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The Power of Words
By Deborah L. Daily
How often have you heard an advertisement that completely turned you off? Or on the flip side, the advertisement left you with a resounding “COOL” and “I need that!” In light of our Indianapolis Colts winning the Super Bowl Championship, how many of the commercials during the telecast do you remember? More importantly, what feelings or emotions were evoked?
One of our clients struggled with getting a response to a newspaper advertisement. Typically, if you purchase advertising space the newspaper helps you create your ad for “free”. So after quite a few dollars (and two weeks later), my client decided to get a second opinion to the ad's less than stellar response. We worked with our client to simplify the message and incorporate more powerful trigger words in relation to our audience – the result, a huge success!
We are bombarded daily by messages from the TV, radio, Internet, newspapers, palm pilots, telephones, email and people etc…Sifting the chaff from the wheat can be a challenge.
Knowing your audience is an important part of the creative and marketing process. Here are a few sample word choices that can create a different impact depending on your message and placement:
Intellectual Words vs. Emotional Words
| Accelerate |
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Speed Up |
| Wealthy |
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Rich |
| Intelligent |
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Bright |
| For |
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Because |
| Completed |
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Finished |
| Reply |
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Answer |
Words That Can Boost Response
(Be careful not to use in the subject of your email because many of these can and will trigger a spam filter. Best used in body copy only.)
| Free |
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New |
| Save |
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Proven |
| New |
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Discover |
| Guaranteed |
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| Introducing |
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Words That Can Poison Your Copy
| Decision |
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Sell |
| Death |
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Failure |
| Cost |
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Bad |
| Difficult |
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Loss |
| Order |
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Know Your Audience
A general Business-to-Business profile:
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This buyer wants to buy. Always on the look out for information and advice that can help them do their jobs better, increase profits and advance their career. |
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Sophisticated Audience. High interest and understanding your product. More research required. Superficial copy and oversimplifications will not work. |
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Wants Information. |
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Multi-step Process: Most Business-to-Business buying decisions are made after the 7th or 8th contact. |
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Multiple Buying Influences: Team effort vs. individual decision with a consumer. Typically not an impulse buy. |
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More Complex Products: Half the battle is explaining quickly and simply what your product is, what it does, and why they should be interested. While your product may be complicated your copy should be simple and straight forward. |
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