So, you sell Camera Lenses? Or, your latest innovation is an Email Marketing Solution that gives Clients more access to Leads?
Grrrr, it drives me batty. Capitalizing generic words does not make them sound more important to the reader. Rather, it confuses. While you may not, many in your audience still remember the rule from elementary school grammar that tells us not to capitalize everyday words (generic words). So, it trips up the reader when they see the cue that they should be expecting a proper noun. These little trip-ups (I’ll call them “blips”) may only subtract from the user experience a small bit… but if enough tiny little blips add up, you can really annoy your users.
What’s a proper noun? It’s the unique name assigned to something. Above, “camera lenses” is a generic term. If you want to capitalize something, you could say: We sell Nikon camera lenses. Nikon is a proper name. See the difference?
Likewise, all the capitalized words in “an Email Marketing Solution that gives Clients more access to Leads” are actually just generic words. By capitalizing words that shouldn’t be, it sounds as if the writer is trying to inflate the importance of those words artificially. Clients and leads are generic words, and they should be in lowercase even if they are important to the concept you are communicating.
Same deal with the term “email marketing solution”. However, if you were to give the actual unique name you’ve assigned to this new email marketing solution, it should be capitalized: Our new email marketing solution Mailbox Mania…
So, next time you see generic words appearing with big, presumptuous capitals at the front, take action. Let’s stamp them out. If you wrote them: backspace, then lowercase that word. You’ll look more professional.
If you’re a copywriter or other professional writer, go ahead and edit. Don’t take the easy road thinking “Well, the client obviously wants it written that way…” The client wants you to tell them what they’re doing wrong. That’s why they hired you. Right?
Bonus: brush up on the rules of capitalization here.
Riaan Wilmans says
Ugh, What a Fad…
Slim Emcee says
@ LIsa I agree with you because capitalisation can never win the reader’s attention. It call for their criticism and raise questions with in them as to who produced such work.
Lisa says
Pan, fascinating point! I completely get that people have to work it out, fill in the blanks a bit when it comes to digital communication. But you’re suggesting that capitalising generic words in emails can help with that. Perhaps I’m biased. I feel it reduces credibility, seeing that the sender is artificially inflating the importance of words that should not be capitalised. I would respond much more favorably to another means of drawing attention to words, perhaps using layout, images, fonts, and so on. I suspect you have not tested these various options against the improper capitalisation option – perhaps a test for even further email sucesses in the future? Keep us informed!
Sara says
I totally agree. Sure, there is a time and place to break capitalization rules, especially when it comes to direct response, but for your average, everyday content…stop Capitalizing 🙂
pan says
Sorry, but I have to disagree. After 12 years involved in email marketing – I know what works, and have open rates of 60% and higher to prove it. And it’s not just open rates, but conversions, click-thru and loyalty. Compared with face-to-face communication, nonverbal cues in email are lacking. But humans are great at generating meaning even when cues are sparse. Psychologists have theorised our motivation for generating meaning is reducing levels of uncertainty and helping predict other people’s behaviour. This might explain how, in emails, capitalisation can have important effects on reader’s perceptions.