How much do you value your reputation?

thumbs up, oops, oops proofredAre you aware that documents you’re sending out by post or by email attachment may contain errors that might damage your hard-earned reputation?

The reason I ask is because I recently received an email from the Sales Director of a local company in which was attached a sales brochure. On reading this brochure I spotted 12 mistakes.

When I replied to notify him of this, he was devastated as he had no idea that he was sending out literature that contained mistakes. He said he would be going back to his marketing people to point this out and that a new brochure would come to me first for professional proofreading.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that will spot these mistakes. Whilst the product being promoted wasn’t appropriate for me, those for whom it would be appropriate are probably now making a negative judgement about the business and saying, “If they can’t be bothered to check their literature, then why should I be bothered to place an order?” The poor quality of the brochure gives the wrong impression to prospective customers.

You probably do everything necessary to ensure that your products and services are delivered to the best of your ability. You protect your staff, yet how much care do you take over all the various bits of written material that your business produces?

I’m talking about stuff like website content, blog content, publicity/marketing material, emails, newsletters, reports…..the list goes on.

Many of us may take all this for granted as it is just something we do without thinking about it. But let’s think about it for a minute……..

Any piece of written material that you ‘publish’ by sending it to a customer or out into the public domain via a website or a blog, for example, is either promoting your business or it will reflect back on the quality of your business, without you even knowing it.

Did you know, in a recent survey, 59% of respondents said they would not do business with a company whose marketing material contained errors?

So, what do you do to make sure that your written content is accurate and error free? Do you rely totally on your auto-correct functions and a spellchecker? That’s fine, but did you realise that if a word is spelt correctly but you might have keyed it incorrectly, a spellchecker won’t pick it up? That could be embarrassing if you type ‘naked’ instead of ‘named’.

Reading and re-reading your own work is not only time consuming – time that you could be using to better effect – but you’re more likely to miss those small errors because your eyes and brain recognise what you’ve written and will skim over it even though it could be wrong.

The brain is an incredible thing. If you’re reading something and you spot a mistake then your brain will automatically flip into a different mode and focus on finding the next mistake instead of the message contained within the writing. So, if you’ve got an important message to get across to your potential clients, you must make sure that it’s error-free otherwise you’ll lose the reader’s attention.

These are classic examples of how a trained proofreader can help businesses to preserve and enhance reputations through the publication of professional-looking and error-free copy.

Peter ClarkePPG Proofreading Logo

T: 07843 304743

E: peter@ppgproofreading.co.uk

W: www.ppgproofreading.co.uk

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Privacy Notices

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published a new code of practice on privacy notices.

The new code is the first piece of ICO guidance that advises on compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

The code is aimed at all organisations that collect information about people, directly or indirectly, and provides examples demonstrating good and bad practice. Read more on the ICO website.

Free Networking Event! – 5th October 2016

The networking hub.

Basepoint Waterlooville’s popular Networking Hub with guest speaker and networking will be held on 5th October from 11.45am until 2.00pm.

Crimson Crab specialise in ethical, legal and responsible trading. Business owners may be a weightlifter, taking everything on their shoulders or an archer focusing on getting to the target with the least distraction. Whichever, Robert will give some tips on how to preserve the work/life balance, relationships and the businesses reputation.

This is a bookable event which is free to attend and includes lunch and refreshments. Spaces are limited and a waiting list will be used when spaces are filled. Please book your place here.

Reputation Matters – Why Good Graphic Design Is Important

This month’s ‘Reputation Matters’ session at the F2 Business Huddle on Friday 9th September is by Reputation Advocate Graham Martin, of Red Pixel Creative. Graham will be giving us his insight on “Why a good graphic design is important”. To whet our appetites Wendy spoke to Graham about designing a flyer.

Wendy: Graham, thank you for your time. Can I start by asking you to explain a little more about what graphic design is please?

Graham: It’s a way of combining photo graphics and text into a branded marketable item used to promote your business

Wendy: So there’s a lot more to it than just printing with pretty pictures!

Graham: There certainly is and there is quite a lot to think about when putting a flyer together:

  1. Firstly you need to consider your market and who or what your product or service is aimed at. This is important to get right to make sure you are selling to the right audience.
  2. Next consider the right message including colours, photographs and content. For example I’d suggest not using bright pink for a builder!
  3. Choosing the right design and style to suit your company image and the market you are aiming at is very important. If you have an existing brand, then develop this further or at that stage introduce a new design to represent your business. If you have already got something in place continue using this for consistency or introduce something that can be a graphical style for every piece of marketing you design thereafter.
  4. Getting the right content together will then make the leaflet work as a complete marketing item, including copy writing, photos and Illustrations. The text and photos should work together to promote your service or product. Also consider breaking your content up with bullet points and sub headings which help to make it easier to read.
  5. Finally getting the print right – consider how you are going to use the materials e.g. Direct mail, hand delivery or a promotional pack. The quality of the finish is more important for a hand delivery than a bulk direct mail campaign.

Wendy: Thank you Graham that was really helpful. I’m looking forward to hearing more from you at the F2 Business Huddle.

Southern Entrepreneurs – Training

29 Sep 2016

Wessex House – EASTLEIGH

Selling Legally On-line

The internet is the new high street and e-commerce is a great way of getting products and services to market. This course aims to help you make sure you don’t fall into the legal pitfalls thus reducing the competitive advantage, please note we will not be covering EU VAT rules.

EARLY BOOKER £25 TO 1 SEPTEMBER

Find out more …