Would you hand over a $50,000 contract to a firm with writing mistakes on their proposal or website?

These days, business moves at the speed of light. I’m sure you’ve heard the expressions associated with this idea:

· “Speed to market”

· “Ready, fire, aim”

· “First mover advantage”

In the online world, this means publishing all kinds of information—reports, marketing materials, ideas, and so on—at the drop of a hat.

Technology has certainly made this possible.

With the advent of blogs, email newsletters, content management systems, forums, and social media, where publication takes place immediately, many people are starting to overlook one of the most important parts of the writing process—editing.

If you’re like us, then you want to make sure everything is damn near perfect. And when it comes to publishing text, there’s really no excuse.

My College journalism professor used to say, you don’t have to be perfect, but your writing should be.

Case in point: We received a resume today for a new internet marketing job we are looking to fill. It was sent to us online and the cover letter alone had no less than 4 writing errors.

The sad part is that the person looked fairly qualified for the position. But, clearly, they were not detail-oriented, especially on things that really matter (i.e. a great new job).

Are your blog posts, web pages, email campaigns, forum posts, and social media rants as tight and professional as they should be…or could be?

Now, I’m not talking about proper English. Your writing style is your writing style, and we’ve always preferred straight talk over fancy prose (especially in marketing).

What we mean by “tight and professional” is making sure your readers truly understand your meaning. If they don’t, they won’t be reading your words for too much longer, now or in the future.

Here’s a good writer’s tip. After you write anything—an article, a blog post, an email for your newsletter—it’s best to set it aside for at least a day or so before you submit it.

When we’re writing, we’re usually so “into” the piece that we can’t see the forest for the trees. Mistakes escape us. Awkward sentences don’t stick out. Catching a phrase that sounds improper becomes nearly impossible.

The moment you finish writing and proofreading a piece, you may think you’re ready to publish: “This one is perfect—I could land this one in the NYTimes Editorial if I wanted…Huh!”

But when you come back to it after a few hours or 24 hours it’s like you’re seeing it for the first time.

Then you think, “Wow, I was tired yesterday afternoon, can’t believe I missed these spelling errors…” or “Did I write THAT? It sounds like I said something I didn’t mean.”

So, next time, take an hour or a few hours or even a day or two to step back and give your mind and your eyes a chance to rest.

If you’re careful, and you give yourself a fresh look at whatever material you’re going to publish, you’ll almost always realize it was a smart thing to do.

This way, instead of being incredulous at your errors, you’ll be thankful you gave it the once-over; “Good thing I caught this before posting it!”