My intent was to post a headline I found last week that was particularly putrid, but then the e-mail below popped up in my in-box yesterday afternoon. It’s better:

Dear info@heblogssheblogs.com:

We provide Marketing Services:

1. Provide e-mail list as your required.

2. Customise e-mail list for you, broadcast your message to the list.

3. Web-based e-mail mailing system that allows you easily send outemails and manage the list.

* We offer also broadcast server for send out emails. Please contact us for any question.

Motely@xxx.comMarketing Servicexxxx Marketing Center

(I assume this company wants our business and isn’t trying to be funny.)

What they did right: Our e-mail address is correct.

What they did wrong: Everything else.

Last month I heard Allen Arnold, publisher of Thomas Nelson’s fiction line, say they typically end up with one or two typos in first editions of their books. Mistakes are made. But that’s in novels, often over 300 pages long.

Seven mistakes in a 63 word e-mail is a ratio that screams, “You’re crazy if you do business with us!

True confession time. I’ve sent out short documents with multiple mistakes. Maybe not as many as our marketing geniuses above, but even one is too many.

The above is a great reminder to read our documents out loud, have another set of eyes take a look if we can, and always check one more time before you hit send; ’cause these days whatever you write on the Internet can live forever.

What tips do you use to avoid the typo ogre?

Tags: avoiding typos, Marketing, Writing