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Great thoughts
"The only way you can stay ahead of the market is to outthink, outsell, outmarket and outmanoeuvre your competitors. Marketing is crucial. You don't have to have the world's best hamburgers to sell billions of them."
Bradley S. Sugars
Entrepreneur, Author
and Business Coach

Is your marketing paying off? Let us help bring focus to your marketing efforts in three distinct areas. Contact us now to find out more.
 
Adams Jette Marketing
+ Communications
100 Argyle Avenue
Suite 202
Ottawa, ON  K2P 1B6
 
Tel: 613.235.5445
Fax: 613.235.5514
[email protected]
www.adamsjette.com

Back to basics
by Ron Jette
Binoculars
Where did all my customers go?
I know you're smart and you know you're smart. But does your writing know it?


It always amazes me how often really bad writing and really bright people find each other. Whether it's because they don't think it's important or they are in too much of a hurry, simple and easy-to-fix errors, can make you look, well, not so smart.


Perhaps the errors I see the most have to do with homonyms. Rings a bell but you're not sure what they are, right? Homonyms are words that sound the same but have markedly different meanings. Many are easy to spot. Who wouldn't know the difference between Jim and gym? Or hire and higher? But many are not so obvious.


(A special note has to be made here about the importance of not relying on software to check your spelling. Here are two setences that look perfectly fine to a spell checker: "Watt dew I due now, I wandered?" "That was knot a gaffe my idle wood have made." )


Although there are dozens of examples, here are a few homonyms I see misused all the time, often in the writing of otherwise really great communicators:


ad, add

aid, aide

augur, auger

bear, bare

buy, by

carat, karat and caret (Oh, and carrot, although people usually get this one write, I mean right.)

censor, sensor

chord, cord

do, due, dew

fare, fair

gaff, gaffe

idle, idol

its it's

medal, mettle

overdo, overdue

phase, faze (this is news to many people)

pore, pour

their, there, they're

tea, tee

too, two, to

ware, wear

your you're


There isn't room to explain how to get these right each time--you wouldn't remember all that information anyway. What you might remember after looking over this list, however, is that there are a few words that are real problems. When you see them, stop, if only for a second, to make sure you've made the right choice.

 

Read more articles from Adams Jette...


What's your New Year's resolution?
www
Is your website saying all the right things about you?
How would you like to have a salesperson on staff who always says the right thing to the right person at the right time, looks great every day, is never late and is available 24/7?

 

Here's the good news: That "salesperson" is already working for you. We're talking, of course, about your website.

 

Think for a moment about the importance of your online presence. Your website could be the only salesperson your potential customer ever sees. And if it's not doing a great job, those potential customers could be gone faster than you can say "My New Year's resolution is to update my website."

 

If you've been putting it off, there is no time like now to get it back on track.

 

Why not make it your New Year's resolution?

 

Contact us now at 613-235-5445 or drop us an email and let us help you make sure your online "salesperson" is saying all the right things about you.

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Quotables

"Adams Jette edited a summary report for us on very short notice. After Ron got through what we had provided, it was like a whole different report: clear, concise and professionally modified. He even took the time--under already tight timelines--to edit a series of data tables that gave the report that extra touch. Very impressive. We will definitely not hesitate to use their services again."

Julio Garasa, Senior Analyst
Office of Literacy and Essential Skills
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

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