Month: September 2020

Copywriting and Copyediting are two phrases that get thrown around a lot. They are cornerstones of good advertising and marketing. They are the language that customers see first and internalize.   

Yet, in today’s digital age it is often overlooked. A lot of small businesses focus on the copywriting and the content writing. The digital age says we have to create more and more content, but at what cost do we create all this extra content? Is it more important to have a lot of content regardless of quality? Or is it more important to have content that is well-written and edited? We’d argue the latter.   

It is important, for our purposes, to give a quick definition of what exactly copyediting is. Copyediting is the act of editing the written content (the “copy”) for grammar, punctuation, and readability. Copyediting, in effect, will turn a piece of copy from “okay” to “stellar.” It’ll elevate the message and give it a pristine, easy-to-read quality.   

The Digital Age: Misspellings Abound!

You’ve perused the internet, which means you’ve seen the content that exists there. It is amazing how many blogs, websites, reviews and more contain boundless misspellings and basic grammar mistakes. It’s everywhere. Sometimes it is more than just grammar and misspellings. A lot of times there are difficult-to-read, clunky sentences. Other times there is slang, and unexplained abbreviations. In short: not very professional.   

Here’s a common example: “Their,” “There,” and “They’re.” This is a simple grammatical rule, yet it is abused way too often. It is an easy fix. If you were to use one in place of the other the meaning is completely lost, or at least muddied. The last thing you want is to confuse your reader, even if they know what you meant. At the very least, they will think you aren’t taking the time to proofread or edit anything you are posting. This won’t keep them engaged.   

Why is Copyediting so Important?

So, why is copyediting so important in the digital age? It’ll help you stand out from the unprofessionalism that is abound in the online world. It’ll communicate to the world that you take your business seriously and that you care about how you present yourself.   

You want your grammar and punctuation to “disappear” to the reader. What we mean is that you don’t want them to notice. If they notice it means something is wrong. It means something has caught their attention that wasn’t supposed to catch their attention. You want them to have a fluid reading experience.   

A good way to catch your own grammatical errors is to read your copy in reverse sentence order. By reading your copy like this you won’t be distracted by the content and can focus on the grammar of each sentence.  

Copyediting will distill what you’ve written and make it easy to read. It will clean it up and make it organized; and it will lend a level of professionalism to your online presence.   

How can You Step Up Your “Editing Game”

You can step up your editing game in a few basic ways. It is possible to hire an in-house copy editor, but sometimes this isn’t cost effective. You may also consider a contract copy editor. If you have the funds to do so it is worth the investment.   

How can you yourself take care of the copyediting? During these uncertain times, especially now in 2020, we need to figure out how to make the most out of a little. 

Enable the Editing Software on Your Word Processor

This is an important feature that is usually already turned on. However, a lot of people ignore its suggestions. These programs that are a part of your word processor will give you suggestions for grammar. They will also show you your misspellings.  

Don’t, however, stop here. These programs are very useful, but they aren’t 100% accurate. For instance, sometimes you spell a word correctly, but it is not the word you meant to use. For example: “definitely” and “defiantly.” They look similar but are completely different. The software won’t pick up on this and won’t tell you. (Some programs may offer a grammatical suggestion here, but it is possible they may miss it.)   

It is important to have a foundational understanding of grammar. This foundation allows you to pick up on the things software may miss. It is also possible, and we’ve seen it ourselves, where the program is telling you to insert commas in places where there shouldn’t be a comma. Likewise, it could tell you to insert apostrophes where there shouldn’t be apostrophes. As long as you know proper grammar up to a point you will be able to tell the difference. 

Lend Your Copy to Another Pair of Eyes for Review

Once you’ve edited your content you should give it to someone else to review. A new set of eyes is crucial in the editing process especially when you’re editing your own content.   

If you have a business partner give it to them. You may also give it to a trusted friend or spouse. Whoever you give the content to make sure to ask them for suggestions. If possible, try to get someone who won’t sugarcoat anything. You want someone who’ll tell you “how it is.” This is important because when editing you need to be ruthless.   

