MarketingMoment

The grammatical cousin of the bored teenager, the apostrophe can often be found hanging out in all the wrong places. Or just being plain useless. Worrying or confusing everything that crosses its path.

Take, for example, the following as a case in point:

“Choose from 1000’s of DVD’s…”

Or:

“Visit Brighton, for refreshing sea view’s…”

Both are not as innocent as they seem on the surface.

Incorrect use of punctuation – and here, we are specifically referring to the humble apostrophe – can weaken your writing and your message, as well as trip up your reader.

So here are some dos and don’ts in the world of apostrophes:

• And it’s all right, now…

Ah, yes, the king of confusion – ”it’s” is a contraction of “it is”. However, it’s often presented as “its”. This is bad. And should be avoided. Unless, of course, you mean “its” in the possessive sense of the word. For example:

“It’s about time it showed its true colours.”

Here “it’s” means “it is” and “its” (without the apostrophe) indicates that something belongs to “it”.

• Ps and Qs, Dos and Don’ts…

You do NOT need an apostrophe to pluralise. OK, it’s tempting to slip in a quick apostrophe, but that would be mere folly. Apart from the obvious one – “don’ts” – which is correct in this instance.

There is neither a contraction nor a possessiveness connected with numbers, abbreviations or the “dos” in the world.

So the following are correct:

“There are 100s of them out there.”

“You only ever saw two PCs, but that was in the 1970s.”

“The MPs had 1,000s of complaints.”

So remember, only use an apostrophe for a missing letter or, in every other case apart for “its”, when something ‘owns’ something else. (“It’s amazing to think that the project’s deadline was met.”)

Please send me any ‘grammar gaffes’ via the ‘comments’ section here, and I’ll pop them in a future post on this blog.

Picture by Sceptre via Wikipedia

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Do you have an in-house newsletter/ezine that goes out to your marketing or writing staff?

Perhaps you belong to a professional organisation that is actively looking for fresh newsletter articles. Ones that are relevant and useful for your members…

Then again you might publish a great website, blog or Facebook page and need more quality content…

I have written many articles and ‘filler pieces’ on a variety of business, marketing and writing-related topics – and they are now available at no charge for inclusion in your newsletter, ezine, website’s article archive, or blog.

You can access some of these articles (be sure to read the usage rules) at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=T_Dooley

Otherwise, feel free to browse through the rest of this blog, or sign up to my newsletter here. 

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Sometimes, it can seem as if the world is conspiring against you and your marketing efforts. But not if you use a time-tested powerful headline.

In the world of marketing communications, both online or offline, your headline can lead to marketing success … or failure. Copywriting and marketing pros alike turn to certain headline formulas that they know will always work well.

In the lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success,  I present my favourites, and show you how you can use each one in your own marketing. To read “Top Proven Headlines to Boost Sales” as well as the rest of the ezine, please sign up first. (You can unsubscribe at any time, and I NEVER abuse my subscriber’s email address. Your details are safe with me.)

Subscribe here.

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1. Work out how often per week, month or year you are going to send out your newsletter, and then stick to this schedule. Consistency and regularity are key.
2. Provide quality content that is relevant to your target audience and is worth reading.
3. Hold competitions. People love the opportunity to win prizes, and a good competition can make your ezine ‘viral’.
4. Don’t overpopulate your email newsletter with ads.
5. Be patient. It takes time for newsletter marketing to work.

First published in Communiqué for Success newsletter:

http://www.mediaminister.co.uk/marketing_cfs_newsletters.htm 

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You book your car in for its annual MOT, so why not your business words? (Are you sure they’re giving the right impression? Do they reap the desired results? Is your message being compromised by sloppy copy?)

While we can all ‘write’, copywriting involves so much more than simply penning a few well-crafted words. Before she or he writes, a good copywriter will spend a considerable amount of time researching the intended audience. They’ll make sure they understand buyer behaviour and how to craft your message in such a way that it really makes a splash.

Good copywriting can make confusing policies crystal clear. It can keep inter-company communications running smoothly through the careful use of words. And it can effectively ’sell’ a company’s products or services to its customers.

So if you’re not sure your copy is quite right, email me a paragraph (up to 200 words) of your poorly prose and the “Word Doctor” will nurse it back to life. Think of it as a ‘Try Before You Buy’ offer. Then you can decide whether to give me the go-ahead if you have any text that requires editing, copyediting, rewriting, proofreading, indexing or researching.

Don’t have the time or the inclination to write your own copy? I can do it for you. Just follow this link and you’ll soon be on your way to owning copy that gets results.

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Yesterday, I came across an advert for a copywriting job. Part of it read: “We won’t pay you much to start with but the prospects for successful writers are very good.”

