Is grammar and spelling important in your business?
Submitted by kstavert on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 22:57.
This is an excerpt from a message I received tody....
=> RULE #3 - WATCH YOUR Ps & Qs (Spelling and Grammar)
Would you be influenced by an email selling you something
that had noticeable spelling and grammar mistakes? Sure you
would...and the influence would be negative, not positive!
When a consumer reads a sales message that`s filled with
errors, they think to themselves, "Good grief, this person
doesn`t even take the time to get his emails right. His
product is probably the same quality as his emails."
When you`re in business, YOUR IMAGE IS YOUR REPUTATION
and your reputation is the reason people buy from you or go to
the guy down the block.
It`s essential that you create an image of INTEGRITY, CREDIBILITY,
and HONESTY in the mind of your prospects. Sending emails filled
with errors doesn`t hurt your professional image...it destroys it. (Ouch!)
=====>
A woman I know, only from the Internet, contacted me and asked if I'd
take a look at her program.
I said "sure" and filled in my email address and was directed to a new page.
Right at the very top of the page - in big, bold, red letters was the word "YOUR".
The word should have read "You're". I told her that I was not very impressed
to be greeted immediately with such a simple - glaring error.
Her response was "We're making lots of money. Who cares?" (she quite
regularly, publicly, admits to not knowing the difference between you're and
your.)
My immediate thought was "How much MORE money might you make if you
took a moment to correct such a simple error?
We are bombarded constantly with "offers" and must make choices - rule
things out. The first and simplest criteria for me is - spelling and misued
words.
I do tend to discount and dismiss messages and web sites that have these
types of error. Why? Well, if the business owner doesn't care about the little
things, why would I assume that they'd care about the big ones?
What do you think? Is correct spelling and grammar important or not?
spelling and grammar
I usually write in word and do spell check before posting.
I just noticed a few spelling errors in my post about spelling
and grammar...:)
That'll "learn me", eh? :)
*********************************
"The essence of being truly alive comes with falling in love
with the pursuit of your dreams, always stretching, always
in momentum, always expecting the best" Richard Brooke
"What do you think? Is
"What do you think? Is correct spelling and grammar important or not?"
Very important. Personally, I always spell check and often rewrite articles etc. until I'm happy with the way they read. The trouble is, there are so many people who don't actually know how to spell or how to use grammar correctly. That may not be their fault but, if they intend to publish a web site they should, at the very least, have it checked over by someone who does.
Yep. Errors are becoming the *norm*
Hi Karen,
I agree with you. Actually, with respect to the *you're/your* issue, it appears the wrong *your* has become the Internet norm. "Your" as in "your welcome" is incorrectly used much more than "you're welcome." And it seems that we are transporting incorrect English worldwide.
Whatever happened to those "mean" English teachers who drilled this stuff into us? Oh yeah ... that was a different world. :)
Best regards,
Judith Stephens
www.twitter.com/judithstephens
Your or You're
Unfortunately, if you asked ten people how to use "your" and "you're" in a sentence I bet only one person would give you the correct answer.
Sad but true.
Definitely important
I also feel spelling and grammar are important, especially when it's public print or promotional material. I am often amazed at the errors that somehow manage to get by. Are there not proofreaders anymore? I have seen newspaper articles and television news captions with errors that were unbelievable.
It annoyed me everytime I drove the interstate and saw a billboard for a local business which read "Your Here". As far as I knew, I never had a "here"; I didn't even know what it was or that I might need one. Thankfully, the sign was finally corrected.
I was always basically taught in school that if you could substitute "you're" with the words "you are" then you separate it with an apostrophe. Otherwise it's "your", meaning possessive.
Other words I often see used incorrectly are:
there - as in "There it is."
they're - as in "They're here" or "They are here."
their - as in "Have you seen their new home?"
I do understand mistakes happen, even with spell checker. And while I always read over everything I type multiple times, it never fails that after I hit that send or post button, I always find a mistake or two. This is certainly the case when it's late and I'm sleepy, such as right now.
By the way, I was also taught in school to never start a sentence with the word "and", but that is now acceptable. While I don't agree with that, I couldn't think of another way to start the above sentence. Having been out of school for 20 years my grammar skills aren't as they once were. Still, I at least hope people are able to follow along and have a general understanding of what my thoughts really are.
Deb
I personally feel that
I personally feel that proper spelling/grammar is important, but I also think it depends on (1) your audience, and (2) the medium you're communicating in.
If you're sending people to a short-form landing page through PPC, you probably want to have everything looking as "legitimate" as possible. Similarly if you're conducting an email campaign targetted at, for example, doctors.
But there are some high-profile internet marketers (e.g. Frank Kern) who say that the most effective way to develop a rapport with your audience is to seem like an "ordinary joe". One of the ways that this is done is to make grammatical and spelling mistakes in emails.
I actually think this is done on purpose by some email marketers...
Moe
I can understand the need to
I can understand the need to not seem aloof but I think purposely dumbing down your email copy isn't a good idea. It's OK to use phraseology that would be more readily understood by your potential audience but it still should be grammatically correct.