Yesterday I received a message via LinkedIn with the compelling subject line “Would you like more business?”. This simple, powerful opener had the desired effect – I clicked through to see what amazing insight I was being offered.
If you thought horsemeat in your burgers was bad, wait until you see what Tesco have put in your coffee
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the message was actually from a LinkedIn user* selling website development services. Fair play to them for exploiting the power of social media to sell their products plus a bonus 10 points for the effective subject line.
The body of the email contained a number of links to previous projects completed by this person and their company. I clicked on one at random and landed on a fairly inoffensive website selling TV aerial installation services. So far so good.
At the top of the page was a large slideshow type-animation intended to showcase the very best of the business. If you are a fan of such gimmicks (I’m not), you may have been quite impressed. Until you started to read the headline.
In a huge font was a blatant typo. The slideshow, the font, the colour choices, everything conspired to ensure that the only thing you noticed was a huge spelling mistake.
It is not uncommon for a typographical error to creep into the body of any text, including webpages. I have even discussed whether spelling mistakes may be desirable in the past. But when it is all that anyone notices about your shiny new homepage, then it is definitely a copywriting failure.
Unfortunately this particular typo not only reflects badly on the company to whom the website belongs, but also on the web development agency who are using the site as a reference in their portfolio of previous projects. Even if the client was responsible for producing all the text for their shiny new website, the web designer has to shoulder some of the blame for not spell checking before publishing.
Based on this observation, would it be wrong to assume that the development agency will be equally negligent with my website if I put business their way?
Sometimes people assume that professional copywriting services are an optional extra. A “nice-to-have” rather than a “must-have” in the grand scheme of their website project. And in some instances they may be right. However the case of the web developer and their client clearly shows the problems that can arise if you make the wrong call.
If you would like help creating quality website content without the sorts of errors that turn customers off, professional copywriting services from Tech Write could help. Contact us to find out more about some of the website text projects we have completed in the past to the great satisfaction of our clients and their customers.
* In the interests of fairness, I have chosen to keep this person, their company and their clients anonymous.
