Mine Social Media for More Persuasive Messaging to Women

Posted on | November 23, 2008 |

By Holly Buchanan

It’s that time of year again.  Tis the season for predictable cliche ridden holiday copy: “Put a smile on a child’s face” “”The gift on everyone’s list” “Show her how much you love her.”

I spent many many years of my life as a copywriter. So, believe me, I know it’s tough when you have to keep trying to come up with new exciting ways to promote the same old products.

But I found the most amazing way to cheat, er, find inspiration. The Internet, specifically, social media.

So, for all your creative types, here’s a quick easy way to find new, better, more persuasive holiday messages - go online.  Visit blogs written by members of your target audience.   If you’re marketing to women, check out blogs written by women and see what words they use.

Here’s a quick example - instead of “Do you want to show her how much you love her?”  try this: “Are you trying crazy hard to knock her socks off?”   (a line I lifted from a Rocks in My Dryer blog post.)

When you use your customers’ actual language, it resonates with them.   It gets past their “this is just a sales pitch” filter.

Looking for a headline to promote a video camera to moms? How about this “If you put on your pants, you can be in the movie, too.” I found this beauty on the DesignMom blog where Gabrielle (DesignMom) is creating a video for a Huggies contest and her young son wanders into the middle of it, flashing his cute hiney.

You can’t make this stuff up. And the good news is, you don’t have to. Spend some time online listening to how your customers really talk. Trust me, you’ll walk away with unending ideas for persuasive messaging.

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