Poor spelling, much like poor use of grammar, can cause confusion. It’s also been reported frequently that spelling mistakes can cost a business millions of pounds, so we wanted to explore how a business and their customer spelling mistakes can result in a loss of revenue.
When spelling goes wrong
Online entrepreneur Charles Duncombe conducted an analysis of several e-commerce websites and found that in one case, a site's revenue doubled when a prominent spelling error had been corrected. If a site is full of spelling errors – or even just one obvious one – people instantly distrust the site, and future sales can reflect this.
Bad spelling doesn't just cost online businesses; in 2011 Topshop had a mishap when they printed a t-shirt with a Shakespeare quote on it. However, they incorrectly spelt Shakespeare, Shakespere, resulting in the firm having to crop their online product image.
Following internet-based comments and international news coverage mocking the misspelling, the retail chain recalled the t-shirts, cropped the bottom of the image and relisted them for sale – this time without a nod to Shakespeare. Although the t-shirt went on to sell well, it cost Topshop thousands of pounds to pull the items, re-design and their reputation.
The cost, of a comma
An errant comma in a contract cost Rogers Communications, a Canadian media company, CAD$2.13 million. Aliant Inc, noticed how a comma within their contract with Rogers Communications allowed them to cancel their contract and force them to renegotiate their rates after just a year's notice, instead of the full five years intended in the contract.
Customer misspellings can also effect whether a site appears for a particular search. For example, e-retailer, Bathrooms.com, found that amongst millions of Google searches for sweets, customers were misspelling ‘bathroom sweets’, instead of ‘bathroom suites’. As a result, Bathrooms.com acquired the domain BathroomSweets.com and transformed the website into a fully functioning product page where visitors can learn more about bathroom suites and find out more about common spelling mistakes.
Often, spelling mistakes are corrected by the search engines, either by suggestions e.g. Did you mean…? or simply by search results that include the correct word. However, in some cases misspellings can lead customers to completely different businesses.
What you can do
Bad spelling can have detrimental impact on the bottom line, so what do you need to do to make sure your spelling is as good as it can possibly be?
1. Proofread copy:
Print out your work, and read through with a pen at hand to annotate any corrections. Often reading your work backwards can alert you to mistakes too, as it forces your brain to focus on individual words, rather than the overall meaning of a sentence. Reading out loud can also help you hear where the language sounds odd.
2. Use a professional:
If you’re not confident in your own writing skills, hire a journalist to write copy for you, or employ a proof-reader to check your documents.
3. Run a spell check:
Don't be ashamed to use it. It’s a simple and useful tool to use, however do take your time when checking through your work and as suggested above always print out your work too.
All of these steps take time, however attention to detail will save you and your business from a lot of embarrassment, and potentially money.
By Adam Cassar, Marketing Manager at Bathrooms.com.
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