Fix your grammar and improve your business
Image: PortalJardin (public domain)
Sometimes at Red Pony we find ourselves trying to explain to a reluctant client just where the value lies in getting their business writing edited. ‘Perfect grammar ain’t gonna help me sell more widgets!’ I hear them cry.
Not so fast.
A recent paper from New York University’s Stern School of Business reveals that ‘a well-written review tends to inspire confidence about the product, even if the review is negative’. Why? The reason is that the reader tends to regard good writing (that is, correct grammar, no spelling errors, etc.) as a sign of objectivity and thoroughness. It inspires trust.
In the paper, the researchers demonstrate that ‘demand for a hotel increases if the reviews on TripAdvisor and Travelocity are well-written, without spelling errors; this holds no matter if the review is positive or negative’. In another paper, similar results were returned for products reviewed on Amazon.com. The analysis of the researchers reveals that ‘the extent of subjectivity, informativeness, readability, and linguistic correctness in reviews matters in influencing sales and perceived usefulness’.
But how much does it matter? Well, it’s hard to say, but American online retailer Zappos thought it worth their while to spend a few hundred thousand dollars on improving the grammar of online product reviews. They weren’t altering the content – a bad review remained a bad review, but it no longer contained a forest of errors.
The bottom line is this: Scientific research concludes that good writing directly improves sales, even if that writing is critical of the product!
Read these research papers and more at Panos Ipeirotis’ blog.
