Find a Wrinkle In Your Copywriting?

I get inspiration for this copywriting blog of mine from the strangest places sometimes…

Last Friday I took a little time off to celebrate a friend’s birthday at EPCOT’s Food & Wine Fest. Affectionately known as “Billtoberween,” it was a great day of eating and drinking with friends. We’ve done this for a few years now, so there are a couple of traditions that would leave me feeling immensely unfulfilled if not continued. The first is having beer or some other alcoholic libation spilled on me. This year I was especially lucky (add sarcasm here) because I actually lost count on how many spills my poor feet took. Sigh….

The second is getting a henna tattoo in Morocco. This is something that I really do enjoy because I’m just not a permanent tattoo kinda girl. I envy people who can take the plunge, but all I can think about is looking at a wrinkled butterfly when I’m 80 and wondering what the heck I was thinking when I got it permanently etched into my skin. And don’t get me started on the potential for mistakes. Just take a look at Bad Tattoos too see the kind of permanent catastrophes people have endured.

But with henna, the nice Moroccan lady uses her spiffy squeeze bottle (uber traditional, I’m sure) to create her work of art, spritzes it with glitter and adds a dab of lemon juice. Then voila! I’m in for a couple of weeks (or less) of curious awe from my daughters and minor intrigue from others before I’m thrilled to see it wash away. See? I don’t do permanent ink.

So once again I’ll ask, what in the world does this have to do with your copywriting? Well, while your copy will rarely have the permanence of a tattoo, some mistakes or oversights could still mean quite a long time of regret. Like if there was an error on a discount you offered or an oversight in your restrictions… will it be detrimental to your bottom line if you honor it? Will it affect your brand or customer loyalty if you don’t?

Consider a printed piece (like a corporate brochure or an ad in an annual publication) that has an embarrassing misspelling, overly technical language that your audience doesn’t understand, or crucial error in your product specs. With the brochure, you could re-print it. But how much of your budget will go to waste? And the ad? It’s there for a long time and there’s not a thing you can do about it.

The web and digital media, though, offer 2 extremes to this situation. On one hand, it’s usually pretty easy to make changes to your website, emails, landing pages, etc. But with the grand scope these avenues offer, consider how many people may have already seen your message before you actually make the change(s). On the other hand, there are some instances on the web where your message is forever, just like that cute “Sweet Pee” tattoo you meant to say “Sweet Pea.” A prime example is some press release distribution sites. Once submitted, they may not let you make changes to your release. Ever.

So, what do you do with these little snafus? Don’t learn the hard way. Don’t get that tattoo only to figure out that it’s not what you want or need it to be when it’s too late. Check, double check and triple check all your marketing content before you approve it. And get extra, trained eyes on whatever it is you’re working on. Trust me, once you’ve seen something enough, you won’t catch errors. Maybe think of all those revisions as your henna tattoos. Nothing permanent…no harm, no foul.

As for mine? The traditional 3-ring binder I flipped through said it means “hope.” Okay, well here’s to hoping it’s just a nice memory really soon.