I thought I had checked everything but when I sent the copy to my husband, he picked up a small spelling error. Of course, I was mortified and quickly fixed it before the website was launched. Having a copywriter read over your writing can be the difference between business success and business failure.
I know I harp on about this but content is king and first impressions count. Give your business the best chance of success by showing that you are completely professional. If you would like some help with proof reading, just give me a buzz.