Skip to main content

Web Copy – The Importance of Correct Use of Language.

A recent freelance project informed potential bidders - "... I don't need creative. I write web pages and articles but my spelling and grammar are atrocious. I need an editor who will work with me on a page by page basis..."

Full marks for effort here. High marks too for confidence. The writer is very much into the - I believe, therefore I can - method of self image boosting. It's a ten to one bet he repeats a mantra every morning before rising. Repeating "I can, I will, I can I will..." five hundred times, just as all the best self improvement manuals say.

Or does he? Let's not forget - this guy is successfully selling his work.

What is puzzling is HOW he can do creative writing when he doesn't have a grip on the basic rules of language?

Don't misunderstand this. It can be done. You only have to read the opening pages of the novels on the bestseller shelf of the local bookstore to appreciate that it can be done and is done. What is elusive - is how?

This is marketing, right? Every word counts in marketing copy. How do you know which words to use if you have no grasp of grammar?

Do you use instinct? Voodoo? White magic?

Unless you're a firm believer in the magic arts you have to conclude that it must be instinct. An innate sense of what to say and when to say it. A talent for using words that will press buttons to inspire in the reader a want to buy.

This being the case, we have to award even higher marks to the guy who posted the freelance project. Not only does he give his talent free rein, he also recognizes that he has a weakness and seeks to overcome it.

What does this all say to the average business person who wants to commission web copy or business promotional articles?

Quite simply marketing copy should be as near perfect for its purpose as it can be. Not only does it need to press the 'must buy' buttons, it must also be beyond reproach in its delivery. Spelling, punctuation and sentence structure errors have a negative impact, giving the potential buyer a reason to doubt and back away from the purchase.

At ffox we deliver articles and web content specifically designed to penetrate your market.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O365: SharePoint List v Spreadsheet - which is best?

O365: SharePoint List v Spreadsheet - which is best? See also - Blogs on  Library ,  List ,  Linking ,  Teams ,   Invoicing ,  Workflow  and  Bulk Invoicing The image shows the same data displayed in different applications. On the left is the information imported into a SharePoint List and on the right is a table representation in Excel What's The Difference? Let's assume you are running Office 365 and you may even have Teams launched. You need to provide your users with access to a table of data, the sort of thing that has traditionally been circulated in spreadsheet format. Only now, you have SharePoint Lists as well.  So, which is the best way to store, maintain and distribute the data? In both apps you can sort and filter the rows and columns, you can add new columns that read original columns and perform arithmetic, mathematical, statistical and text manipulation on the content of the original. In the SharePoint List linking to other lis...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Computer Age: Infrastructure and the cloud

Most business managers don’t know it but this is very close to the truth. IT teams across the world live in day to day hope that their servers and networks hold together and pray that the disaster recovery schemes will be adequate in the event of catastrophe. IT people are highly professional and, of course, their server networks do deliver. Massive and expensive failure is surprisingly rare, provided that the IT department gets what the IT department needs in terms of budget. But, where budget is restricted, where the IT manager fails to make the business case for upgrade, then performance and security start to become threatened. In addition, a complex IT infrastructure brings with it the penalties of restrictive practise where a department head can’t get the software, services or technology required for a lean department because what is needed will not fit with the current IT infrastructure. So, what’s the answer? Sole Trader - Read more SME - Read more En...
Post a Comment
Read more

Knowledge - The Ultimate Resource

Knowledge – the ultimate resource? I can’t argue with that. As a writer I’m in the business of providing knowledgebase elements. I take my own experience and that of others, I then turn it into some form of written document that may be understood and acted upon by the intended audience. Quote from Wikipedia - Human-readable knowledge bases are designed to allow people to retrieve and use the knowledge they contain, primarily for training purposes. They are commonly used to capture explicit knowledge of an organization, including troubleshooting, articles, white papers, user manuals and others. The primary benefit of such a knowledge base is to provide a means to discover solutions to problems that have known solutions which can be re-applied by others, less experienced in the problem area. · The most important aspect of a knowledge base is the quality of information it contains. The best knowledge bases have carefully written articles that are kept up to date, an excellent information ...
Post a Comment
Read more