Pretty Pictures are Just Eye Candy
Posted On: 2006-11-14
To make a sale you need words
And not just any words either, if you really want to get serious about making sales you have to learn which words have power and which ones are weak and should be avoided.
Pretty pictures are nice to look at and they can certainly influence people to buy a product but it's the words you use that can turn a window-shopper or tire-kicker into a committed purchaser. It's the words you use that can catch a surfer's eye and encourage them to buy something they weren't really considering and it's the words you use that can turn a casual passer-by into an impulse buyer and even have them coming back for more.
If you have followed me from other places you will already know that I'm a serious advocate for the use of words to make sales. You will have also seen me talk about power words before but don't tune out because there's nothing like brushing up on your technique.
If you haven't read any of my previous articles on power words, or you don't even know what power words are then stay tuned and we'll walk through some of the best words to use. But let's have a little background first.
All words do have power. From an early age everyone is encouraged to believe what he or she sees when it appears in print. In fact what a person reads does not even need to have any basis in the truth, all it needs is to appear in print and have the author suggest that it might be true and people take it as factual.
Today that impact of the written word has extended beyond what people see in print to what people see on the screen and right there is one of the basic problems of the Net. So much rubbish appears on the Net and yet people believe it simply because the words they see before them have power.
Now if just any old words have some power what about words that have genuine power? These are words that we humans are conditioned to react to when we see or even hear them. Words like 'stop', 'look', 'watch', 'don't' and others have even more power because we are conditioned to obey them.
And those power words - and others - are incredible marketing tools that we should learn to use regardless of what we are selling. When you combine those words with the most powerful word of all you will find that your sales do increase.
But what is that most powerful word of all? It's just a very ordinary looking three-letter word that has a huge impact on everyone who reads it. It's nothing more than the word 'you'. When that word is used everything else that follows it has a personal impact on whoever reads it.
Suddenly the message that follows that word is directed totally at the person who reads it. Suddenly the message is personal, it's directed at YOU and it applies to YOU.
So what other words should you combine with that word? Well here are just a few to think about:
Not all of them need to be combined with 'you' and often you can craft a high-impact message without even using it but when you use the 'you' word you are making your sales message very personal and that can have an incredible impact on the reader.
Once you have started using these words you will find that you want to use them everywhere on your web pages but practice a little restraint. Those words certainly do have some power but if you overuse them they soon loose that power. How many times will a surfer stop and look at your sales pitch when everywhere he looks on your site he finds high-impact messages?
Where you place those messages is important too. Think about where a surfer's eyes intersect with the screen and make sure your message is right where he or she is going to see it.
Be prepared to use bold text and colors that will make the message stand out even more. You will often see some marketers incorporate those power words into a question aimed at the reader but be careful with that approach. If you ask questions that can be answered with a simple 'no' then you've immediately lost a huge number of surfers and your efforts are wasted.
There are other things to consider too and we'll look at those tomorrow. In the meantime have a little play with some power words and see what you can come up with. Not only will they impact on your readers but they'll impact on your bottom line too,