Captivate your reader in 4 short steps

How do you get people to do what you want?

What’s the first thing you think of?

Persuasion, bribery, blackmail?

These all work. Unethical yes, but they work.

Marketing is just the ethical way of reaching the same goal.

You write words on a page, people agree and buy your product.

Your readers are the clay, and the words are the hands that mould them into something beautiful.

Today we’re going to tell you exactly what techniques to use to mould your readers into paying 

customers.

1. Sensory language

Our little analogy about the potter is our first example of sensory language.

People can’t help but create a picture in their heads when they read.

So let's help people create a great picture that targets all of the senses.

It’s possible to do with whatever you sell.

The distinct smell of a new car, the taste of fresh food, the touch of a new book.

Using this type of language is a bit of a lost art - especially since visual advertising is everywhere you look (think billboards, tv adverts and the like)

If you can master it then you can use it wherever you like. Social media posts, websites, blogs.

The world is your oyster.

One word of warning though - use this technique sparingly - sensory overload is real in the written word too.

1. Evoke emotion

There’s nothing worse than attempting to read a monotonous monologue that looks like it’s been copied straight from chat-gpt.

It only takes a sentence to lose a reader, so giving them a huge block of text will send them running.

When you write you need to understand 2 things: 

• Who they are - age, gender, needs, beliefs, favourite things

• What emotions you want them to feel

Imagine you are selling a new brand of nutritious baby food. You can imagine your target audience - young parents who love their child and care about keeping them healthy.

From here you can pinpoint exactly what emotions to target. The feeling of doing right by their child, the satisfaction of having a healthy baby, the fear of not doing their best.

This creates an emotional attachment with the reader, so they’re guaranteed to remember you. That’s if they’ve not already bought whatever you’re selling.

1. WIIFM

We know we know - last week we told you how much we hate using jargon.

But if there’s one acronym we swear by - it’s this.

Whats In It For Me.

People very rarely do things without a personal benefit.

Even giving to charity has a feel-good element.

Take this blog for example. You’re here because you want to know how to improve your writing.

If we started droning on about what we did this week - you wouldn’t care. It has no benefit to your life.

You need to give something to your reader. Whether it’s: 

Discounts - 20% off if you buy now

Free offers - free consultations, free quotes

Free information - this blog for example

Comedy

Positive emotion

As long as you give them something, then you will see improvements wherever you do your writing. We can promise you that.

1. Labelling

We’ll finish off with one of our personal favourites.

“The most successful people will read to the end of this blog”

In a single sentence, we’ve applied a label to you that creates a yearning to finish the article.

This technique has been around for years. Shakespeare himself said:

“Assume a virtue, if you have it not.”

‘How To Make Friends and Influence People’ is one of the best selling books of all time. Principle 7 reads:

“Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.- Give a Dog a Good Name”

Meaning, if you project a positive reputation onto your reader, they will do their best to live up to it.

If you say people who buy your product care about the environment, or small businesses, or charity then they will crave to be that type of person.

People are good at detecting bull**** too, so don’t make this blatantly obvious. Your reader will see it from a mile away.

Next time you put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, try these techniques out. You’ll notice that your message will hit home.

Not only that, you’ll have people coming back for more.

Remember the pen is always mightier than the sword.

Bye for now,

Jamie

P.S. If you don’t have the time to implement these yourself, drop us a message at https://www.jumpstartmarketingsolutions.com/

We’ll be in touch to make sure we are a good fit, and we’ll improve your writing for you so you can focus on the day job.