The Problem With Power Words
Let’s talk about an insidious trend that grips the copywriting world ever so often.
That trend is called “power words.”
Sometimes it’s called other stuff and can be focused on the phrases rather than the words themselves.
But every so often you see “guru secret sentences that guarantee you can land any client!”
And because we’re all interested in copywriting here, it’s very easy to get stuck on the words and sentences.
Let’s talk about super-secret guru power words in this article. How do they work? Do they work? Why do they work?
What Are Power Words?
So what are power words?
After reading about fifty copywriting books and countless business books, I don’t really know.
Sometimes power words and phrases are things like:
- “But there’s more…”
- “But that’s not all…”
And sometimes it’s:
- “Buy now”
- “Don’t delay, buy today!”
And sometimes even:
- “Regret”
- “Envy”
- “NEVER”
And there are a million different variations. Some people sell these as “super-secret guru codes” and other weird things. A lot of business consultant types use them as fodder for opt-ins.
In terms of linguistics, they aren’t really buying words. They aren’t really compulsion words. The breadth of them seems to extend everywhere and their uses are undefined.
They have one thing in common though…
What’s The Issue With Power Words?
The issue with power words is that they don’t really exist.
I mean, you could argue that there are words that’ll help you start a sentence.
And there are words that in good English you’d never start a sentence with but in copy they lend themselves to continuing the story.
There are definitely phrases that help you get into someone’s head, or help convert a buyer…
And then there are ways of wording things that’ll speak to a target market.
But none of those things are magical and you can’t take things apart in that way and expect it to have a magical salesy persuasive effect.
Certain words evoke certain things in certain people.
Certain phrases can help you start off and get yourself going.
But none of it is magical in the same way that people will say, “If you repeat something three times, it has more power than if you say it once.”
The point with all of this is to stop thinking of certain words and phrases as magical (that’s three times in the last five sentences – by the way) and to start seeing the forest through the trees.
If you’re looking for a list of words that’ll send buyers into a frenzy, then you’re going about it all wrong.
In the next section, I’ll put you on the right track.
How To Use POWER Phrases To Get Anyone To Do Anything!
In the right hands, the right words can be magical.
Think about Gary Halbert – his English skills wouldn’t have gotten him a PhD. in linguistics by any stretch. (Although you could get a PhD. in studying the linguistics of direct response copywriting.)
Sometimes people say, “I’ve read Gary Halbert’s books and I don’t know what all the fuss is about. It’s light on the how-tos.”
The magic of Gary Halbert is that his writing is so conversational that you feel like you’re just listening to a charismatic guy talk.
And Gary Halbert is the perfect example of why words and phrases are everything and nothing at the same time.
It’s not like Gary had a secret sauce for putting “Buy it now” in exactly the 3, 434th word in every sales letter.
And he didn’t use any particular “secret keywords” for any particular market.
But he did follow the rules and use the right words as determined by:
- Researching the market
- Understanding how great ad copy was put together
- Writing in a way that’s natural to him (and readable by everyone)
- Directing everyone towards a predetermined goal
And if you do all of the above, you’ll find that you don’t need magic copywriting power words but your words are magic.