Exposing the Link Between Writing and Sales

8/8/2019 Exposing the Link Between Writing and Sales

1/17

2010MarketingLure,Inc.AllRightsReserved.

EXPOSING THE LINK

BETWEEN WRITING AND

SALESSurprisingInsightRevealsHowWritingErrors

InfluenceBuyerBehaviorandOpinions

By Sue AndersonLenz, Marketing Lure, Inc.


2/17

ExposingtheLinkBetweenWritingandSales Page2of17


TABLEOFCONTENTSLETTERFROMTHEAUTHOR................................................................................................3

EXECUTIVESUMMARY........................................................................................................4

INFLUENCINGBUYEROPINIONS..........................................................................................5

INFLUENCINGBUYERBEHAVIOR.........................................................................................6

THEEROSIONOFCOMPANYCREDIBILITY............................................................................6

GRADINGTHEIMPORTANCEOFERRORFREEWRITING.......................................................8

ASSESSINGTHEABILITYTOINFLUENCE.............................................................................10

TOLERANCEFORERRORS..................................................................................................13

SUMMARY.......................................................................................................................

15

UNDERSTANDINGHOWNUMBERSLOSELEADS..............................................................................15

FOURKEYLESSONS...................................................................................................................16

ABOUTMARKETINGLURE.................................................................................................17

FIGURE1:INFLUENCINGBUYEROPINIONS..................................................................................................5

FIGURE2:INFLUENCINGBUYERBEHAVIOR..................................................................................................6

FIGURE3:HOWWRITINGERRORSHURTCOMPANYCREDIBILITY......................................................................7

FIGURE4:THEIMPORTANCEOFFLAWLESSMARKETINGMATERIAL..................................................................9

FIGURE5:LIKELIHOODTHATWRITINGERRORSWILLINFLUENCEOPINIONS......................................................11

FIGURE6:LIKELIHOODTHATWRITINGERRORSWILLINFLUENCEBEHAVIOR......................................................12

FIGURE7:TOLERANCEFORTYPESOFERRORS............................................................................................13

FIGURE8:INEXCUSABLEERRORS............................................................................................................14


3/17


LETTERFROMTHEAUTHOR

Welcome!

Canpoorwritingkillsales?Ihadnoideawhattoexpect

whenIfirstraisedthisquestioninJanuary2010.Sure,

writingerrorsinfluenceme,butIdidnotknowifother

peoplefeltthesameway,orifhasteandtechnologyhad

changedourtoleranceforerrors.

Alongtheway,Iuncoveredanestimatethatsuggests65percentofall

businesscommunication

contains

writing

errors.

Ilearned

that

college

bound

studentsin2009averagedjust60percentontheACTwritingtest.AndIfounda

FacebookgroupcalledIjudgeyouwhenyouusepoorgrammarthathas

almost500,000members.

Thetargetforthissurveywasbusinessprofessionals.Mostrespondentscame

fromtheU.S.,althoughthesurveyreachedpeoplein16differentcountries.

Participantsanswers(163inall)shouldserveasawakeupcallfor

anybodythatdoesnotbelievewritingerrorscankillsales.Asyoull

soondiscover,

people

do

care,

and

they

will

use

writing

to

evaluate

andjudgeaprospectivecompany.

Feelfreetosharethisreportbyclickingontheretweeticonsin

thisdocument.Youcanalsodownloadthefullreportfrom

http://www.marketinglure.com/linkbetweenwritingandsales.

Bestregards,

Copyright Statement: All content 2010 by Marketing Lure, Inc. - Copyright holder islicensing this under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-Noncommercial-No DerivativeWorks 3.0 Unported, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You are free to copy,distribute, and transmit this document for non-commercial purposes only and provided thatMarketing Lure receives full attribution for this work. Furthermore, you may not alter, modify, orbuild upon this work without the express written consent of Marketing Lure.

http://www.marketinglure.com/linkbetweenwritingandsaleshttp://twitter.com/home/?status=free+report+shows+writing+errors+hurt+sales+|+http://su.pr/1mlSG1+%28via+@MarketingLure%29+|+%23writebizlinkhttp://www.marketinglure.com/linkbetweenwritingandsales


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EXECUTIVESUMMARY

Thisreportanalyzeshow163businessprofessionalsreacttowriting

errors.Onehundredpercentofthepeoplesurveyedacknowledgethat

writingerrorsindeedinfluencetheiropinions.Nearlyeightoutoften

peoplehaveeliminatedaprospectivecompanyinpartbecauseof

writingerrors.

