SimplyCast: Interactive Marketing Blog

Have you ever sent out an email marketing campaign and realized afterwards that you spelled something wrong?

Spelling mistakes can happen easily, but give a terrible impression to readers.

You want to come across as accurate and intelligent as possible, so always spell check your copy and double-check your facts. This means dates, prices, and the names of people and places are most vital.

For example, if you send out a weekly promo, you want to make sure you include the correct date it lasts until and price being offered. Otherwise it could easily lead to confusion and lost revenue.

But there is another very important reason to cut down on spelling errors in your email marketing campaigns that you might not realize.

Bad grammar and spelling mistakes are also attributes of spammers.

This of course is what you want to avoid at all cost because if your emails can’t get past a spam filter, they will never reach your long list of interested subscribers.

Here are some common problems to look for when reading over your campaigns:

1. Misspelled words – It’s a good idea to spell-check a document, but it’s not enough. Your best friend the spell checker won’t catch every error. Pass it around the office or send test emails to your department for feedback.

2. Wrong word used – This is why a spell checker isn’t enough. A spell checker will only catch words it does not recognize. It can’t tell if a legitimate word is used incorrectly.

Some words commonly confused: accept, except; your, you’re; then, than; there, their, they’re; lay, lie; loose, loosen, lose.

3. Grammar error – Even if you think you are a strong writer, have someone else check your copy for grammatical errors. Mistakes make you look bad so there is nothing wrong with asking for a second opinion before sending.

4. Punctuation error – This is another area where you will benefit from a review by someone who knows their stuff. If you don’t happen to have an English Major hanging around your desk, purchase a good grammar or style book.

5. Vague or confusing statement – Make sure every sentence is crystal-clear. You don’t want your promotional message to raise more questions than it answers. Ask a few friends or coworkers to read your email to make sure the correct message is being conveyed and that it does not offer any loopholes that could cost you money.

6. Illogical statement – Read over what you have written slowly. At the end of each paragraph, ask yourself: “Did that make sense?” Rewrite so that it does until you are finished.

We are not saying you have to be able to win your local spelling bee or teach a writing class in the future (that would be very cool though). We just want to stress that decreasing the amount of spelling and grammatical mistakes from future email marketing campaigns will have huge benefits for you as a writer and for the success of your email.

Perfectly written copy will not only convey a professional image for your brand, it will also separate your campaigns from the many emails that get junked daily by very strict spam filters.