How’s your content writing going?
How’s your career?
Are your clients happy?
Don’t worry if your responses aren’t all completely positive. You’ve come too far to quit now.
You’d be surprised how just one little typo can leave a lasting negative impression!
You may be tempted to assume that people overlook written mistakes, so it doesn’t really matter.
Trust me, improving your professional image with your writing is worth the effort.
Introducing your secret weapon…
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Why Proofreading Matters
Poorly written content with mistakes can cost you your job or opportunities. A misspelled word, a misplaced decimal, a number transposed all have dire consequences.
Research reveals that a whopping 74% of consumers pay attention to grammatical accuracy. Furthermore, 59% said they would avoid doing business with a company that’s made obvious mistakes.
So, if you think those errors on your website or in your email don’t matter, think again! Mistakes hurt your credibility.
Let’s face it, social media and texting have made us all somewhat lazy. Unfortunately, when that spills over into your business, it can cause others, whether consciously or not, to interpret it into a poor reflection of your product or service.
I know I’ve been guilty of this!
Proofreading is the reading of written content to detect and correct errors in your copy. Proofreaders ensure your content is clear and error-free.
They review your material not only for obvious typos and grammatical errors but also for consistency in sequential numbering, formatting, and spelling. You can’t rely on spellcheck to catch everything!
Here’s a perfect example from Kim Phillips:
“It was right before Christmas and my housekeepers were in for their last day of tidying up before a two-week break.
I had noticed the night before that my subzero top sheet was missed from my bed and had sent a text of a few things to get done before they headed out, including putting a top sheet on.
When I came out of my office after a call, the senior housekeeper, Andrea, who is not native to the US and struggles a bit with English started apologizing for my bed. She was so upset.
I felt terrible and told her it wasn’t a problem at all. They can just put the sheet on my bed before heading out.
The other housekeeper was really upset too and kept saying sorry.
I was so confused.
I mean, it was a sheet. No big deal.
But then it hit me…
Check your text, Kim.
Yup, what I sent didn’t say “sheet.” It said the curse word for #2.
So, they thought I said they put Daisy’s business on my bed and that I was cursing them out.
I immediately cleared things up, we all laughed, and a 5,000 lb. elephant left the room.
It’s amazing how one word said accidentally can impact so much.”
Spelling and Grammatical Mistakes Can Make or Break You
Your audience should find your final product grammatically perfect, clear, and pleasing to read. Readers are skeptical when they see easily correctable errors. They tend to focus on the mistake rather than your message.
You may think you can proofread to improve your own writing. And you SHOULD proofread your own writing. Several times in fact.
However, you also need SOMEONE ELSE to proofread it too. Why?
Because your brain will fill in any gaps, make assumptions, and wants to be right. Spell checkers don’t always catch errors either. Just watch the video below to see what I mean.
Therefore, you’ll need another set of eyeballs on your work. You can’t depend on your brain or spell checkers to catch all your mistakes. And you’re human, so you’re bound to make a few.
“It’s not that we can’t do it [proofreading] ourselves, but it can be so hard to catch our own errors.”
~Alex Cattoni, Copywriter
Who Needs A Proofreader?
EVERYONE who creates content needs a proofreader. Proofreading services are good for any of the following types of content:
* Articles
* Business letters
* Website content
* Reports
* Newsletters
* E-books
* Procedures and policies
* Instructions and descriptions
* Presentations
* Landing pages
* Sales pages and letters
* Brochures
* Pamphlets
* Proposals
How My Proofreading Services Helped A Client
A former client of mine published a handy newsletter discussing the latest news at her company. The actual content was interesting, engaging, and informative. But something was missing.
The newsletter just needed to be polished up a bit to project a more professional image. I made several recommendations to improve the overall appearance of the newsletter.
For instance, the piece contained inconsistent text font sizes, multiple run-on sentences, as well as several misspellings. If just one of those occurred, it might have been overlooked.
However, with multiple errors in one piece, it’s distracting to the message. AND it causes the reader to question the validity of the content.
By partnering with me, my client achieved her goal of publishing a high-quality, informative, and error-free newsletter.
Conclusion
A big part of your professional image is related to your writing skills. Don’t let an embarrassing typo cause you to miss an opportunity, promotion, or raise!
Honestly, when you have your content proofread, your writing will look more professional immediately!
Want to learn more about how proofreading services can help you or your business avoid embarrassing errors?
Book a free brief call to discuss how I can help you avoid costly mistakes and boost your success.