Writing is an essential element of any business’s marketing materials. It can be found everywhere from your business’s website, newsletter, or social media posts to press releases, email marketing, and more. Through it you can highlight the services you provide as well as offer value to anyone who is actively receiving or considering your services. Engaging writing can be an effective way to connect with your current and potential clients.

As a business owner, you may find yourself writing original content as part of your marketing mix. Content creation is an exciting way to showcase your talents, but it does require a lot of attention to detail. Written content that contains mistakes and grammatical errors can take away from its effectiveness and even make your readers question the professionalism of your business.

Add these three proofreading tips to your pre-publishing checklist to ensure your writing always looks professional and polished, presenting your business in the best possible way.

1) Read It Out Loud

Once your content is written, it is tempting to just hit publish and move on to the next task. However, we often only notice when our writing does not read smoothly or is missing words from a sentence when we read it out loud. Rereading your content out loud should help you catch mistakes before it is published.

2) Have a Second Set of Eyes

After your content is close to being finalized, it is a good idea to also have it reviewed by another person. This person could be a coworker, professional proofreader, friend, or family member. We often do not notice mistakes in our own writing, especially after spending a lot of time writing and revising the content. A fresh set of eyes can often bring a new perspective, notice typos, find grammatical errors, and recognize when writing is not clear to another reader.

3) Develop a Style Sheet 

Consider creating a Style Sheet for your business to help make your writing consistent on all your platforms. This is also helpful for when more than one person is creating content for the business. A Style Sheet is a simple checklist that lists how certain commonly used words will appear in all copy, whether featured on your website, newsletter, or social media. This checklist can include your business’s preferences too, for example words that should always be capitalized, whether numbers should appear as numerals or written out as text, specific words that will always appear bold or italicized, and more. Incorporating a Style Sheet into your business writing routine can help maintain consistency between your writing platforms and also help you establish a consistent voice for your brand.

Implementing these easy proofreading tips can help ensure your writing looks and reads well before being shared with a larger audience. Developing an effective proofreading routine for any time you publish original content can increase your content’s impact on current and potential clients. It also presents your brand professionally and sets you up for success.

Lindsey N. Mach is the owner of Lindsey Noelle Publishing Services, LLC. She is a freelance writer, proofreader, book marketer, and book coach who is also a certified teacher. Lindsey draws upon her ten years of experience in the publishing industry, in both trade and educational publishing, as well as her knowledge of self-publishing to work alongside clients as they strive to accomplish their various writing goals. Lindsey is passionate about helping writers and small businesses find and refine their voice and connect with their audiences through writing. She is also the NJAWBO Northeast Region Marketing Coordinator. Lindsey can be reached at lindsey@lnpublishingservices.com or (973) 722-7999.