Language – whether in marketing or anywhere else in our lives – is a very powerful thing. It allows us to communicate even the most complex ideas, motivate others with our own messages, and change minds and the world with something as simple as the power of words. As marketers, regardless of all the hype that may now exist around image and video, it is our job to drive brands forward with this incredible power of words.
Doing so, it’s important to remember that those individual words you use do each matter. Getting even one word wrong can cause the entire message to fail. Changing just one word can change the entire meaning of what you’re trying to get across. And just the exact right singular word can be what it takes to drive the sales and bring your business success.
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Why Every Word Matters
The importance of individual words is especially true in the current day and age. Today’s marketers must recognize the shortened attention spans of all that take in the content of any form. With every consumer so easily distracted, there exists an absolute necessity to tighten messages and make sure every single word counts. In so many different places in the marketing industry, there is really so much pressure to pick out the word that’s just right.
SEO Keywords
Much of the world’s marketing content is online, where consumers spend a lot of their time now. Just because your target audience can be found online though doesn’t mean that they’re on there reading your articles. There is a lot of content online, too much for anyone to shift through on their own.
That’s why we use search engines and their algorithms to help provide what we’re looking for, and those algorithms look for certain words. If you want your target audience reading your articles, you will need to make sure the right words are being found so that readers can even find it.
You need to properly optimize your content with SEO keywords. Now, this does not mean forcing a certain keyword into every other sentence or even more often just so your article can rise up the rankings. Search engines actually penalize this kind of behavior, and, more importantly, it makes for a terrible reading experience. You want your writing to appeal, yes, to Google, but also, primarily, to human beings. SEO keywords are just a way to direct your efforts towards that goal.
Defining Your Message
Of course, while getting the reader there in the first place is necessary to then do so, what’s most important is how you actually speak to the customer. With a clearly-defined marketing message, you can easily direct customers on the journey you want them to take with your brand. To achieve this, the specific wording you choose is still crucial.
With just one word, the meaning of carefully thought-out copy can be completely changed. You want to choose words that emotionally appeal to your ideal target audience. You want to choose words that perfectly drive customers forward toward the conversion. You want to put the care and effort into finding the exact right words for your message.
Crafting Your Unique Brand
The right words for your message, however, will depend on who you are. Every brand strives to be unique and own a particular way of standing out, including through the language they use. An understanding of your brand will drive word choice through a variety of factors, including the industry you’re in, the target audience you appeal to, and the particular identity of the brand.
The wrong word in a marketing message may be the one that misses the mark when it comes to any of these factors. If you’re writing for a brand though, you should know that brand inside and out. You should know which words just won’t work for the brand and which fit right in perfectly.
How To Choose The Right Words
You don’t have to be a professional writer with tons of experience to figure this out. Certain words are simply more effective at attracting search engine attention, driving forward your message, and resonating with your brand supporters. While it might not be so easy to know which word to go with every time, getting it right can be done.
Here are some suggested words to get you started:
You– Readers want to feel that they are being personally spoken to. By addressing them directly with the word “you,” you form a connection that will certainly be appreciated.
Now– In marketing, the goal is usually to drive people towards a specific action. And you’d probably rather they do it sooner rather than later, so drive the urgency yourself by adding the word “now” to your call to action.
Feel– Emotion is what motivated people and drives brands forward. As you write your message, you can direct consumers’ right towards those emotions with words like “feel.”
Make Each Word Count
You simply don’t have all the time, or all the words, in the world to achieve what you’re after. With shortened attention spans, when you’re writing for marketing, it’s got to be short. This means that everything has to have its reason and every word has to matter. As you craft the copy for a social media post, email, radio spot, or blog post, make sure to pay attention to every word you use. This focus will help ensure your marketing achieves exactly what you hope.
Author Bio: Dmitrii Kustov is the founder of Regex SEO. Currently, as Internet Marketing Director for Regex SEO, he is helping businesses and entrepreneurs grow their presence online. Due to his experience and background, he has been able to share hands-on knowledge about the following topics: Internet marketing (SEO, paid advertising, social media, content marketing, etc), statistical analytics, web development, and entrepreneurship.
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