74 Words that Increase Sales and Shares

It’s hard to get people to read your web copy. So, imagine having to convince readers to spend a minute or two on your website, reading through your copy, if they even bother in the first place.

If you imagined your readers immediately subscribing to your brand, well, you’re like a lot of hopefuls. But, it doesn’t mean that your copy will actually be that successful.

Writing effective web copy that converts is hard. Though, like most hard things, it’s pretty simple to learn how to conquer it… and eventually write copy that works.

The infographic above expressed just that: what words and phrases work pretty well in effective persuasive copy. Below, we’re going to review some of that information:

1) The Importance of Persuasion
An experiment conduced by social psychologist Ellen Langer tested how persuasive certain phrases may be. The experiment, wherein she requested to cut in line at a copy machine, depicted her asking to cut in several ways. The third option below:

‘Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?’

…was the most effective–94 percent said yes. In comparison to the others, the presence of the word ‘rush’ seemed to have tipped the scale in her favor. People see rush as an ‘urgent’ word—and, if someone’s rushing, it means that they’re meaning to get something important done now.

That’s the power of persuasion.

2) Persuasion in Advertising
Advertising and marketing abide by persuasion—after all, the point of either is getting people to convert. For decades, persuasive words and phrases have been studied and subsequently proven to actually work.

David Ogilvy, best known as the Father of Advertising, famously understood the importance of persuasion in advertising, publishing a list of 20 high-converting words, including:

• Sensational
• Compare
• Remarkable
• Improvement
• Quick
• Hurry
• Challenge
• Revolutionary
• Suddenly
• Bargain

Recognize any? People are still using many of these words in advertising copy today—because they just work.

3) Convert Readers Into Consumers With These Effective Words And Phrases
What converts today? Plenty of words and phrases, of course! Let’s take a quick look at some of them:

Implying exclusivity

• Members only
• Ask for an invitation
• Only available to subscribers
• Exclusive offers
• Be the first to hear about it

Implying scarcity

• Today only
• Only 10 available
• Sale ends soon
• Supplies running out
• Limited offer

Implying a ‘no risk’ offer

• Results
• Try before you buy
• Cancel anytime
• Money back guaranteed
• Best-selling

Words and phrases like the above work for a reason—after all, you want people reading your copy to act as soon as they’re done. Think about that the next time you’re writing effective ad copy.