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Power Words in Content Writing and Marketing

Shubhangi Mittal

  • Free

  • Imagine

  • Instant

  • New

  • Proven

  • Easy

  • More

  • Never

  • Hate

  • Beware

  • Danger

  • Fail

  • Fooled

  • Mistake

  • Sorry

What are Power Words?

Power words are words that capture the attention of the reader and trigger them to take an action.

They are persuasive. They evoke an emotional response.

You can use the right power words to get the reader to buy your product, subscribe to your newsletter, click on your email or website link in the search results and click on your ad.

For content writers and marketers, power words are the daily bread and butter.

Power words can be used for all customer touchpoints from a content perspective. They improve social media engagement, content engagement and audience engagement.

Where can you use power words

  1. Email Marketing : in subject lines to increase open rates. In CTA button text to take actions such as download/contact/register.

  2. Landing Pages : on buy pages, pricing pages, demo pages to boost conversion.

  3. Social Media : in ad copies to act as a hook. Get people to stop scrolling, pay attention to the ad and click on it. Thereby, improving engagement and CTR.

  4. Content Marketing : Headlines, email subject lines, short form copies, ad copies. Power words will boost conversion, engagement and CTR.

Why should you use power words

With words, you are trying to evoke a response.

With power words, you address one of the nine learned desires of human beings ( Cashvertising by Dr. Eric Whitman), namely

  1. To be informed

  2. Curiosity

  3. Cleanliness of body and surroundings

  4. Efficiency

  5. Convenience

  6. Dependability/quality

  7. Expression of beauty and style

  8. Economy/profit

  9. Bargains

If you work with words, you must leverage the impact of Power Words.

Power words can be both positive and negative. Depending on how you craft your line, they can evoke a response based on a positive or negative emotion.

Some examples of positive and negative power words are as below. This list is not exhaustive.

Positive power words

  1. Free - Eg: Download your [free] pdf

  2. Yes - Eg: [Yes], You Can Learn Python in 90 Days

  3. Imagine - Eg: [Imagine] you are a TikTokstar

  4. Instant - Eg: Get [instant] approval online

  5. New -Eg: [New] LED frames

  6. Proven - Eg: 14 [Proven] Strategies to Improve Your Website Sales

  7. Easy - Eg: 5 [Easy] Steps to a Higher Rank on SERPs

  8. More - Eg: [More] Human with Tech

Negative Power Words

  1. Never: Content Marketing examples you never thought of

  2. Waste : Is content marketing a [waste] of time?

  3. Crush: [Crush] the competition with these killer content marketing ideas

  4. Hate: 10 things to [hate] about content marketing

  5. Beware: [Beware] the content marketing monster

  6. Danger: The hidden [dangers] of planning a content marketing campaign

  7. Fail: Why most brands [fail] miserably at content marketing

  8. Fooled: Can marketers [fool] you?

  9. Hoax: 5 viral [hoax] marketing campaigns

  10. Mistake - The 7 biggest content marketing [mistakes] to avoid

  11. Sorry - The Art of Saying [Sorry]: How to apologize in customer service

(These are all real subject lines!)

P.S: Be cautious when using negative power words. While they are powerful motivators, overusing them can lead to readers associating your brand with negative emotions.
Remember Uncle Ben told Peter, “with great power (words), comes great responsibility”.