By Donna Knight of DonnaKnight.com
Word can be used not only to influence people but also to change their mind about something. Choose the right words, and you have the power to persuade, entice and motivate. In marketing and promotion, power words are like tools used by people in multiple professions, including politicians and people in public relations. Adding just a few power words can make a world of difference in your ads and headlines.
The words “New” or “improved” create a sense of curiosity. Potential customers get the impression that the product is different from similar products. If it is a product she has been looking for, she may want to get it before anyone else does in order to have an edge over others in the same profession or social position. Laundry products have been advertised as new and improved for many years. You don’t have to spend a lot of time making an improvement in your product. You just have to make some improvement to make it better than the competitor’s product. You’d be surprised how just one difference between your product and your competitor’s can make a customer want to buy from you.
Another common but powerful phrase is “Money back guarantee”. This phrase is used to help the customer trust you enough to buy from you. After all, what do they have to lose if they can get their money back if not satisfied. When you offer a money back guarantee, the risk falls on you instead of the customer.
Many successful ads advertise the fact that they are revealing a little known secret. People are always looking for an advantage over others. They love to know that they may be one of the few people in-the-know about a particular subject. If they think you can supply them with some juicy tidbits of information that will help them achieve success in something, you’ve sold them.
Words such as “an Insider says that” is similar to “secret”. It conveys information from an expert that is not commonly known to most people. The catch is you must pay for this insider information.
The word “Free” in the headline of the message simply does wonders for you sales, even if you’re giving something away. The key is to give some interesting useful information while including information about your paid product which will provide even more information. If the free information isn’t very good, your prospects won’t bite. Likewise, you can’t trick people into thinking they’re getting something for free when in fact they have to pay. You will infuriate prospects and lose their trust instantly. Obviously, this is the opposite of what you want to do. In email messages, the word “FREE” is spelled “FR~E” in an effort to get past the spam filters many internet service providers have in place.
“You” is a word that should be liberally sprinkled throughout your advertising. It makes the prospect feel like you are speaking to them directly. Anything you can do to make your ad personalized will help. Use this word to get your prospect to picture themselves using and benefiting from your product. The best way to do this is to pretend you are the customer and think of very specific ways in which they will benefit from the product. Be sure to answer the customer’s possible objections to buying a product, as well.
The word “limited time offer” gives your visitors a reason to buy now. After all, if they wait, the price may go up or you may stop selling the product. Recently there has been a trend of selling a limited quantity of digital products, such as 500 or 1000. It’s one thing to have a product the customer wants, but you have to take it one step further to make them want it now instead of tomorrow. Once the visitor leaves your site, they are very unlikely to return, so it’s very important make them see the urgency of the situation.
The word “Power” is a powerful word itself. People love something that gives them power in their life, whether it’s the power to save time, money or work. It’s all about making something more convenient for your visitor.
The ultimate goal of an advertiser is to understand what your target market wants and then design your ad to push the right buttons so they’ll buy what they want from you. However, listing the advantages of using a product or service isn’t enough. For example, if you were selling a computer hard drive, you don’t just want to say the hard drive holds 100 GB of data. You want to let them know it will hold 50,000 mp3 files or 10,000 videos. You’ll see lots of ads for computer equipment make the mistake of giving technical details without making appealing to non-techies. They miss out on customers who might otherwise buy their hardware simply because they can’t read between the lines of what the technical specs mean in real world benefits.
Take a look at advertisements you have written and posted and see how you can improve them by adding a few power words to them. Keep in mind that most of what you write on the web is an ad, including your home page and your website links. Using power words will keep people on your site as they click through to find out more of what you’re offering.
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