Giving your work to another pair of eyes will help you catch things you missed. Often times we get so used to our own copy that our own mistakes become invisible to us.   

Another pair of eyes means another perspective. This new perspective will show you clunky sections where meaning is lost. It’ll show you where to reorganize and where to rewrite.   

Don’t Be Afraid to Rewrite

In today’s world we want to produce as much as possible. We become afraid we’ll become stagnant, that folks will forget about us. But we should never sacrifice quality for quantity.   

Don’t be afraid to rewrite what you’ve written. After you’ve edited it and lent it to someone else: rewrite it.   

The rewrite will further polish your copy and have it be the strongest it can be. It will allow new ideas to shine through while bad ideas will be thrown away.   

Proofread, Proofread, Proofread!

Finally, make one last proofread. We can’t stress this enough. Proofread it slowly. Read every sentence and make sure it reads exactly how you like it. You don’t want to lose any meaning in what you are posting and sharing with the world.   

Conclusion

Copyediting may not seem like much as first, but it is crucial if you want to stand out in the digital age. Make sure you look everything over. You want to communicate exactly what you mean without anything being lost. In a world where a misspelling could mean a customer vs. a person who never does business with you, copyediting is very important.   

This year, 2020, has been a unique year for us. It has brought us a global pandemic, a divisive election year, and an economy that has taken a dive. We also face the coming colder months which will force most of us inside. The last thing we want to be thinking about is the holiday season. However, we need to start planning for it now, if we haven’t already started.   

According to the National Retail Federation, the holiday season amounts to about 20% of annual retail sales. It is a significant part of the year’s revenue. Your business depends on maximizing the potential of the upcoming season. 

Operational Strategy 

We should survey the environment and use analysis to determine our strategy. While this can get complicated, we can see that the holiday season this year will likely be filled with uncertainty due to COVID-19. Many experts are expecting the flu season to cross with the pandemic. This could exasperate an already complicated situation. Consumers may not want to be in public buildings, if they remain open. As a result, we need to maximize the efficacy of remote shopping.  

It is important to make sure that you have the processes in place to meet and exceed consumer demand. It will make the difference between doing well and not doing well this year.   

What We Can Learn From Amazon This Holiday Season

Large competitors like Amazon already do this very well. Most of us already know how easy Amazon makes it to buy almost anything online. Amazon already has a large segment of the market share since customers know to shop there for ease, price, and a wide range of products.  

Maybe you are already partnered with Amazon and sell your products through their site. Whatever your relationship is with them, it doesn’t mean that you can’t try to emulate them. You want to make the purchase process with your business smooth, convenient, and pleasurable.   

You and your business are unique and can offer things that Amazon cannot. Customers want to shop with you! Here are some basic things that you can do to make the remote shopping experience memorable. Some of these you may have already implemented.  

These are a few ideas. What is important is to make it as easy and safe for customers to shop your business this holiday season. Make your business stand out! Customers can shop anywhere. You want them to shop with you and there is no better time of year to do it than the holidays.   

This leads us to another area where you can make a huge impact…  

Customer Service  

I know, I know. Everybody talks about customer service. Well, there are good reasons for talking about it. There are a lot of metrics out there which highlight the importance of customer service when it comes to deciding where to spend money. Salesforce compiled a nice list for us to look at. It doesn’t matter where you look, the statistics say the same anywhere you find them. We will cover a few of the basics here.  

1. Positive customer interactions matter. 80% of customers say that their shopping experience is as important as the products or service. Customers are four times more likely to shop at a competitor if the problem they experience is from customer service.  
2. Bad experiences make an impact. There is a majority of American customers who have decided not to make a purchase because of poor customer service. It can take 12 positive customer experiences to remedy one bad experience. Not to mention that 62% of customers say that they share their bad experiences with others!   
3. It’s cheaper to keep customers than attract new ones. It can cost 6-7 times as much to attract a new customer than keep an existing one. 
4. You may not know that a customer has had a bad experience. It was reported in this survey that 91% of customers who left unhappy from a business did so without complaining! This can be a huge problem because you wouldn’t even know it. Your sales could appear to be slumping without any noticeable reason why.  