Toleranceforerrors,however,variesgreatlyanddependsonthetype

oferror,collateral,andmediumusedtocommunicate.

Printedcompany

literature

is

most

likely

to

influence

both

opinions

andbehavior.Fiftysevenpercentofthesurveyparticipantsexpect

perfection,andwilleliminateaprospectivecompanyifaprintbrochure

containsonewritingerror.

[Writing errors

make me

question] th e

leadership ofth e

company

why

was this okay?

Errorsoncompanywebsitesandinarticlesandbooks(bothprintand

electronic)arealsohighlyinfluentialintermsofshapingopinions.All

threecategoriesofmarketingmaterialscoredjustfourpercentagepoints

behindprintedcompanyliterature.

Writein

responses

to

one

question

reveal

the

impact

that

writing

errorshaveoncompanycredibility.Respondentssaidthaterrorswill

causethemtoquestionthecompanyandtheirleaderswhopermit

writingerrorstohappen.

Insomecases,theactualsurveyresultscontradictedviewsexpressed

onsocialnetworkingsites.Afewpeoplewerequicktodismisstheidea

thatwritingcanaffectbusiness.Othersspeculatedthatifacustomer

defected,itwasunlikelythatpoorwritingwastheprimaryreason.

Despitewhat

people

said

publicly

in

forums,

this

survey

clearly

demonstratesastronglinkbetweenwritingandsales.



5/17


INFLUENCINGBUYEROPINIONSFigure

1illustrates

the

extent

that

writing

errors

shape

opinions.

77%

23%

0%

Always

Sometimes

Never

Dowritingerrorsinfluenceyour

opinionaboutabusiness?

Figure1:InfluencingbuyeropinionsNearlyonefourthofthebusinessprofessionalssurveyedforthis

reportacknowledgethatwritingerrorssometimesinfluencetheir

opinions.

Theoverwhelmingmajority(125outof163respondents)admitthat

writingerrorsinbusinesscommunicationalwaysinfluencetheiropinions.

Notonepersoninthesurveywaswillingtooverlookwritingerrorsallthetime.

Whileitisclearthatwritingerrorspossesstheabilitytoinfluence

opinions,wecannotdeterminewhethersalesarelostwhenopinions

change.Figure2answersthisquestion.



6/17


INFLUENCINGBUYERBEHAVIORSurprisingly,

the

number

of

people

that

have

used

writing

errors

to

makebusinessdecisionscloselymirrorstheresultsdepictedinFigure1.

78%

22%

Yes

No

Havewritingerrorsinfluenced

yourdecisiontoNOTdobusiness

withacompany?


Separatingoutthealwaysinfluencedrespondentsfromthe

sometimesinfluencedrespondents,wediscoverthatpeoplewhoare

alwaysinfluencedbyerrorsaretwiceaslikelytoconsidererrorswhen

makingbusinessdecisions.

Figure2:Influencingbuyerbehavior

Fortyfive

percent

of

the

sometimes

influenced

pool

admitted

eliminatingaprospectivecompanyinpartbecauseofwritingsnafus.A

moresubstantial89percentofthealwaysinfluencedgroupconfirmed

thatwritingerrorsswayedtheirdecisiontoeliminateaprospective

companyfromtheirlist.

THEEROSIONOFCOMPANYCREDIBILITYNext,wewantedtounderstandtheimpactthatwritingerrorscan

haveonabusiness.

Wefoundthatmorethanonehalfofthebusinessprofessionalsinthis

surveybelievethatwritingerrorsraiseconcernsaboutquality,

intelligence,andworkhabits.


7/17


Onlythreepeopledidnotbelievethereisacorrelationbetween

grammarandbusiness.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

communication,I

(chooseallthat

WhenIseeerrorsinbusiness

question

apply):

Thequalityofthecompany's

productsand/orservices.

Theintelligenceofthepeople

workingatthecompany.

Thecompany'sinnerworkings

andworkhabits.

