Proof your mailpiece or pay the pri$e

Nothing in marketing is uglier than finding a typo on your mailpiece…after it has been printed! Your jaw drops, your stomach turns and a cold sweat forms on your forehead. You gasp, you swear and start looking for somebody else to blame. Has this ever happened to you?

A single character typo can put a direct mail piece into the recycle bin. Phone numbers, web addresses, sale prices or misspelled names are common errors. Proofing errors have caused whole catalogs to be reprinted and completed mailings to be a total loss.

A good proofreading technique is to double space copy and cover lines with a ruler.

How do you avoid this scenario? First and foremost, never proof your copy alone. It’s difficult to catch your own mistakes.

Begin the proofreading process by letting your first draft, get cold. Set it aside for an hour, a day or a week. Always proof from hard copy. Change the look by printing it out on yellow paper or enlarging the print. Cover the lines with a piece of blank paper that keeps you from speed-reading. Read very slowly and if possible read out loud. End with a final computer spell check These are some of the things to look for.

• Check capitalization for proper names, the pronoun “I” and at the beginning of sentences.
• Read names, phone numbers and addresses out loud. Test phone numbers and web addresses if not sure of accuracy.
• Proofread headings, salutations and bold copy. They get overlooked. Double-check unusual fonts like italics and script. They are harder to read.
• Look for little words. Or, of, it, is, an, are often interchanged.

You’ll find typos, spelling errors and grammatical errors you missed when writing. You’ll probably rewrite whole sentences and paragraphs for a better flow. Now make copies of this second draft and enlist your crew of proofreaders. Make sure they know whether they are editing or proofreading. Editing is rewriting. Proofreading is checking for errors. Sometimes you’ll want them to do both. Always include one person who has no knowledge of the product, service or industry that is being promoted. That person will usually find a word or sentence that makes no sense to them and to some of the people on your mailing list.

No proofreading process is perfect. Mistakes can still happen. So now what? Call your printer or lettershop. There may be a solution. Here is one example of a lemon turned into lemonade.

A catalog company was sending out a selfmailer announcing their new 800 number. Over 200,000 pieces were printed. The 800 number was printed on the inside panel of the folded selfmailer. One digit of the number was incorrect. To reprint the piece would have cost $50,000. The customer called A.M. Mailing Services. The A.M. sales and production team came up with a solution. They suggested printing a sticky note label with the correct number. Then they designed a system that would unfold the selfmailer, affix the label over the error and then refold the mailpiece. The cost of the fix was a fraction of reprinting. The label drew more attention to the 800 number and it looked like it was part of the planned design.

This disaster was averted. But it would have been a lot less costly had the number been proofed properly or tested with a quick phone call.

FREE MAILPIECE DESIGN PROOFING – A.M. Mailing Services encourages customers to send us a proof before printing. We’ll check it for proper indicia, address area and mailpiece design. E-mail to info@ammailing.com or fax 608-884-8949.