The power of 1 word in copywriting...
Posted: February 18th, 2020, 1:28 pm
What’s the value of a single word?
A few letters… a couple of syllables… a small vibration that comes from your mouth when you speak it?
When we think about it this way, a single word doesn’t feel like much at all…
But, there’s another way to think about it…
A single word is a thought…
And when combined with other words, in context, it can have a very powerful impact.
For example – Take this headline for a language course …
“Do You Make Mistakes In English?”
Not very powerful is it? Most peoples first thought would be… “Yeah, I probably do. But nobody speaks perfect English, except English teachers (and they only talk to each other) So who cares…”
But now let’s add a single word, and we get…
“Do You Make These Mistakes In English?”
By adding one word, we just turned this into a headline that was responsible for tens of thousands of orders for a mail order English course. (around 100 years ago, when a million dollars was still worth a million dollars).
The word “These” makes it specific and adds a touch of curiosity. Now most peoples first thought is likely “Which mistakes are you talking about? Maybe there’s only a few. I wonder what they are?”.
So there’s just one example of the power of a single word.
Other words have proven to have even more impact on readers. Words like FREE, YOU, SECRET, DISCOVER…
Can you think of any other single words that add power and impact to our writing?
A few letters… a couple of syllables… a small vibration that comes from your mouth when you speak it?
When we think about it this way, a single word doesn’t feel like much at all…
But, there’s another way to think about it…
A single word is a thought…
And when combined with other words, in context, it can have a very powerful impact.
For example – Take this headline for a language course …
“Do You Make Mistakes In English?”
Not very powerful is it? Most peoples first thought would be… “Yeah, I probably do. But nobody speaks perfect English, except English teachers (and they only talk to each other) So who cares…”
But now let’s add a single word, and we get…
“Do You Make These Mistakes In English?”
By adding one word, we just turned this into a headline that was responsible for tens of thousands of orders for a mail order English course. (around 100 years ago, when a million dollars was still worth a million dollars).
The word “These” makes it specific and adds a touch of curiosity. Now most peoples first thought is likely “Which mistakes are you talking about? Maybe there’s only a few. I wonder what they are?”.
So there’s just one example of the power of a single word.
Other words have proven to have even more impact on readers. Words like FREE, YOU, SECRET, DISCOVER…
Can you think of any other single words that add power and impact to our writing?