Nothing.There'snocorrelation

betweengrammarandbusiness.

Other(pleasespecify)

Figure3:HowwritingerrorshurtcompanycredibilityTwentyparticipantsaddedtheirownredflagstoourlist.Threeraised

concernsabout

company

leadership

that

would

permit

writing

errors

to

happen.Twopeopleexpressedconcernsaboutaninternational

companysintegrity,commitment,andpresenceintheU.S.market.One

personquestionedtheeducationofAmericansworkinginthecompany,

andoneperson(blesstheirsoul)questionedthequalityoftheirown

work.

Isometimes wonderhowaspelling error,

forexample, can getthrough th e

chainofcommand. Butth e contentofth e messageis

farmore important.

Theremainingresponsesechoedsentimentssimilartotheviews

expressedbelow1:

Howmuchthecompanyreallycaresaboutmybusiness Itmakesyouwonderifyourservicewillbetreatedwiththe

samelackadaisicalattitude


1Actualcommentsmayhavebeeneditedtocorrectgrammarandtypographical

errors.


8/17


Thevaluethattheyplaceoncommunicatingwithan

audience

Ifthe

lack

of

attention

to

detail

is

an

indication

of

what

my

experienceasacustomerwillbelike

Iwonderabout

theirintegrity

isthis reallya

legitimate

business orsome

third-world

phishingscam?

Aretheseharshcriticismsjustified?Probablynot.Weliveinafast

moving,onlineworldwherecompetitivepressuresdemandthatwecut

costsanddomoreworkinlesstime.

Bythesametoken,customershavecometoexpectlowcost,superior

quality,andstellarservice.Whenprospectsareintheearlystagesofthe

buyingcycle,theyarelookingforanyreasontotakeyouofftheirshort

list.Writing

errors

give

them

cause

for

concern.

GRADINGTHEIMPORTANCEOFERRORFREEWRITING

Onapositivenote,Figure4demonstratesthatcustomersdonot

weighallformsofbusinesscommunicationequallyintheirminds.

Weorganizedmarketingmaterialintosixcategoriesandasked

participantstoratetheirimportanceonascaleofonetofour.Each

participantcould

cast

only

one

vote

per

category.

A

perfect,

1.0

score

representsmarketingmaterialthatisextremelyimportant;oneerroris

groundsfordismissal.



9/17


0% 20% 40%

Company

Websites

EMails

Printed

Company

Literature

Blogs,Forums,

orSocial

Networking

PrintArticlesor

Books

Electronic

ArticlesorBooks

Ratetheimportanceoferro

whenreading:

60% 80% 100%

rfreecopy

ExtremelyImportant Oneerrorandyou'reout

VeryImportant I'lltolerateerrorstoapoint,buttheyalmostalwaysaffectmyopinion

SomewhatImportant Errorsannoymebuttheyrarelyaffectmyopinion

Doesn'tMatter

Figure4:Theimportanceofflawlessmarketingmaterial



10/17


Asexpected,bothformsoftraditionalprintmaterialtoppedthelist.

Interestingly,printedcompanyliteraturehadaslightedgeoverprint

booksand

articles

(1.46

versus

1.52).

Nextinlinewerecompanywebsitesandelectronicarticlesandbooks,

whichcapturedaveragescoresof1.77and1.66,respectively.

Lastintermsofoverallimportancewereemails(2.25),followedby

blogs,forums,andsocialnetworkingsites,whichscored2.4ona4.0

scale.

Onlytwoparticipantsconsiderederrorsinemailsirrelevant.Nine

participantswere

undeterred

by

errors

in

blogs,

forums,

and

on

social

networkingsites.Writing

is

often

aneasywayto

identifywhether

an international

companyha sa

serious U.S.

presence,andalso

howseriouslythey

take th e U.S.

market.

ASSESSINGTHEABILITYTOINFLUENCE

Next,weslicedthedatatomeasurethelikelihoodthaterrorsin

marketingmaterialwouldinfluenceopinionsandbehavior.

Figure5depictstheprobabilitythaterrorswillaffectopinions.We

calculatedpercentages

by

adding

up

the

total

number

of

participants

that

ratedeachcategoryofmarketingmaterialextremelyimportantor

veryimportant,dividingthesumbythetotalnumberofvotesineach

category.

