A Word About Your Words

The greatest single thing that stands between you and your potential customers is words. You might need other influencers along the way, but the single biggest influence will always be words. You can't get people to see, experience, or imagine your product or service without them.

The power of words is often unrecognised by small and medium sized businesses. Their adverts, brochures, websites, conversation, even their business cards are full of poorly written words that are literally costing them hundreds or thousands of pounds or dollars in lost profits.

This of course is good news for you!

Choosing your words well - in all situations - can have an unbelievable effect on your revenues - often boosting a small or medium-sized business' profits by as much as 50-100%. And it costs no more than choosing bad words, which is likely what your competitors are doing.

Writing copy that works is a skill. But it is a skill that can be very easily learnt - even if you've found it difficult in the past. These are the golden rules with words:

Purpose - What is the point of the words you are about to write or say? For example, if you are writing a small web advert, the job of the advert is simply to get a click. Not to sell the product. Don't feel you have to cram everything you do into everything you say or write.

Perspective - Always write from the customer's perspective. Don't talk about what your product is, as much as what it will do for the customer. If you're selling something technical, put the spec at the back, or as an appendix. Get the customer message across first. Theodore Levitt, the American economist and Harvard professor (who chose these words brilliantly) said: 'People don't buy quarter-inch drills, they buy quarter-inch holes'.

The Magic Word - You. Use it and reap the rewards. As a customer 'you' want to hear what is important to 'you' and what 'you' will get if we work together. By using 'you' in copy, you will also find that it is easier to write the rest of the copy - it will feel more natural, as if you're speaking to a customer or having a conversation with them.

Simplicity - Keep it easy to read. Some people will skim detail, others want more. Try and make it easy for both kinds but avoid waffle at all times - you'll put your readers off. Only address one issue at a time in each paragraph.

Adjectives - Adjectives (describing words) will bring your copy or conversation to life. Describing your product as fast, beautiful, or neat helps to get your message across. However there is a big rule to this: use powerful adjectives, but use them sparingly. Copy or speech that is littered with adjectives becomes hard to follow. It becomes waffly and will force your reader or listener away.

Assumptive Words - Obviously you need to make sure your customers are on side straight away. Naturally they will agree with what you say if you start your sentence assumptively. Words that end '-ly' are good here (these words are your adverbs). How many successful campaigns for big companies start with 'worryingly, obviously, happily...'?

Choosing your words carefully can massively boost your business. Here's something that happened to me recently. I changed one word - one word! - in an advert with only ten words in it, and improved the response rate by over 45%!

Don't just use words, choose them. It can make a big difference.