Sean McCool

The Profit Funnels Guy™

At some point you need to write for your business. Whether it’s an email, a sales letter, an ad or a thank you note, you need to write.

I realize some of you won’t be able to shake the grammar teacher in your head, and you’ll completely ignore or discredit what I’m about to say. That’s OK. I’m a big boy and I can handle it. 

So where was I? Oh, yeah…

As you continue with your business, there will be people who tell you that proper grammar is very important to maintain a professional image. Some of your website’s visitors may even take the time to email and tell you about the spelling and grammar mistakes that completely outraged them. Don’t let this worry you too much. Correct the spelling and if the grammar is outrageous, fix it – but keep reading to find out why grammar isn’t as important as it’s cracked up to be. 

The most important thing about your writing is to sound natural and to relate to your target audience appropriately. Write the way you speak.

Naturally, if your audience is PhD students studying literature, then you might have to have a more formal tone and pay more attention to more grammar rules. If you’re audience is race-car enthusiasts or those interested in fashion trends, you might be more relaxed in your writing and speak more casually. 

Most markets are going to be more casual, so you want to create a friendly and real image with your copy. It’s okay to sometimes start sentences with “and” or “but” now and then because it’s how we speak, and when you write how you speak, it’s how you relate to your audience. It’s OK to end a sentence with a preposition because, again, that’s how we speak. 

Write in short sentences to make things easy to read. Break up long paragraphs to ease eye-strain. 

Don’t use complicated language, and make the level of your message appropriate for your target audience.

 Again, it’s okay to break grammar rules – especially with paragraph formatting because reading long paragraphs can be fatiguing. This is particularly true online and where people are reading on a screen. Don’t tire your potential customer out before they read about your product.

You can also use bullet points, as we mentioned earlier, and these may include incomplete sentences. Luckily, that is actually acceptable in grammar rules! The key is to make it easy to read. 

Don’t use complicated language, and make the level of your message appropriate for your target audience. The average reading level of the general public is quite low. If you feel a more advanced word is more appropriate, always define the word, in case your readers don’t know what it means.

Apply these ideas to all your communications – business and otherwise – and you’ll see that you get much better feedback.

Sean McCool is an award-winning copywriter and is known as The Profit Funnels Guy™ because Sean shows businesses how to set up multiple Profit Funnels™ throughout their business. Sean can be reached through his website, www.SeanMcCool.com.