" " "Very Important"



11/17


93.9%

68.5%

98.1%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Company

Websites

EMails Printed

Company

Literature

Likelihood thatwriting

influencebuyer

57.8%

94.4% 93.8%

Blogs,

Forums,or

Social

Networking

Sites

Print

Articlesor

Books

Electronic

Articlesor

Books

errorswill

opinions

Figure5:Likelihoodthatwritingerrorswillinfluenceopinions

Printedcompanyliteraturecapturedfirstplace,attracting158outof

161totalvotes.Companywebsites,printarticlesandbooks,and

electronicarticlesandbooksvirtuallytiedforsecondplace,withscores

thatdifferedatmostbysixtenthsofonepoint.

Errorsinemails,blogs,forums,andonsocialnetworkingsiteswere

farlesslikelytoinfluenceopinions.Still,morethanhalfofthe

respondentsin

both

categories

agreed

that

writing

errors

would

influencetheiropinions.

Figure6analyzestheanswersfromtheharshestcriticsrespondents

whoratedmarketingmaterialextremelyimportantoneerrorand

youreout.



12/17


Wecalculatedpercentagesbydividingthetotalnumberof

participantsthatratedeachcategoryofmarketingmaterialextremely

importantby

the

total tegory.

number

of

votes

in

each

ca

" "

Asyoucanseefromthischart,theorderofimportanceforeach

categoryofmarketingmaterialbeginstoemerge.

31%

11%

57%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Company

Websites

EMails Printed

Company

Literature

Forums,

Likelihoodthatwriting

influencebuyer

14%

56%

43%

Blogs,

or

Social

Networking

Sites

Print

Articlesor

Books

Electronic

Articlesor

Books

errorswill

behavior

Figure6:Likelihoodthatwritingerrorswillinfluencebehavior

Morethanhalfofallrespondentsagreedthatoneerrorinanyprint

materialcouldbethekissofdeathforaprospectivecompany.

Fouroutoftenpeopleexpressedanextremelylowtolerancefor

errorsinelectronicarticlesandbooks.

Threeoutoftenpeoplehadlittletoleranceforerrorsoncompany

websites.

http://twitter.com/home/?status=free+report+shows+writing+errors+hurt+sales+|+http://su.pr/1mlSG1+%28via+@MarketingLure%29+|+%23writebizlink


13/17


Lessthan15percentoftherespondentssaidtheywouldeliminatea

prospectivecompanybecauseofwritingerrorsinemails,blogs,forums,

oron

social

networking

sites.

TOLERANCEFORERRORSFigure7revealsthatourcustomerstoleranceforerrorsdependson

thetypeoferrorcommitted.

Surveyparticipantsratedfourcategoriesofwritingerrorsonascaleof

onetothree.Aperfectscoreof1.0indicateszerotoleranceforthat

categoryof

error.

0% 20% 40%

Typos

GrammaticalErrorsand

Incorrect

Word

Usage

MisspelledWords

PoorSentenceStructure

typesoferro

60% 80% 100%

Howdoyoufeelabout thefollowing

rs:

Thereisnoexcuseforthem Distractingbut Ibarelynoticethemtolerable

Figure7:Tolerancefortypesoferrors

Thechartshowsthatpeopleareleastlikelytoforgivemisspelled

words.Thiscategoryoferrorearnedanaveragescoreof1.25with75

percentof

all

respondents

rating

misspelled

words

inexcusable.



14/17


39%

48%

75%

45%

Thereisnoexcusefor:

Typos

GrammaticalErrorsand

IncorrectWordUsage

MisspelledWords

PoorSentenceStructure

Figure

8:

Inexcusable

errors

Eventhoughsomepeoplewerewillingtooverlooktypographical

errors,poorsentencestructure,grammaticalerrors,andincorrectwords,

morethanonethirdofallrespondentsconsideredtheseerrors

inexcusable.

Onlysixoutof163respondentssaidtheybarelynoticewritingerrors.



15/17



SUMMARY

UnderstandingHow

Numbers

Lose

Leads

Inordertounderstandhowthestatisticsinthisreporttranslateto

companyrevenue,letusassumethatthroughyourgreatmarketing

efforts,1,000highlyqualifiedvisitorscometoyourwebsite.