Tell you what, I’ll tell the restaurant owner: “I’ll pay fifty pence for my three-course meal, but if I like it I’ll pay a bit more next time. Okay?”

(Excuse me while I duck the flying plate of pasta!)

Just as cooking isn’t a hobby for restaurant owners, writing is NOT a hobby for freelance copywriters. Rather, it is part of a viable business, so please give them the respect (& fees) they deserve.

Paying a professional anything less will only serve to haunt you. As famous ad man David Ogilvy once said: “Pay peanuts, and you get monkeys.”

And he show know: Not only did he own and run one of the most successful advertising agencies of all time, he also generated millions of pounds in profits for his clients.

OK, so what specifically does the monkey reference have to do with business?

Well, there is a current trend to outsource skills, including copywriting and editing, to the cheapest service provider.

Nothing wrong with that, you may be thinking. After all, we operate within a global marketplace, don’t we? And the struggling economy at large is putting a lot of pressure on companies to cut the cost of business, right?

Sure, but going after price rather than value can have dire consequences.

I should know. It happened to me…

I’d hired a so-called ‘professional’ writer with a seemingly good portfolio via one of those service providers like Elance to write a 30-page report for me.

On top of her taking almost three times the agreed time to do this, the quality was poor. She was so off brief it was scary. There were typos everywhere, and some of the language used was very suspect indeed.

Worse, having already collected the bulk of the payment due as a deposit, she disappeared. No contact. No one to put things right. No brief fulfilled.

Later, I found out she had passed off other peoples’ samples in her portfolio as her own.

I ended up out of pocket for that project. And you can imagine the frustration and disruption caused to my business. Which is what happens to a lot of business owners who think they can save money by going after cheap.

So, please, listen to experience. Honour the core values of your own business as well as that of the service provider you’re hiring … otherwise, you’ll be left with monkeys if you pay peanuts.

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Many of my clients and newsletter readers have taken advantage of my ‘heads up’ on the price increase of MediaMinister’s Using Online Marketing to Your Advantage home-study system. Some also wrote in asking for an extension on the ‘old’ price, before I revamp it into the fully ’supped up’ version. You’re still sorting out post-Christmas debt, you said, and would like a little longer.

No problem! I mean we all need the help we can get, especially with the news that we’re not that far out of the recession as we’d been led to believe AND inflation is set to go up — again.

So you’ve got until March to buy the original at the original price before it goes from £50 to £85 for the CD or downloadable transcript and from £60 to £97 for the whole package. If you’ve been meaning to get it, *here’s where you can read more about it, and get yours at the ‘old’ price.*

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Film director David Cronenberg recently aired a warning to all budding scriptwriters:

“Most scriptwriters are illiterate – their grammar is non-existent and they can’t spell. If I’m distracted by spelling mistakes, I can’t get through a script, so I turn it down,” said Cronenberg, speaking on BBC’s Radio 4 on why he turns down film scripts.

As well as ruining any chances of potential stardom, not noticing or, worse, ignoring ongoing errors is bad for business. We’re talking errors on your website, in your blog posts, in your advertising, your press releases and other marketing communications. Sloppy copy confuses your reader … or makes them think you simply can’t be trusted to get things right.

That, in a nutshell, is why proofreaders are so important.

You see, when it comes to checking your own work, ‘blind spots’ get in the way. Oh, you think you know it like the back of your hand; after all, you’ve read the piece so many times, you are certain there aren’t any rogue typos, misspelled words or erroneous punctuation. Absolutely certain … well … maybe…

The thing is, your eyes can and will play tricks on you. They’ve scanned that piece of work so many times now, that they have simply become bored. So they begin to skip the details. Hence, errors stay put.

In my 14 years-plus of proofreading, there’s one surefire thing I have noticed: That it is fairly easy to spot errors in OTHER people’s work, but not so in your own.

What about you? Do you think we should bother with grammar and spelling? Please share your thoughts via the comments link below. I look forward to reading your views.

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The lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success, takes a look at ten of the major lessons learned in marketing, and how they can help ANY entrepreneur or business-owner when the calendar turns to the next decade. To read, please sign up first. (You can unsubscribe at any time, and I NEVER abuse my subscriber’s email address. Your details are safe with me.)

There are also TWO reader giveaways to help sort out both your personal and your business life. Oh, it all makes me feel like Mrs Santa Claus right now!

Subscribe here.

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Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include.

The lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success, shows you how to get the ‘X factor’ for your business and ensure that YOUR products or services stay in demand. To read, please sign up first. (You can unsubscribe at any time, and I NEVER abuse my subscriber’s email address. Your details are safe with me.)

Subscribe here.

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