Lax grammar, misspellings and shoddy punctuation cause confusion in some instances (the man eating tiger/the man-eating tiger) and feelings ranging from alienation to distrust in others.
Let’s face it, poor language use is a turn off.
Online entrepreneur, Charles Duncombe, says that poor spelling is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for online businesses: an analysis of website figures shows a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14130854).
Potential customers equate lapses in language use with substandard quality – budding clients decide your product or service is untrustworthy within seconds of landing on your web page if the sales copy includes mistakes. Would you trust a website peppered with misspellings or grammatical errors?
The only way to ensure future clients trust your company is to hire an experienced copy-editor – one who will detect and correct errors. Word of mouth can be a useful route to finding such an expert, though always ask to see testimonials and examples of past work – nowadays, anyone can claim to work as a copy-editor.
Remember, your company is as strong as its weakest link. Omitting to hire a copy-editor will affect your sales.
The web pages below purport to illuminate the route to error-free copy. I have highlighted where the advice of these ‘experts’ has gone awry.
