As an avid student of copywriting, I read a lot of sales letters (primarily online)... and one thing I've noticed is that many letters could use a good proofreader.

Now, in my "hopefully-soon-to-be-former-day-job," I'm a financial editor/proofreader, so I'm hyper-sensitive to typos, poor grammar, bad spelling, etc.

My question for y'all is, are these mistakes made on purpose, in order to cultivate an "I'm one of you," aura, or is this just pure laziness/sloppiness?

It seems like if you're going to spend umpteen hours writing a well-researched, perfect slippery-slide, NLP-laced sales letter, it wouldn't kill you to spend a few minutes making sure that all of the gramattical kinks are ironed out.

Thoughts?

Jim

Disclaimer: This question is absolutely not directed at anybody in particular.

Sometimes on purpose... I think often times not. We're a society that is passing high schoolers who still can't spell. It's only a matter of time before correct spelling will look out of place.

That said, Joe Sugarman once did a sales letter where he left 20 words misspelled on purpose. For each word the reader found, they got $10 off the sales price. He did this because (and here's the brilliant part) he had a deal on the item that although he got it cheap, he was contractually not allowed to advertise a price lower than the one the distributors had. It was a piece of workout equipment that sold for 500. He wanted to sell it for 300. So he came up with the misspelling idea.

Funny thing was... most of the people only caught 1/2 of the misspellings. So he actually made a lot more than he was planning.

Okay, not really relevant to your question, but I love that story and have actually used this idea before.

That's a great story, Vin! What a way to force people to read your letter all the way through!

That being said, I see a lot of misspellings in online sales letters, too, and it really bugs me. Each misspelling is a speed bump when I'm reading. But I guess if the letter converts and they make money off it, no one cares...

I don't like spelling errors. Let me tell you why.

Unless you've placed the errors in the text on purpose (like Sugarman did), it tells me--as the potential consumer--that you don't care enough to edit your own work. If you don't take pride in YOUR work, I don't trust you to take care of my business needs.

I just taught this lesson in class the other day. Students are given copies of three actual business letters that are full of errors. All the students said they would not do business with these companies because the letters were unprofessional. One business letter consisted of two sentences but had 16 errors in it. Unbelievable.

I can forgive an occasional typo because I see them everywhere--even on websites of highly respected copywriters. We all make mistakes. I have a tendency, however, to proofread my work several times so I can catch my mistakes.

Vin, you're correct about the high school graduates. Many students are not taught to take pride in their work. They show up and are given passing grades Some students smirk and shake their heads at me because I deduct points for not following directions. They've learned that as long as they do something--anything--it's passable. College and/or the world of work is a big wake-up call for many people. Unfortunately, those of us who do demand quality in our classrooms are not respected as much as those who give passing grades to everyone. However, I digress. That's another issue....

Vin: So, how'd it work when you used it?

Deb: I have to second this. I would probably not hire a copywriter who didn't take the time to check their work. I would subconsciously assume that they wouldn't be making 100% effort.

And even if error-filled copy pulls, who's to say that it wouldn't pull more if the errors were cleaned up?

Jim

Jim,

It was writing for another copywriter's client, so I'm not exactly sure. But when I spoke to him about it, he said it must be doing well. The client hasn't complained.

vin

Jim,
Although I purposefully use some slang and have "less-than-perfect" grammar skills, I still make a point to at least get my spelling right.

I always use a spell checker, but sometimes spell checkers don't always work (a good example would be too, to, two).

I will say that using the "right" slang or grammar has a lot to do with your target market.

For instance, If you are writing to a highly educated crowd (teachers , lawyers, or doctors), you had better get it right if you want to build rapport or empathy.

If you are targeting folks with an 8th grade education, you better "not" use high-falutant(sp) "city folk" language.

Overall I do my best to use correct spelling.

I like Sugarman's idea though... might be worth a try in the future.

What could go wrong?

I guess you could offer $10.00 off the sales price and end up with fifty spelling errors instead of the assumed twenty.

In that case you'd have to give away your product for free or offer rebates on all purchases made...

What a disaster that would be!

Jim,
I, too, have heard the argument that bad spelling and poor grammar convert better because of the "just folks" quality they imply.

Personally, I don't buy it. Neither the premise, nor the product or service being sold.

I don't find sloppy writing to be cute. Just sloppy. To me, sloppy copy reflects directly on your credibility and the credibility of what you're offering. If you can't be bothered to present yourself to me in the best possible light, why should I believe that your offering is held to a higher standard?

Any ordinary word processing program makes it ridiculously easy to check your work and, although I can overlook a few typos, copy riddled with mistakes is a real turn-off for me. And if the mistake is in the headline! - I won't even bother scanning the copy body.

*soapbox folded; rant over*

I love the typo discount! Brilliant. I agree though that the very least you can do is spell check your work. Some grammar mistakes are ok- especially when it is slang. I would say that 10% of the mistakes that Microsoft word points out as being wrong is actually correct.

Steven,

The way I used it (and it was copy directed at teachers, so it seemed appropriate) was if you found the 7 mispellings in the letter you'd get a bonus package worth $300. The client really didn't have an efficient way to spell check everyone's entries and offer variable discounts, so at the end of the letter I give away the answers telling them "I know you found my 7 mistakes. Any teacher worth her salt would find them... But just in case, here they are." Then gave everyone the discount.