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Magic Words

I recently received in the mail a glossy brochure asking if I was
guilty of the 7 Deadly Sins of Direct Marketing, and offering to
sell me computer software to help me sin no more.

Sin #7 was Not Using Magic Words. (For an ad to be effective,
it must grab the reader’s attention, and using Magic Words is the
surest way to achieve that effect.)

The brochure stated that direct marketing research had established
the most effective “magic words” to be:

   FREE • NEW • YOU • NOW • WIN • EASY • INTRODUCING •
   TODAY • SAVE • YES • GUARANTEE • REVOLUTIONARY •
                                  BREAKTHROUGH

This immediately suggested to me what has to be the ideal text
for an advertising “hook”—a surefire, foolpoof, attention-grabbing
response getter:

    YES! NOW YOU CAN WIN EASY! TODAY WE’RE INTRODUCING
    FREE A NEW REVOLUTIONARY BREAKTHROUGH WHICH WE
    GUARANTEE WILL LET YOU SAVE!

Now, that’s bound to produce a response. Think of the sales
(whatever it is that’s being sold)!

See too how the message reads if you take only the magic words
in sequence. Note also that the word YOU is used TWICE! Run
with it, marketing wallahs! It should be worth a promotion at
least, and probably a bonus, too.

             To market, to market, for that is our gig!
             The point of our marketing? “Making it big”!

© Robert D Sutherland, 2007

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