Why Your Copy Is Taking Your Readers Away Of Taking Action…
By: Nick Maier
Tags: Copywriting Tips, Marketing Copywriting, Words, Marketing Communication, Copywriting

#QOTD comes from @markengland2020 and it’s all about language…

We know there’s the 2 Main Types of Language — conflict and architect. We understand there’s the 3 main sub-types of conflict and architect. We know we aim to use one side of these more than the other…

Today, we’re going into one of these specific sub-types of language. One that we should consciously strive to minimise as much as possible in our copy…

Why? The sole reason is that it actually (surprise, surprise) places your readers, listeners, clients and responders in a position where they will talk themselves out of working with you instead of talking themselves into working with you. They’ll talk themselves out of taking action…

All because of the specific language that you are unconsciously & automatically using in your copy

Back in, 2012, I was 22. I was fucking failure at this point in my life

I was failing every single unique subject that I was doing in my nutrition and dietetics course. I was unemployed. I was trying to find work as a door to door salesman, and my life was a living hell. I was the victim of my own life and I played that role with joy. I took pride in the pain and the suffering and the knowing that I could say, “hey, my life is worse than yours”…

And when I was living that reality, this reality that I’d created for myself, there were three main questions that I was continually asking myself inside of my own head

Why do I always fail. Why am I never good enough. Why am I such a fuck up.

Think about where those three questions draw someone’s attention… Think about what those three questions make someone think about themselves…

The quality of your questions determine the quality of your life. And my questions were creating a victim mentality for myself. All of those questions were negations which forced my focus to be placed on something that I didn’t want to happen right now in the present moment, or drew focus on something that didn’t actually happen in the past or would equate to a painful future

I was creating negativity for my self - just like we create this negative state inside of our copy… Negations may very well force our readers and our listeners into that “negative state of emotion” and into that “emotional arousal” where we want the frustration + anger — but it’s a double edged sword…

The main issue with this is that when we predominantly use negations in our copy we predominantly elicit the negative emotions inside of our readers. This creates excess…

See, there’s two complete polar opposites. On one side we have the negative. The frustration. The anxiety. The anger. On the opposite end of the spectrum we have the positive. The excitement. The awe. The humour.

In our copy we have to balance out the negative with the positive. And yet, far too many people will go down that dark road of marketing + copywriting where they’ll focus solely on the negative and all the shit that is wrong with life

Here’s all the pain. Here’s all the anxiety. Here’s all the anger. And in doing so, they will fail to balance that out with the positive with the affirmation of what we do want to happen, what did happen in the past, and what can and will happen in the future… This leads to a negative association being formed with the brand and your clients working themselves up into such a state that they won’t take action!

This is simply a reminder for yourself of when I go back and look through your copy… Is it predominantly focusing on the negative? Is it predominantly focusing on the pain? If it is, are you simply leaving your clients to a position where they get negative with themselves they get negative with life, and now they go off and they live in that spiral, and they fail to take action?

If so, how can you balance it out by using some affirmations and by moving them towards the positive and towards the pleasure as well?

Because when we look at the two types of marketing people love to throw them in two separate baskets — fear based and pleasure based. But the truth is that in the middle there’s a mix that can be perfect for you, whether it’s an 80/20 blend whether it’s a 60/40 blend…

Know that world class copywriting is a weaving of the negative with the positive… of the frustration and the anger with the excitement and the awe

This is about telling stories to take readers on journeys. And with those journeys, we move them through that emotional spectrum, so that they get to the tipping point and at the end of the day they make the choice and they take the action that we would love for them to take

Journaling Prompt: Are you using too many negations? Do you need to include some more affirmations in your copy? If so, how?

Nick Maier

@nickmaier__