Say What?

With the rising trend of working and consuming remotely in 2020, there’s an increasing focus on the written word. Emails and Microsoft Teams messages abound in lieu of watercooler conversations, while in an uncertain world full of misinformation – and disinformation – a business’s ability to communicate effectively with both internal and external stakeholders is their key to cutting through the noise.

For resident wordsmiths, that’s music to their ears. Their knack for constructing clear, concise and convincing marketing copy can help their business stand out from the crowd and build brand equity in these inequitable ‘quarantimes’.

Similarly, wordplay – done tastefully – has a unique capacity to reach and engage customers. From portmanteaus (that is, the joining of two existing words to form a new word, à la ‘brunch’) to paraprosdokians (a sentence ending with a surprising, witty twist), surveys suggest the use of humour in advertising can improve brand perception, recall and engagement significantly, and is often viewed as even more important than whether an ad is simply informative, relatable or features a new product of interest!

Of course, that’s not to say that wordplay is always the answer. In times like these, managers and marketers alike must be cognisant of the social climate, and attempts to force humour into every situation will often fall flat, if not turn potential customers right off. In others, the craving for a catchy business name or campaign has been known to cloud good judgement. The fine swimming pool experts over at ‘poolife’ probably should’ve left that portmanteau on the brainstorming board…

And anyway, before you start trying to fine-pun all of your marketing collateral, let’s take a step one ‘beard second’ back (for those playing at home, that’s approximately the length a bloke’s beard grows in one second). Because if you think that the key to market-leading messaging is simply whipping out a few one-liners, then you’ve got another think coming. And yes, we mean think.

While words used well can increase brand equity, the opposite is also true: Poor grammar and spelling can have an even larger negative> effect on consumers’ perceptions of a business.

A study of British consumers shows nearly three-quarters of online shoppers notice the quality of spelling and grammar on websites, while around 60% of shoppers stated they would not use that company’s service. Similarly, another survey on social media trends saw the majority of users name poor spelling and grammar as the factor most likely to damage their perception of a brand.

But perhaps the scariest part for those not grammatically-inclined: The age group most likely to make these judgements are tech-savvy spend-happy millennials.

With tens of thousands of words of content and copy across your site, media, social media and marketing channels, how confident are you that your site is error-free?

With a detail-oriented and results-driven approach, our independent website, media, social media and marketing audits are a must for any business with a high growth initiative. We’ll ensure grammatical and typographical best practices, provide unique insights, identify quick wins and opportunities, perform a thorough competitor analysis, optimise your conversion funnel, increase sales – all while saving you time and money.

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