Mouth-watering marketing

I just want to quickly share something valuable with you, which happened to me a couple of days ago.  It’s a simple, yet powerful example of how extremely persuasive words can be, when we use them to create strong, mental images.

I’m writing this post just after returning home from a delicious lunch with my wife and son.  We went to a small local place, where the food and atmosphere are always good.  After we finished our food, the waitress asked us if we would like some dessert.  I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but decided to ask what was on their lunchtime dessert menu anyway.  Here’s what she told me:

“This afternoon Jim, we have a mouth-watering strawberry cheesecake and some freshly made profiteroles in a delicious, smooth chocolate sauce, which melts in your mouth.”

She listed several more options, but to be honest, I was already sold by the time she reached the freshly made profiteroles.

The marketing power of words

Here’s the thing: We all had dessert, even though we hardly ever eat dessert at lunchtime.

So, why did we have dessert?

Because it sounded delicious, before we even saw it!  The mental pictures she painted in our minds, as she described each dessert, took them from being items on a list and turned them into tastes in our imaginations.  If she had simply read us a list of dessert choices, I know we would not have had any.

Take a moment to look at the copy (wording) you currently use for your marketing.  Are you painting inspiring, compelling mental images with them?  Are your marketing messages motivating prospective customers to; buy from you, recommend you, call you, email you, subscribe to your mailing list etc?

If not, it’s highly likely you are simply giving details of the benefits your services provide. I know you have been told that you should sell based on benefits, but you need to make those benefits come alive.

Your written marketing needs to jump from the page or the computer screen and produce the motivation required for the reader to take action!

Quick marketing tip

Copy writing is one of the master skills of successful marketing.  If you are serious about making regular, high quality sales or filling your client base with brilliant clients, I strongly recommend you make 1 of the following 2 investments.  I recommend that you either invest the time required to learn how to write effective marketing messages OR invest the money required to hire the best marketing copy writer you possibly can.

By relying on pedestrian marketing copy, you simply place a very low, uninspiring ceiling on your business’ potential.

What’s your take on this?  Share your feedback or experiences of great (and not so great) copy writing, with a comment below.