Find out how the way you communicate in your marketing has a huge impact on its success. 

The way in which you speak in any of your Marketing media is incredibly important. It affects how you engage with your customers, how they relate to your brand and marketing, and most importantly, if and how they convert to a sale. 

The Language you use in your marketing can literally be the decider between whether they click onto a competitor’s site, or if they buy from you. 

The trick is to harness an understanding of how your words work within marketing so that you can use that knowledge to give the language you use true impact. 

Let’s take a closer look at the psychology of language in marketing: 

Why Do Words Matter In Marketing? 

Even with captivating imagery and design, brand and marketing storytelling cannot solely rely on visuals. As humans we communicate through words and dialogue, which is why they matter so much in marketing. 

Words spark emotion and let people fall into a change in the way they are thinking, for any amount of time. Words also help us understand things to a degree where we feel comfortable with a purchase, or an inquiry about a product.

A great example of this is with video content, which is loved by many people but, according to Forbes, 69% of those people aren’t watching the video with sound on. Instead, they are utilising subtitling so that they can make the most of the content, because the audio is inaccessible to them. Without that subtitling, explainer videos and other easily convertible marketing content falls short because it doesn’t translate without wording. 

The fact is that whilst convenient marketing like videos are ahead of blogs and white papers, as humans we still need the words to ‘get us there’ and fully communicate the brand/ product message. 

Utilising Language To Boost Your Marketing 

Here are some examples of language psychology in marketing and how to use it to your advantage: 

You, As A Consumer Need To Feel Good About Your Decision To Buy

As a consumer we need to feel good about our decision to buy. This means that consumers need the language you use in your marketing to suggest that buying the product is good. This is relevant even if you play on the fact that it is ‘naughty’ or ‘forbidden’ – it still has positive connotations that play into the idea that we like to act on our desires, and it is OK to do so.

As long as the overall language suggestion is positive and inspires your customer to feel empowered when they click to buy, you can be as creative with your wording as you like. The onus simply always has to be that buying is positive rather than negative. 

The Consumer Must Understand What They Are Getting ‘Out Of It’ 

Between any brand and customer there is an exchange. You are exchanging your services for money, but the customer has to know what is ‘in it for them’ so they feel this is a fair and attractive exchange. The language you use, therefore, has to ensure the consumer understands how much they are getting for their money. The words must convey value, honesty and they must let the customer know you care. Even though you want something from them, you have to give something to them first in the form of clear communication about the benefits of your products and services. 

Native Language Must Be Used

“A different language is a different vision of life.” – Federico Fellini

76% of shoppers prefer to buy products with information in their native language, according to CSA Research, and 40% will not buy from websites in other languages. It comes down to trust. We need to know what we are buying and about the business we are buying it from. 

In this case, as a business you simply have to offer multilingual marketing, sales and customer service so that you can tap into multilingual consumers. Marketing and video content can be boosted with professional subtitling, and you can use technology to instantly translate your web messaging or contact centre staff conversations. Just make sure that any translation is effective and precise, as is offered at Matinee.co.uk. Translation that is not done well can actively do the opposite of harnessing new customers, and instead may turn off entire regions to your brand because of accidental offence being caused. 

They’re Not Just Words…

There is a reason those M&S adverts were so successful and it isn’t just the silky professional voiceover that featured in them. The words used to describe the products oozed descriptive, yummy language that elevated the product. Here’s an example: 

Basic Description – Sponge chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and dark chocolate writing. 

Delicious Description – Light and fluffy chocolate sponge slathered in sweet, mouth-watering buttercream and finished with indulgent dark chocolate writing. 

It’s all about adding a beautiful, wordy wrapping paper and bow to the gift that is your product. It’s seduction in the form of language. 

How Words Are Delivered Matters

Phonetic symbolism is the notion that the way a word sounds conveys its meaning. A high-pitched sound is connected to quick, feminine, small, sharp and nippy concepts. Lower sounds are connected to the opposite. This is important because it tells us that our words have so much power beyond their literal meaning. For example; the script you develop will have an entirely different psychological impact when read by a male voiceover artist, than when it is read by a female. 

Cut The Jargon

Many companies believe that are appearing insightful by using industry relevant language in their marketing. Whilst this can be true in B2B marketing, in B2C marketing it stands a really good chance of alienating the customer and creating a language barrier for those who don’t understand the terms. It is important to use clear language that conveys the message so that your customers understand the marketing. 

“One should not aim at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.” – Marcus Fabius Quintilian 

The psychology of language and how it is used in marketing is extensive. As a business owner, you’re not expected to know everything, but by recognising the importance of language and how it matters to your customers, you will be one step ahead of anybody discounting words in today’s global marketplace. Even better, you can learn to use that language to your advantage, boosting your chance of customer acquisition, loyalty and sales.