Posted by Marley
So you read the title and you’re like… okay duh. We all know words have power to an extent. But think of all of the different ways your words propel you forward and help power you throughout the day.
The first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is to check your phone right? Emails, texts, Instagram notifications–it’s all hitting you at once and suddenly your relaxing morning turns into stress. Those words on your phone screen have immense power to affect the way you start your day. Maybe, you came across something heartbreaking on the news or got tired of seeing how people saturate your feed with supposedly perfect lives–that are 100% not always perfect.
When you’re feeling down about yourself (whether it’s personal or even work-related) you get in your own head and tag-team beating yourself up with your negative self-talk. Would you ever say “you’re not good enough” to someone you love? NO. So why do you say it to yourself? The words that you choose to use when you’re talking to or about yourself have immense power over your consciousness.
In marketing — we can paint all the pretty pictures and nice graphics in the world! But if our words aren’t up to par with our designs, we’re not bringing in customers for our clients. Words and design go hand-in-hand; they need each other to reach harmony.
Salespeople, you know that you can present a potential client with all the numbers that should do the talking for you, but if you aren’t charming their pants off too, they’ll likely take their business elsewhere. You can’t just expect people to believe you at face value; you have to be able to prove your case!
All of that is to say — be kind to yourself and others with your messaging. And always think before you speak. Understand that words can be strategized in a way that benefits both you and others.
Words in marketing
One of my all-time favorite examples of marketing where words matter is CrayNut donuts in Murrieta, CA. We started working with them before the shop had even opened, which means we had the unique opportunity of starting fresh with no previous marketing to continue from; we essentially were building from the ground up.
This gave us a lot of room to play around with their voice and also gauge just how much humor was enough to sell custom donuts to suburban families. It was one of the most fun projects I’ve ever worked on at Pulse! I would always get so excited to see my task in Asana telling me that I was going to spend the day writing about donuts and sharing why with families and their children!
I think the best example of using humor to sell and also creating puns to capture the fun and youthfulness of their brand would be their website: www.craynut.com. Every product or service out there has a unique brand voice; finding out what that is, is one of the fulfilling and experiences of marketing! The moment you make that connection, everything naturally clicks into place from there and creates a domino effect of an audience gravitating towards it.
For every piece of Craynut that we helped design, we created powerful words to go along with it. We used alliteration, repetition, puns, and anything that we knew would create catchy marketing that would stick in your brain and make you crave a crazily crafted CrayNut. See what I did there? Besides having words be powerful, they’re also super fun to play around with!
But the website specifically used copy in a very purposeful way. Humor is great but if it isn’t refined and cut down to ensure paragraphs are still reading length — there’s no point in using it because people will get tired of reading before they even get there.
So back to the point – WORDS SELL. In tandem with powerful images, powerful words are essential. Don’t waste your time detailing every little thing into an “About Us” paragraph. People want to see what matters most in the content you present to them: the bread and butter aka the reasons why you deserve their time and the incredible impact you plan on having on their everyday lives with your product or service.
Keep everything short and sweet. Memorable, packs a punch, leaves an impact. While long tangents can be a delight to experience like the lull of a wave, what we really need most is what grounds us to the shore.
Words in your personal life
On the other end of the spectrum, words have an impact on your personal life and play just as serious and meaningful of a role.
As we carry on in our busy lives, it’s easy to dismiss that words have as much of an impact as they do. Depending on where words come from–such as a piece of marketing collateral or a conversation with another person–we can’t deny that we are affected by them in some way or another.
What’s more, it’s important to remember that words create an experience for people, and we as marketers have the power to tailor it in a way that convinces them a product or company is worth their time and investment; words also inspire others to change a something in their life that has room for improvement or growth–or simply, another element that makes you happier!
We’re all about dreaming big here, and we make it a priority to showcase that throughout our clients’ content as well.
Most of all, if there’s any company that can talk a big game about words being powerful, it’s us! Heartfelt storytelling is all about the written words and the weight it carries through every sentence or pause, or moment of realization.
Every piece of copy we write comes straight from our heart and onto the page in hopes that it connects with you in some way, and encourages you to join us for the rest of the ride!