emotional – Ulrike Hill

“I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.” David Ogilvy

Writers use words with intent. They understand that the language needs to support the purpose of the document: informing, entertaining, persuading or educating. Ad people realise that certain words have an emotional connection and will use it when they communicate with their target market. Using these words in your company communication will go a long way to connecting with your customers.

According to many websites and writers who position themselves as language specialists, there are top words that you should use to persuade people to buy your product or service.

These words are (in descending order of importance or popularity):

You
Money
Save
New
Results
Health
Easy
Safety
Love
Discovery
Proven
Guarantee

I have seen these words on many blogs and training manuals. The list has been accredited to a Yale University research. (FYI: I am not sure where these people received their information. Yale did not conduct any research and the origins of this list is unclear.) However, looking through this list, it is obvious that they are relevant in creating an emotional connection.

Top of the list, YOU, is an important word to keep in mind when trying to persuade people to use your product or service. For example, FNB’s “How can we help YOU” is direct and answers the question to the problem many people have with banking.

David Ogilvy, well-known advertising executive, put together a list of words used in persuasive language in his book Confessions of an Advertising Man (1963). These words still have relevance in today’s world of competitive wordsmithing.

Suddenly now announcing
introducing improvement amazing
sensational remarkable revolutionary
startling miracle magic
offer quick easy
wanted challenge compare
bargain hurry

According to Ogilvy, ‘The two most powerful words you can use in a headline are FREE and NEW. You can seldom use FREE but you can almost always use NEW – if you try hard enough’.

Unfortunately, the modern customer knows that there is no such thing as FREE so this word will have limited influence unless used in the correct context. And even then, I wonder how many people will connect with the word with anything other than scepticism.

Although both lists contain different words (except for NEW and EASY), the words all have positive connections and persuasive qualities.

Although you have a list of persuasive words, this does not mean that they will always be effective. It is important to follow Ogilvy’s advice given in the quote at the beginning of this post: ‘use your customer’s language’.

Ask the following questions to determine which words will work for your copy:

What are the benefits of your product or service?
How will your customer connect emotionally to your value offering (that is, how will they feel using your product or service)?
Does your value offering deliver on your promise (that is, if your product is EASY to use it must be EASY to use)?

With practise, you should discover which words will work for your business and which will connect emotionally with your customers.

Ulrike Hill is a business and creative facilitator. She also helps companies inject creativity into their business documents.
Contact writer@ulrikehill or call +27 71 636 8028.

Understanding business email etiquette

By Ulrike Hill

I was once a product manager in the IT industry. I was new to the job and eager to please. One day an important client criticised my product. I took his comments personally. Whinging back at the office about the client, my director was unsympathetic. He told me to ‘take the emotion out of business’ and to stick to the facts.

Fast forward many years later. My director’s advice still resonates with me. Thinking back, his advice was relevant in a world where technology did not dominate business communication. Technology has created a sterile business world. Business people are interacting mainly via email and are spending less time speaking to each other. Too often misunderstandings tend to creep into written messages.

How can we avoid misunderstanding that may happen without the sender realising it?

Acknowledge the recipient

In the hurried world of business, people forget the use of ‘Dear X’ and dive straight into the message of the email. Acknowledge that there is a human being on the receiving end of the email. I prefer using ‘Hello’ and the person’s name. Ensure that you get the spelling of the person’s name correct. If not, the message you are sending to the receiver is ‘You are not important enough to me’.

I am shouting at you

The sender is in a rush and does not notice that THE CAPS LOCK IS ON. THE ENTIRE EMAIL IS WRITTEN IN UPPER CASE. People tell me that it is not a big deal. But it is a big deal. Using caps lock is the same as shouting. Imagine the response if the email is about an over-due payment. Or meeting an urgent deadline.

Smiley faces

During my discussions with a few business people, some felt that using emoticons reveal the human behind the email. I disagree. Emoticons are for friends. Emoticons are for informal communication. Emoticons do not make the email human. Humans talk.

So how are you, really?

Use words that will express the human. Instead of demanding, ask. Instead of diving straight into the main message, introduce a personal line like “I trust you are well.” It is more formal than the “How are you?” but it does show that you are interested in the recipient’s well-being.

Saying goodbye is hard to do

Like the forgotten greeting, signing off the email is taken for granted. Worse still, it is forgotten completely. This is the same as walking out of someone’s home without saying goodbye. The sign-off can reveal a lot about you. Create a professional ending to your email. ‘Faithfully’ sounds fake, ditto ‘Yours truly’ and imagine how a client may react to “With love”. Signing off can be professional and still reveal the human part of business.

These are a few suggestions for email users to create the ‘human face’ behind the words and to reduce misunderstandings. Business is tough so the human touch without the ‘touchy-feely’ will go a long way to maintaining a professional relationship.

Ulrike Hill provides a writing workshop to assist people with email etiquette. Contact: writer@ulrikehill.co.za or call 071 636 8028 (South Africa only).