While using a gadget by a popular brand… have you ever wondered what makes it sell?
Beyond the smart aesthetics, cool functionality and savvy branding, is there something else that is essential to the company’s success?
Chances are, most organizations of international repute owe a decent amount of their success to copywriters. Seasoned copywriters intuitively know how the human brain responds to certain words. They know how to project their imagination using carefully chosen phrasing to ensure effective content marketing. And scientific studies have confirmed the power of certain trigger words.
Let’s see how you can use them to your benefit.
Fire Your Imagination
When writing marketing copy or contemplating content marketing, remember you are not selling a solution, but an idea. Images help to create vivid visual persuasion, but are incomplete without a story.
A copy with an engaging story makes people imagine using your product. Of course, you need to be careful with your choice of words, and your story too.
The Kingfisher ads on TV are a really good example of this. To make this work in online promotion, a vivid narrative works best.
Here’s how Think Geek achieved this for selling a Beer Hammer Bottle Opener:
There are many things that drive us to consume alcohol, not the least of which is home improvement. When Randall Munroe made that xkcd comic about drilling too many holes in a wall, we all nodded our heads because we’ve been there. … Home improvement ruins walls and makes normally mild-mannered geeks raise our voices at our significant others and/or roommates. It’s a messy business.
When you read this piece, you feel like you’ve been there and have to laugh as it reminds you of your own home improvement gaffes. It is worth noticing how ingeniously the writer has created an at-home and relaxed feel for selling “a bottle opener with a hammer”!
And to follow the above:
That’s why we ROFLed at the Beer Hammer Bottle Opener and knew we had to have it. After all, once we’ve “finished” our home “improvement,” we could use a cold one.
To create such a copy, you got to get into the shoes of the buyer. Imagine how they can have an satisfying experience using it. Add specific details to make it vivid and persuasive.
Use Words That Have the Power to Persuade
It is apparent that some words are more persuasive than the rest. Here’s why:
- “You” (or someone’s name) – It adds a personal touch that engages people in your sales pitch. Research has shown that such personal references make people trust a message much more.
- “Free” – The old tried and true. Who doesn’t like to be given something for free? This is explained in detail later.
- “Because” – Apple uses it often. Research has shown that people are more likely to accept a request when this word is used.
- “Instantly” – MRI scan studies have shown that a sense of quick reward results when people read this word.
- “New” – Perception of a new product is another trigger for reward sensation in the brain. But for a brand, it’s quite the opposite. People trust older-familiar brands that they have known for long.
Ensure Easy Readability with Short Sentences
Break up your sentences into short, easily understandable bits. Your high school English teacher would not approve. Then again, your teacher probably never had to create sales copy.
Your English teacher would write:
The iPhone 5s is a purposefully imagined, meticulously considered, precision-crafted product that is more than just a technological possibility. It is actually technologically useful and what was eagerly awaited by the gen next.
Here is what the Apple copywriters wrote instead:
Forward Thinking.
iPhone 5s is purposefully imagined. Meticulously considered. Precision crafted.
It’s not just a product of what’s technologically possible. But what’s
technologically useful. It’s not just what’s next. But what should be next.
Your English teacher would give a grade A for this descriptive but boring copy:
All-new Lightning connector: smaller, smarter, durable, and reversible.
Your English teacher would give a grade F for for Apple’s copywriting:
All-new Lightning connector. Smaller. Smarter. Durable. Reversible.
The idea is to take the trouble out of reading. Just read the joined “proper” sentences. Now, read the copy created by Apple. There is a rhythm in the latter that long sentences simply cannot build.
So, break all your long sentences into two or three. Even if you need to start your sentences with And, But, or Because.
Use “Free” and Similar Words to Attract Conservative Spenders
A recent study from Carnegie Mellon University shows how adding a “small” detail can convert better.
Researchers found that adding the word “small” to “a $5 fee” increased conversions by 20%. Indeed, shifting to “a small $5 fee” got that many more sign ups for a free DVD trial program.
Conservative spenders respond better to the “small” stuff. That is why you find Apple using the word “Free” liberally on its website.
Free shipping. Free returns.
Get free shipping direct to your door on all orders over $50.
(Source: http://store.apple.com/us/iphone)
So, tinker with the “free” and “small” things in your sales copy. Keep track of how they perform. And then get better at it.
Your sales copies should be carefully crafted in order to ensure that they engage your target audience and drive conversion. Only then you can expect high yielding results from your marketing endeavors.
Photo credits:
unpolarized via photopin cc
jDevaun via photopin cc
Darwin Bell via photopin cc
colinaut via photopin cc
