A Reminder to Always Proofread Your Marketing Copy
When a business makes mistakes in their marketing communications, there are several problems:
- The business looks stupid.
- The business looks careless.
- The business’s marketing communications strategy to address the mistake is inevitably complicated, because there’s no good solution to the problem.
Recently, I received a series of mistake-ridden marketing emails that illustrate these points quite well. A local business sent me an unsolicited email that contained a devastating typo– they included the wrong phone number. Trying to atone for this mistake, they sent a follow-up missive:
My first thought was, “That’s what you get for sending me unsolicited email.” I definitely have a problem with email marketing that isn’t permission-based. My second thought was that customers won’t likely trust a business that can’t remember its own phone number.
My third thought was to notice that this email also contained a glaring typo.
While apologizing for the previous mistake, the business makes another mistake in their subject line – “Our Apologizes!” It’s a bit like the Internet meme, “All your base are belong to us.”
Despite their claim, I don’t believe the cold had much to do with their typo, since this marketing email was sent on the warmest January day I can remember (with a high of 62 degrees).
The lesson here for businesses everywhere is to take care. Details matter. Your marketing communications reach many people, and it’s important they tell the story of your business without distracting the customer with mistakes and typos.
