image courtesy of Stuart Mills at www.freedigitalphotos.net
The great copywriter Herschell Gordon Lewis challenges marketers to use the better words that sell your prospects. Thinking about the subtleties of word meaning can power up your web pages, blog posts, and social media short copy.
These are from his book, “Creative Rules for the 21st Century” published by American Writers & Artists, Inc. I’ve changed Lewis’s sentence examples to ones that are closer to my experience writing Web pages for my clients.
The thing with words is that though they can often mean about the same thing to you the marketer, they often register in the mind of your reader differently. Subtle differences in meaning may not seem like a big deal. But miss a golf shot by just a hair off center and you may end up in the pond.
Take this relatively easy example: “eager” and “anxious.” Eager has a positive connotation, as in, “I’m eager to try your widget.” Anxious a negative, “I’m anxious to try your widget.”
Turns out, the person actually anxious about trying the widget is the producer of it, not the customers. Will the customer like it or not?
Picking the Words that Sell
Here are some more. See if there are places in your Web copy where a better use of a word could generate the response you’re looking for in your reader.
“Each” or “All”
“Our team of investigators, forensic specialists, profilers, and tech experts each analyze your case.”
“Our team of investigators, forensic specialists, profilers, and tech experts all analyze your case.”
If you want to imply individual, personal, and thorough attention, use “each.” If you want to imply a greater number of people, use “all.”
“Has become” or “Is”
“Real time consumer insight is the fastest growing trend in shopper marketing.”
“Real time consumer insight has become the fastest growing trend in shopper marketing.”
“Has become” instead of “is” transforms an event from current fact into evolutionary news. Emphasizing development (evolutionary) with “has become” creates a sense of superiority and timeliness. “Is” can be used if you need a flat, unequivocal statement.
“Turned into” or “Became”
“Obama Care turned into a nightmare for business tax reporting.”
“Obama Care became a nightmare for business tax reporting.”
The difference here is that “turned into” is a more immediate change, "became" is more gradual. So, if you are a CPA firm looking to add customers when Obama Care just came out, especially with its problems online, you might use “turned into” to suggest the immediate problem that you can help solve. Today, that same CPA firm might use “became” to signify their professional experience over time with Obama Care and, again, how they can expertly help clients.
There are lots of examples like these of words with slightly different meanings. After all, if there wasn’t a difference there probably wouldn’t be the two words in the first place.
The thing for you to remember is that smart use of these subtle shades of meaning can make a difference in the response you get from your online marketing content. Always be sure you use the words that you think will sell best in each situation you’re writing for.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Burns is an SEO web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. He provides clients a winning content strategy plus the special web writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
