Why Proofreading is Worth the Investment

Nothing says unprofessional more than sending out emails, newsletters, and sales materials, or producing ebooks or promotional videos with errors or poorly worded language. I always wince when I see an error from a company, especially when they're trying to sell me something. It surprises me, though, that this isn't just a problem that small companies face. Big ones do, too.

Tucked away in my desk drawer, I have a file of things that have mistakes in them. Yes I know it's a weird hobby, but it's better than taxidermy. Anyway, it has materials from big companies like Kodak (pre-bankruptcy) and local businesses, too. From menus to sales collateral, there's errors. Who lets money be spent on producing materials and then drops the ball at the end by letting it go out less than perfect? Unfortunately, way too many of us.

I was recently watching TV and saw a commercial for the film Warm Bodies, produced by Summit Entertainment. Obviously someone on the staff of the film company had the bright idea of putting the hashtag on the commercial. Brilliant! We all use hashtags these days. Hashtag it up, baby! However, whoever did the graphics on this commercial, whoever edited the commercial, whoever signed off on the commercial, and whoever placed the commercial obviously didn't flag the hashtag. Take a look at the video below.



For those who don't use Twitter, let me tell you what the problem is. You can't have a space in a hashtag. Therefore, what the film company listed as #Warm Bodies should actually be #WarmBodies. With the space, the hashtag is just #Warm--and that's wrong. And it's up there the entire time.

So, the lesson here today is let someone (or a bunch of someones) look at your copy before you send it out to the masses. Proofreading is an important part of the marketing, sales, and communications process. When you allow mistakes to go into the world, it's a reflection on you or your company. Do you want to be known for polished and professional materials? Or do you want to end up in my error file?

5 comments:

  1. Well, for small companies or individuals, I wouldn't even say it needs to be a professional proofreader or editor. Pick a co-worker, friend, spouse, parent, etc. Just someone to give it a look. That's better than nothing.



    As for hashtags, all the TV shows and movies use them now. So even though everyone isn't on Twitter, advertisers know now that you have to cover that audience. I mean, this is a commercial movie with ads on major TV networks; not some film showing in a goth guy's basement. You'd think SOMEONE would have noticed, right????

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha ha. Maybe so!



    I think hashtags are kind of like the word viral. People want you to "viral up" videos these days. I think that limited knowledge may sometimes also apply to hashtags.



    And, you know I thought of you with this movie, don't you?

    ReplyDelete
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  4. Amber, I cringe when I see type-os, grammatical errors, and as you've pointed out here, misuse of communication tactics like the hashtag. What makes me cringe even more? Like nails on a chalk board? When my own firm sends out something with an error in it. Makes me want to dig a hole and crawl in.

    We recently had this happen, not just once, but twice. I know. Awful, right? The problem for us, and for I would imagine many out there, is that we get too busy to be careful. We're in such a rush to meet client deadlines or fulfill contract obligations, that we hurry through that last critical step of actually proofreading what we've written or designed. We do it - at least we think we do. We even have the client take a looksie and sign off before sending to press or print. Unfortunately, by that time, we've all looked at it at least 1,572 times and can't possibly...even on a full night's sleep and best morning ever...catch those mistakes.

    So, we've learned from our mistakes and now have a 3rd party (someone who's never seen the copy or design before) take a final look for errors before sending it out. We have to actually build in an extra 2 days to the process to do it, just in case there are errors and we need to revise and then truck it around for approvals. It's worth it. Every. Single. Penny.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Quality is always better than the quality that is why the information you share on web must be meaningful and most importantly it should be free from grammatical and punctuation errors. People often don’t know the grammar rules and regulation and without knowing these facts
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    while writing. Proofreading and editing services help in detecting and eliminating these errors. Recently I read a post in which the common English and grammatical mistakes have been described which we often do while content writing. Here is the link below:

    http://docfixers.com/index.php/common-writing-mistakes-of-english-learners/

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