Unfortunately,yourwebcontentcontainsafewmisspelledwords.Ifwe

applythedatainthisreportatfacevalue:

770visitorswillalwaysnoticeyourerrors(Figure1)

Theopinionsof723visitorswillbeinfluencedbytheerrors

thattheyseeonyourwebsite(Figure5)

239visitorswilldismissyourcompany,evenifyouonlyhave

onewritingerroronyourwebsite(Figure6),and

Saleswillneedtoworkhardertoconvincetheremaining484

prospectsthattheconcernsraisedbyyourerrorsare

unjustified(Figure3).

Itismorelikely,though,thatpeopledonotnoticewritingerrorsas

oftenastheythinktheydo.Ifweassumethatonly25percentoftheweb

visitorswhobelievetheyalwaysnoticeerrorsfindyourerrors:

193visitorswillnoticethewritingerrorsonyourwebsite

Theopinionsof181visitorswillbeinfluencedbytheerrors

thattheysee

60visitorswilldismissyourcompany,evenifyouonlyhave

onewritingerroronyourwebsite,and

Saleswillneedtoworkhardertoconvincetheremaining121

prospectsthattheconcernsraisedbyyourwebsiteerrorsare

unjustified.

Yourwritingerrorsessentiallycostyou60highlyqualifiedprospects

andtheadditionaltimeittooksalestowinover121prospectsthat

considerwritingerrorsredflags.


16/17



FourKeyLessonsWhatshouldyoutakeawayfromthissurvey?Wecanboildownthe

informationshared

by

business

professionals

into

four

key

lessons:

Lesson#1:Youputyourcompanyataseveredisadvantagewhenyou

donotspellcheckeverythingyouwrite.True,spellcheckingwillnot

catchallerrors,buttheywillcatchthegravesterrorsthatbusiness

professionalsconsiderinexcusable.

Lesson#2:Find(orhire)achampionforperfectionandusethemto

scrutinizeandscrubcontent.Notonepersoninthissurveywaswilling

tooverlookwritingerrorseverytime,anderrorsraiseunnecessary

concernsabout

your

companys

ability

to

deliver

and

your

dedication

tocustomers.

Lesson#3:Makenomistake,peoplewillnoticeandactonyourerrors.

Youmayhavetheslickestproductonthemarket,butwhenprospects

areintheearlystagesofthebuyingcycle,theyarelookingforany

reasontotakeyouofftheirshortlist.Writingerrorsgivethema

reason.

Lesson

#4:

Focus

your

efforts

on

the

items

that

matter

most.

Assumingyourprospectsfittheprofileofthepeopleinthissurvey,

morethanhalfwilldismissyouifyouhandthemabrochure,book,or

articlethatcontainsjustoneerror.Expecttolose3040percentof

yourprospectiveaudienceifyourcompanywebsiteorelectronic

marketingmaterialcontainswritingerrors.


17/17


ABOUTMARKETINGLURE

MarketingLurewriter SueAndersonLenzhelpshightechbusinesses

reachmorecustomersbycreatingcredible,customerfocusedwebsites

andmarketingmaterial.

Afterearninghermastersdegreeincomputerscience,Sueworked15

yearsinthesoftwareindustryasaprogrammer,designer,tester,

manager,anddirectorattwolargeinternationalfirms.Duringthistime,

shesawhershareoftechheavymarketingcollateralfilledwith

buzzwordsandunsubstantiatedclaimsthatdidntworktosellher.

In2005,shejoinedSoftwareCEO.comassitemanagerandassistant

publisher.Thereshewasresponsibleformarketing,contentcreationand

publication,businessdevelopment,customerservice,andrevenue,a

responsibilitythattaughthervaluablelessonsinhowtomarket

effectivelywhensellingtoClevelexecutives.

SueisPragmaticMarketingcertifiedandherworkhasappearedin

electronicandprintjournals,includingWebsiteMagazine,SoftwareCEO,

TechRepublic,CIO,Intranets,andHomeBusinessMagazine.

Tolearnmore,visitwww.marketinglure.comorcall6302301787fora

freeconsultation.

http://www.marketinglure.com/http://www.marketinglure.com/

Documents

Exposing the Link Between Writing and Sales