We know that these statistics can be scary. But we can all relate in some ways. We are customers ourselves. It is easy to be turned away from a bad experience. The good news is that many of these are very controllable.  

Steps to Take for Improving Your Customer Service

So what can we do? If we want to capitalize on this holiday season we need to look at the details to make us stand out.   

1. Hire the right people. This is easier said that done, but it’s essential for the reasons listed above. Do you have the right processes in place to vet candidates? Make sure you have the right outreach to find them? Do you offer the right pay or benefits/incentives to attract the best talent?   
2. Train them well. Now that you have the right people, do you have the right training programs in place? Do they know how to handle customer interactions? Do they know how to manage and escalate a problem so that they customer does not wind up with a poor experience? As we’ve seen, most of the time customers will leave without complaining. Knowing how to “read a room” is an important trait.  
3. Put them in the right places. Most employees will have strong character traits in some areas but may be a little weaker in others. If you have the flexibility, put the employees in areas that cater to their talents to get the most out of them. This is especially important if they are seasonal help because they won’t be on year-round. 

There are so many things that we can talk about with regards to customer service. Remember: good experiences will help you stand out, bad experiences will hurt you. Providing the right experiences for your customers is never more important than in 2020. One of my favorite sayings is “retail is detail.” This can be applied to areas outside of retail, but the point could not  be any more clear. The businesses that succeed pay close attention to the details. The 2020 holiday season is right around the corner. By planning and executing a sound strategy, it will help you maximize that 20% of your annual revenue potential this season.   

Advertising and Marketing Through Social Media

It is a changing world, and we need to change with it. We need to find new alternatives to how we used to do business. We need to focus on the methods that make the most sense. In today’s world, people are staying home and want shop from the comfort of their living room. So how do you take advantage of this situation? 

The first step is to put yourself into the shoes of your customer. They are at home behind their home computers. Most folks have social media and are likely perusing there. This is a point of entry you can take. You want to reach them where they are. They won’t be in your physical store, but they will be at home.   

With the holiday season comes new challenges. It is the busiest time of the year for shoppers. How do you compensate for this in this “new normal”? You want people to know you’re prepared for the season. Yet you also want to “grab their attention” so they know they can trust in you. There are two major aspects you should pay close attention to.  

The Copy is Important  

Pay attention to the words you are using. Well-written copy is essential to grabbing the attention of your customers, especially on social media. On social media you will have limited space to get your message across. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but count on the mantra “less is more.”   

Try to use positive language. Using positive language will get your customers more engaged in what you have to say. Connect with them on a personal level whenever you can. Let them know you understand how difficult it is right now, and how you want to help them.   

If you use this strategy you can then lead them into whatever promotion or other special update you want to communicate. In fact, the promotion should be tied in with the personal connection.  

Make sure you proofread everything to ensure it says everything you want it to. Gear your message toward your potential customer. Remember: put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself the question: “What would I want to hear from this company?”  

The Visual Components Tell a Story, Too  

You know the old saying (a cliché at this point), “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It is a true enough statement, and one you needn’t forget. Copy is half the puzzle. Using the right graphic design elements can elevate any campaign.   

Using the right visuals will allow you to connect with your customers in a way words cannot. You can “show” them instead of telling them.   

Using images and visuals that compliment your copy. You want these two elements to work in harmony. When they work in harmony is when they are most effective at reaching your primary audience.   

Colors are very important. Dark colors will affect your customers far differently than lighter/brighter colors. Soft edges will affect them differently than hard edges, and so on. The key is striking a balance. Tell a story with your images. It will make all the difference.

Conclusion

These are just three aspects to look at this holiday season. There are many more you can look at. The key is to focus on what you can do this year, and what you’re probably already doing. 2020 is unlike any year we’ve experiences, so making adjustments accordingly is what will keep you afloat.