image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net
How do the words you read make you feel? Happy or sad, disgusted or approving? Thing is, the right words in the right places can sway your website visitor your way as he or she engages with your company. The wrong words can stop the sales process cold in its tracks.
After you know how you want your Web visitor to move through your site, choose words that will help them get there.
You Can Influence Behavior Choosing the Right Words
For example, “eager” has a positive connotation, “anxious” a negative one. Positively speaking, “Our students are eager to take our online courses because after passing they get better jobs.” Negatively speaking, “Without the benefits of our online courses, people are anxious about their job interviews.”
See the difference? Try this one:
A “dirty” house may need just a cleaning whereas a “filthy” house is too woefully far gone for that. So, to sell a vacuum cleaner to a busy mother/father without insulting them, tell them that, “Even your active family’s dirty living room is no match for the Acme High Power Vacuum Cleaner.”
Sell a ”filthy” house to your audience for the latest Hoarders episode on TV. “Watch the next Hoarders and you’ll gasp at a house so filthy we took a back hoe to the hallway just to get inside.”
3 Word Choices You Can Use to Boost Response
There are many more than these three, and I’ll let you in on them in future posts. But this is a lot to digest, so let’s start with three.
1) Is it “be” or “become”?
“Be” suggests status. “Become” suggests change.
Change: “You should become a corporate member of the Utica Zoo.”
Status: “You should be a corporate member of the Utica Zoo.”
You can test these two sentences out on your non-profit’s donation page, but the problem with the first sentence is that because it is asking me to change (“should become”) it seems like work. I’m wondering, “How do I become a corporate member? What do I have to go through to become one?”
The second sentence appeals to my vanity. “Really, you think I should be a corporate member? I’m flattered! Where do I sign?”
Can you think of a sentence where “become” produces the desired action?
2) Adding the “ing” form of a word to get more personal and imminent.
Check out the difference in these two sentences: “I suggest you switch your auto insurance to our agency” or, “I’m suggesting you switch your auto insurance to our agency.”
In the first sentence, “I suggest” is timeless, you could switch your auto insurance any time. In the second sentence, the “I’m suggesting” gives you the feeling of personal immediacy. I’m doing the suggesting right now. And, as you know if you’re familiar with my past internet marketing posts, that feeling of immediacy and personal connection on your Web pages is crucial to an action-oriented experience.
You can double down on your “ing” here to even more effect. “I’m suggesting you consider switching your auto insurance to our agency.” Here you get immediacy plus a veil over our aggressive salesmanship in the word “switching” instead of the directive order, “switch.”
Bonus “ing”
Adding “ing” can make the action seem more continuous. “We make many plastic parts” to “We are making many plastic parts.” The second sentence has no end in sight.
3) “Read” and Eliminate this Danger Word
When “read” is used in the present tense, as in, “Read about our products here” the word implies work. Reading requires education and time. How often have you heard the complaint, “I had to read through the whole thing before I could get my answer”?
Consider replacing “read” with this: “Discover our products here.” Or this, “Find out more about our products here.” Keep this in mind especially on your website’s Calls to Action.
Whew, that was a lot to absorb. The main thing here is to realize that words have different shades of meaning that can have consequences in your website visitor’s mind. Use the words that make them do what you want them to do, not ones that turn them off.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Burns is a Web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. Nick’s services include SEO Web writing, website information architecture, content marketing, consulting, and publishing. He provides clients a winning online strategy plus the content writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
