Let me confess something straight up:
I’m not a detail person. I’m the “big picture” type. My brain is way ahead of my mind. I type and press before my consciousness takes over. And, I find loads of typos after publishing.
Anyone who’s ever worked with me knows this. I get messages afterwards more often, because I don’t always spot them myself. But I do appreciate the people pointing them out to me, believe me.
But yet, every now and then… magic happens. Sometimes, my weird typos turn out to be real gems.
The accidental genius of a typo
Not long ago, I was hammering out some content for a campaign. I can’t even remember the topic anymore—something techy, something appealing (okay, maybe just appealing to a certain crowd, with their own niche flavor). But I do remember one thing: I mistyped a word. Boldly. Gloriously.
It wasn’t just a wrong letter—it was a whole vibe. A Frankenstein of two different words I’d clearly tried to type at once. But instead of deleting it, I stared at it.
Wait.
This… actually kind of works. For me, at least. The typo had tone. It had energy. It had something.
It made me think: great branding isn’t always about being perfect. It’s about being distinct.
Your tone of voice is your brand handshake
Branding is not just your logo, or your color palette, or the ridiculously expensive font that only works in PowerPoint if the stars align. It’s not even just what you say.
It’s also a lot about how you say it that matters.
Your tone of voice is the invisible thread that connects your content to your audience. It’s how people start recognizing you before they even see your name. It is what makes you and your company humane and approachable. Likable, similar to the people reading.
And sometimes? It’s born out of real, raw, human moments. Like typos. Like sarcasm. Like passion-typed Slack rants at 10 pm that later become keynote intros (yes, this happens a lot in marketing).
Perfection is boring. Personality wins.
People don’t fall in love with brands because they’re flawless. They fall in love with brands that sound human. That sounds like someone, not something.
In a sea of same-same B2B blah-blah, your voice can be your superpower. Not everyone needs to be witty. Or quirky. Or poetic. But you do need to sound like you.
And if that “you” occasionally smashes two words together in a beautiful mess of meaning or adds, drops out or mixes up a few letters here and there? Even better! It will bring uniqueness to your tone of voice, to the essence of who you are with the audience.
The lesson? Don’t fear the typo. Listen to it.
Of course, please—do let someone proofread your final version. Typos won’t pay the bills. But the tone they accidentally unlock? That’s branding gold.
So here’s to the happy accidents. To our messy drafts. To the email we nearly didn’t send because it “wasn’t polished enough”—but ended up being the most clicked link of the month. The bold and funny and the social media post really written wrong that totally blew up – in a good way.
And to all the detail-loving, typo-catching saints who work with people like me: we see you. We thank you. And we promise to keep making your jobs interesting.
Ready to start growing by making mistakes? Go ahead, it’s fun!
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