Turbo-Charge Your Sales Copy

Most savvy entrepreneurs understand that creating effective sales copy for high-octane selling is something of an art – and a science. It’s truly a balancing act between the ridiculous and the sublime.  We all know that attention-grabbing works – in every field of endeavor – so finding the right mix for your particular product or service will definitely drive your business forward in a powerful way. 

In essence, attention-grabbing images of all kinds work by fundamentally appealing to the emotions of your target audience.  By using exactly the right types – the right images, the right language – that resonate with your audience, you will be evoking the response you want.  Fortunately, there are some pretty straightforward ways for tackling this - namely, target-market research and skillful copywriting designed to press all the right hot buttons.

There’s no doubt about it, you need to turbo-charge your sales copy, and the way to go about it is to make it appeal to people on an emotional level – not just a rational, mental level.  The best way of making such an appeal is to first identify a problem for your target audience, agitate or stir up the problem a bit, and then solve it – Bingo, by of course, offering your product or service as the perfect solution to the problem you’ve articulated.

There are numerous tried-and-true sales copywriting formulas that have proven to be successful in grabbing the attention of potential customers – and then closing them.  One of the interesting things about this, though, is that it’s not just the style of writing that really matters, but the actual words that are used to drive the sales message home. This calls for very succinct editing, though, leaving out anything that does not directly contribute to the message.

We already instinctively know that people respond more positively to certain words, and that these words can also act to sustain interest throughout an entire sales message.  Naturally, one of the most desirable emotional words you can employ is “free,” as we all know from dealing with the internet for two decades.  Nothing beats “free!” 

But you can’t make everything free, or you’d be working for free—so fortunately, there are a number of additional words that an entrepreneur can utilize to motivate clients or customers to take action.  Here are a few of them:

“New, innovative, benefit, right, correct, value, fun, exciting, engaging, discover, secret, easy, fast, proven, healthy, safe, natural, comfortable, precious, time-saving, solution, gain, secure” ..and there are many more along this line.

Conversely, there are words you will want to avoid, unless you wish to purposefully use them for some reason.  Be aware that these are definite turn-off’s when it comes to selling, however:

“Difficult, obligation, buy, wrong, failure, loss, contract, taxes, lawsuit, fear, expensive, bankrupt, liability, sell” …and any of their brethren.

The take-away here is to choose carefully—and vet your writing meticulously to be sure these turn-off words do not sneak into your sales copy.  You may wish to evoke these emotions, but you do not do it with the actual words. 

For instance, you may wish to frighten someone into believing that they must have a security system – in fact, it goes with the territory, right?  But you do it with words that avoid the actual word “fear.”  So, in this case, you use just the opposite type of language: “safety” and “security” are great words for instilling a sense of fear and loss – a sense of insecurity.  That’s what sells security systems.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s a little more delicate and nuanced than it first appears.  For instance, on the positive-reinforcement side, “buy” can be expressed better as “acquire” or “purchase.”  In fact, the concept of buying your product or service may be able to be couched as “an investment.”  Some types of products can even be referred to as “an asset.”  You also can see that a “contract” becomes more palatable as an “agreement.” 

It’s all in the language you choose, as well as the presentation. So, go for that turbo-charge and don't hesitate to rev up your message!