Language-controls-your-destiny
0How the order of the words you use define the response people have to your message.
Is The Message You Are Communicating The One You REALLY Want To Get Across?
In new age circles there's always talk of how your language controls your destiny.
You know the saying “whether you thnk you can or think you can't either way – you're right!”
Although I believe that much of the new age stuff out there is little more than entertainment and has little to do with what's really going on in the universe… In this case, I tend to agree.
The words you use, especially about yourself reveal a huge amount about how you think, what you think about yourself and where you are coming from.
It's worth studying language to learn more about the way you speak and how that can play out in the way you operate in the world…
But that's not what I want to talk to you about today.
Actually your language and sentence structure can also have a huge effect on others and the way they respond to what you're saying.
This is especially useful to know when it comes time to write copy for your website.How you structure your sentences can mean the difference between a visitor buying your product or not buying at it's most fundamental level.
Yep – it's probably more complex than that, but the crux is this: The brain works in certain ways. If you use those ways to your advantage, you increase your chances of making a sale.
Ignore those natural brain foibles and risk not getting your message across in the way you want … basically… leaving money on the table.
Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Which of these two sentences do you think will get people to buy more:
1: Order today and get a your wizzbanginator for just $47
2: Get your wizzbanginator for just $47 when you order today.
Not much in it right?
But here's the thing. The human brain weighs different parts of sentences with different levels of importance.
The fist couple of words in a sentence weights in at around 30% importance.
The middle of the sentence at around 10%
and the last few words at around 60%…
It's always the last few words of a sentence that really hold the weight of the sentence. Your brain will remember these more, be more affected by these last few words and is most likely to act on these words.
So if you are trying to convince someone to buy your product do you want the main thing they are getting from your call to action be “JUST $47” … or be “ORDER TODAY“?
Do you want them to focus on the cost of the product or the action of ordering?
That simple distinction is HUGE.
“Get 100% of your money back if you decide you don't like it…”
or
“If you decide you don't like it you can get 100% of your money back.”
Here's a slightly trickier one…
-“Get a free gift when you sign up to our mailing list”
-“Sign up to our mailing list and get a free gift.”
Now this one is a little more open to debate. I would contest though, that people, being only interested in “what's in it for them” will be more effected by the free gift closing than the sign up closing… (ultimately this would come down testing and measuring the results.
Here's an everyday example that you could use in a non business situation:
“Timmy, I'll take you out for ice cream if you clean up your room.”
“If you clean up your room Timmy I'll take you out for Ice Cream.”
Where's little Timmy's focus at the end of each of those sentences?
which do you think is most likely to get him to clean his room?
This is not some evil manipulation or trying to trick people into buying… as you can see the sentence and the message are the same in each case.
The difference is that one is using the way the human brain thinks to your advantage, the other is not.
One makes sure you get the message you want across to the brain of the reader, the other does not.
Take a look at your sales messages. Look at your website, your sales pages, your brochures, your emails. This principal works all the time to improve your communication and to get across the message you really want.
Try it… See what happens… I dare you 🙂
