Posts Tagged: persuasive words

Turning Eye Appeal to Buy Appeal

In today’s Information Age, people are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information, whether from online or real life sources. Coupled with declining attention spans and readers who just skim through information, it is all the more important to craft content which appeals visually to your consumers before even attempting to persuade through the written word.

How can you craft attractive content in your marketing collateral that attracts readers and has eye appeal?
i. Avoid long and wordy sentences
ii. Use bullet points to highlight the important issues
iii. Have a catchy font that is big and easy to read
iv. Vary ways to underscore the significance of your text, for example bolding, italicising or underlining it
v. Use headings and subheadings
vi. Indent your paragraphs
vii. Have a unique selling point and make it the most prominent in your writing
viii. Include quotes and captions
ix. Have rhetorical questions or transition words to signpost and guide your reader
x. Make it concise
xi. Make it visually appealing with images, flow charts, tables or infographics

Take a look at this checklist the next time you are creating content for your company brochure, advertisement or website. Making it eye-catching would definitely help to convert your visitors into customers.

Photo by Igor Vikhrev by Unsplash 

It Pays to Plan before you write

the-power-of-a-planIn today’s competitive business environment, how do you make your website, brochure or advertisement stand out from the crowd with compelling content? But before you even craft any content, you should realise the importance of planning before writing.

If you think you can save time by just quickly cobbling together some text without coming up with a plan, think again! Chances are, this may result in content that lacks a sense of direction, and may even lead to incoherent text that can confuse, rather than effectively conveying your message to your target audience.

So, what goes into the planning process before you even start to craft your marketing material? Let’s take a look.

1) Who is your target audience?

Before you even write a single word, you should know exactly who it’s aimed at. Writing without a target market in mind will deliver just one thing – poor results. With this in mind, you can craft your content structure, tone, layout, style and language accordingly to suit your target audience, This will result in pitching your message at the appropriate tone to them.

2) Communicate W.I.I.F.M (What’s in it for me)?

After narrowing down your target audience, it’s time to plan your content to showcase how your product or service is going to help your customers. Avoid the common pitfall many business owners make of writing about themselves or focusing exclusively on your product’s features. Instead, consider how your product or service will make your consumers’ lives easier, help them save money or time, help to solve a problem or make them feel better, among other things. By giving careful thought to this in your content, you will be answering the question at the back of your customer’s mind, “what’s in it for me”

As obvious as it sounds, it is critical to keep these points in mind as you plan the content to market your business.

 

Reference:

http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/chris-pracy/Online-Copywriting-Plan–5-Steps-to-Writing-Your-Business-Website.html

 

Image source: http://www.atb.net.au/planning-your-corners-fail-to-plan-plan-to-fail/

What A Difference A Word Makes

what-a-difference-a-word-makesWhat makes an advertisement, brochure or website appealing? How do you attract eyeballs with great content? Creating powerful content that speaks to your target audience involves more than just stringing together random words or phrases. Naturally, it starts with using the right choice of words – words that can captivate and hold your readers’ interest.

 

Certain words do appeal to our attention more than others, carry power when they are used and most importantly, have the ability to jolt consumers into action. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

 

Words like “limited”, “sales end today” and “while stocks last” create a sense of urgency among customers, making your products or services seem more valuable and scarce. This can make people desire them more for fear of not being able to acquire it. On the other hand, words like “now” draw people in through the prospect of instant gratification.

 

Undeniably, words such as “free” and “new” have a definite appeal. Attracting consumers through complimentary offerings may entice them to find out more about your website, advertisement or brochure. Meanwhile, the novelty effect associated with the word “new” could draw curious customers to find out more about this fresh new merchandise or service.

 

Last but not least, do not forget to personalise your message to include words such as “you” to entice your consumers, because there is an unspoken power that comes from invoking their sense of self.

 

Try it the next time you craft content to market your business and reap the results of using powerful words.

 

Image source:

https://www.zazzle.co.nz/word_power_round_sticker-217562175423359680

Why The Pen is Mightier

pen-is-mightier

Why should I buy your product? Why should I listen to you? These are questions that go through your customers’ minds when they see your website or marketing material. And these are issues that businesses need to address when persuading their potential clients to use their goods and services. Persuasion is not an easy skill to acquire. But if you break it down, there are three key techniques to convince your audience: using emotion, authority and logic. Advertisements, websites, brochures and blogs all use these in one form or another. Let’s take a look at what each of these persuasive strategies mean and how they work.

 

Persuasive strategies How to apply them Example
Emotion Appeal to emotions. You can play on others’ feelings of justice, sadness, anger, nostalgia and fear. This is most effective when it connects with an underlying value of the reader. There’s no price that can be placed on peace of mind. Our advanced security systems are guaranteed to protect your family so you can sleep soundly at night.
Authority Appeal to the authority of person or an organisation. It is how well you convince the reader that you or your company are qualified to comment on the subject. Our expertise in roofing contracting is evidenced not only by our 100 years in the business and our staff of qualified technicians, but in the decades of satisfied customers who have come to expect nothing but the best.
Logic Appeal to logic, rationale or reasoning. Information may be presented factually and based on statistics. Logic can also be used to enhance your authority by making your company seem knowledgeable. The data is perfectly clear: this investment has consistently turned a profit year-over-year, even in spite of market declines in other areas.

 

These persuasive strategies can be used on their own, or in combination with each other. Keep in mind the context, your target audience and objective when employing them. Check out the video below, and see if you can spot how these modes of persuasion are used. Try using them in your next brochure.

 

 

Image source:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/239113061439372391/

 

Harnessing the power of emotional marketing

emotional marketing image

Emotions. They help us to connect with one another, but they can also spur us to action. When it comes to writing marketing campaigns, studies show that emotions rather than cool-headed logic play a greater part in inspiring customers to make decisions. So what is emotional marketing? It involves harnessing emotions to influence audiences’ intent to buy. Getting consumers to feel happy, in awe, sad, afraid or angry lie at the heart of emotional marketing. 

When selling your product or service, it can be easy to get caught up in spelling out its features. Logically, we would think that is what our customers will benefit from and focus on right? However, do not overlook the critical role that emotions play in rousing customers to share with their peers and ultimately buy. Check out the commercial below and see how emotions can be used to great effect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYtMkhfQfa4

The Most Persuasive Words in the English Language

There are some power words that are able to influence and persuade the masses but you would be surprised to know that they are actually very simple. Here are 3 of the most persuasive words in the English language.

Free

People love free things to the point that that will influence them into making different choices, even if the respective value of the service or product remains the same. However, beware that while offering something for free will attract more people, it is almost certain that there will be a large proportion of bargain hunters who are not likely to be the customers that will really grow your business.

 New

Novelty has an important role in the stimulating our brain’s reward centre. It is important to inject ‘newness’ into products as they expire quicker than experiential purchases such as a holiday. Customers get excited when they are told that products come with new features or are given a new look. More than just promising ‘new’, it is important that the product/service delivers in order to maintain the trust customers have in the business and brand.

 Instantly

In this age where delayed gratification is a skill, the word instantly fires up and triggers customers’ brains.  For those businesses with physical products or services businesses, letting your customers know that they will receive what they want quickly (or someone will contact them soon) goes a long way in persuading them to buy your product or service. When you promise ‘instantly’, stick by the golden rule: always deliver and where possible, over-deliver.

So there you go –three persuasive words that can help you win over customers. The next time you are looking for the right words to help you in a campaign, remember to include these simple but powerful persuasive words.