Don’t Let Typos Undermine Your Expertise & Marketability

Allow me to share a story with you.

Recently, I was looking for an accountant to help me set up my accounting software (Xero). On its website, this particular accounting firm had a nice design and prided itself on being tech-savvy. Sounds great, right? Well, yes… except that so many things about the website felt contrary to that tech-savvy mentality they were trying to sell me on.

Specifically, the word choice throughout the site was anything but tech-savvy and other areas were just downright unprofessional in their carelessness. A few examples—also included in the slideshow below:

• Tech-savvy was misspelled on their homepage (Really, you ask? YES, REALLY!)
•  Its was misspelled as it’s multiple times.
• Proactive was hyphenated as pro-active. Startup (as in a startup software business) was hyphenated as start-up. In many cases, hyphenating tech words instantly signals that you are old school and out of touch. Even the Associated Press has given up the hyphen in lieu of simply email.
• Ironically, adjectives such as real-time or cloud-based—as in real-time reports and cloud-based software—lacked the necessary hyphen.
• This line regarding their “Professional Services” really blew me away (errors in bold): You also have to be conscience of how nexus will effect your requirements for sales tax, payroll, and income tax compliance.
• Unfortunately, more errors continued...

So I didn’t contact this accounting company. Maybe they are amazingly tech-savvy but hired the wrong copywriter. Taking time to vet them seemed like a waste of my time. It was quicker and easier to find someone else (whose website had only one typo, which I gently pointed out).

I know better than to think that everyone is a word nerd like myself. However, most people learn these basic rules at a young age. Subconsciously or consciously, they recognize when something is off. Doubt and distrust enters the picture. You're trying to sell them on a message, but they realize that something is wrong—is it your purported area of expertise or simply your grammar? Will they stick around long enough to find out, or just click away to the next competitor?

Moral of the story: Don’t let poor copywriting—whether it be word choice, grammar, punctuation, or misspellings—undermine your expertise and your marketability.

Solutions? A few come to mind...

• Run spell check. This catches SO MANY errors!
• Get a fresh set of competent eyes to review things. Key word being competent.
• Hire Luminary Works to do a Website Review or other proofreading project for you.
• Talk with Luminary Works about doing a custom workshop to improve your communications. These actionable tips and tricks are perfect for small groups of employees, industry events, online learning events, etc...