Most small businesses put out a plethora of content – emails, social media profiles and posts, blogs, newsletters, job openings, and online and offline ads. Your small business content should be targeted to each piece of media you put out – and it absolutely, positively must be as error-free and grammatically correct as you can make it.
Everyone from B2C clients to B2B clients to mere browsers will judge your small business based on its written presence. When you’re marketing a product to a fellow SBO, do you really want them to see content rife with errors? It gives the impression that you don’t present your own business well, which might lead to doubts about the way you’ll represent theirs.
Similarly, would you be more inclined to hire a prospective team member with an impeccable application or one rife with spelling errors? A once-in-a-while mistake might be overlooked – we all make them. Consistent errors, though, might lead to a lack of trust in your company. It might also be construed as a lack of attention to detail.
Avoid typos and other errors in your small business content by hiring an editor or proofreader (those are two different people), running every piece of small business content through a spellcheck program or two (I sometimes use more than one), and getting someone else to proof behind you (they’ll find mistakes you overlooked). My final piece of advice – don’t beat yourself up over every, little mistake. We’re all human, no one is perfect, and now and again, something is sure to slip through the cracks.
Finally, you can approach your mistakes and potential mistakes with a touch of humor by making typos and grammar flubs work in your favor. Turn them into a contest – ask readers to identify obvious spelling errors in your small business content. Intrigue your readers, give a gag gift as a prize, and learn from your msitakes (did you see what I did there?).