Insights:The power of proofreading.

Advertising copy is most effective when it is written in the same style that people talk.

The goal of this is to create the illusion that your brand is having a conversation with your customer. It also comes across as more genuine and makes people feel like they’re not being “sold” to. This style of writing requires that the occasional grammatical rule is broken or even completely ignored. With that said, proofreading is still vital to effective marketing.

Misspelled words, wrong words and unintelligible sentences can make your company appear unprofessional and untrustworthy.

Spellcheck, while a helpful tool, is not the answer.

Spellcheck doesn’t understand context and often “corrects” words with the wrong one. To be sure, you need a proofreader.

Proofreaders should never be the person who wrote the original document. The human mind fills in blanks and often will trick the reader into thinking what they assume is there is there. Fresh eyes will always catch more errors, and a fresh prospective may also result in suggested changes that improve the work. If you have a strong proofreader in house, that’s great. If not, there are countless proofreading services that charge very little to make you look a lot smarter.

Remember, an amazing website, an expensive magazine ad or a brilliant billboard can all be rendered powerless by a simmple typo.