This post explores words you use costing you customers! No one wants that from time and energy spent writing articles or doing podcasts!
Create a Common Enemy
For us all in 2020 it’s been COVID19.
For the first time in the history of the world we all have a common enemy. No matter who you might blame or back or what you do or don’t agree with about how it’s been handled, we are just people. We’re daughters and sons, parents, siblings, significant others who care about the health and well-being of our own.
It doesn’t matter if someone speaks your language or is across the street or across the globe, we’ve experienced a moment in time connecting to others.
If all workplaces communicate their mission so much that teams hold take not just the mission but the obstacles to achieving that mission personally, they’d thrive. If entire teams come together fighting the same cause – as opposed are pitted against each other – there will be fewer internal rivals and more job satisfaction.
There are Plenty of Bad Guys
And if you can harness a villain – be it age, or bone loss, or cancer, or sedentary jobs, or misinformation about fitness for midlife women… you can then become a part of a team with your audience and tribe.
You fight with them, instead of preaching or teaching.
It feels very different.
Teaching, without intending to, can feel like judgment.
If you instead are sending your message to “them” or to “the cancer” or “the menopause” or the “stigma”… then you’re fighting the battle with your audience.
Read/Listen to these two headlines:
Why What You’re Doing Is Not Working for Midlife Women/Clients
How to Harness the Power of Misleading Information
Feel the difference?
In the first there is a hook and it’s more negative. Like, you are doing it wrong! Don’t make this mistake. There’s definitely something to be said for it. There is certainly a large percent of population that will be more likely to click on that than something giving them content.
In the second example, however, there’s no blame on you the reader. It still suggests something is wrong, yet it implies that I’m going to give you the secret to be a part of the solution instead of telling you you’re a part of the problem.
They’re both potential subject lines or titles for a blog or podcast. Which one speaks to you more? Which one would you click on first?
This Very Post’s Title
There’s a time and place for either a negative or positive title. And the best way for you to decide which you use is to test it. I’ve found many times that say, 3 Biggest Mistakes, will get more clicks than 3 Biggest Secrets. But… don’t guess. Start testing, even if only by looking at your statistics on traffic to your blog, or on popularity of YouTube videos.
I’ll let you in on a secret. I considered variations of two subject lines and narrowed it down to these two before choosing:
Are the Words You Use Attracting More Customers?
Are the Words You Use Costing You Customers?
Obviously, I chose the latter. Because it’s more urgent. Do you feel that when you hear it (or read it if you’re at the show notes)? Pay attention to how it feels. And remember every one of your customers is going to experience responses unique to their life, sense of humor, prior experience about the topic. When in doubt, run your titles by some of your customers.
Come up with at least 10 if not 20 variations of titles. Narrow it down to a few good titles. Use a tool like Headline Analyzer to see how well you’re doing. Be conscious of key words in your title you want to use throughout your post text too for S.E.O.
Did I just lose you with SEO and the importance of key words? If you want step-by-step support for doing this and treating your content like part of a real business, that attracts real customers I’ll link to how to learn more about the 10-month Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist. It’s open now for a limited number of trainers and health coaches and only for a limited time. You want to leverage your content to stand out in the noise.
So, let’s explore some words that are dripping with emotion and how you can use them. I’ll give you some examples of how I have used them recently.
Avoid Words You Use Costing You Customers with These Examples
Gambling (In my TEDx talk after I revealed the poor statistics on science for women and exercise I mentioned it’s like “gambling… with really bad odds.”
That makes listeners who are impacted, angry.
Crap (Sit ups are Stupid, Crunches are Crap is the title of a book by a recent Flipping 50 podcast guest. Brilliant and I wish I’d thought of it myself!
The title is important because crap, doo-doo, or the actual word, conveys very succinctly that something stinks. Not you but it.
Lies
Everything Women in Menopause Learned About Exercise May Be a Lie was the title of my TEDx talk. I’ve used it again in blog posts and podcasts. The word lies conveys strong emotion, and certainly brings us together if I’m revealing lies to you that you didn’t yet know about. Then I’m going to give you solutions for revenge in the content.
Not telling the truth…
“I haven’t been telling the truth, I was doing it wrong, we’ve all been doing it wrong.” These words, some exactly this and some implied were also a part of that TEDx talk. Let me also make something clear, you don’t create a talk and then move on and create another. Your signature story is your signature story.
You go to a Bruce Springsteen concert and expect (or demand) to hear Born to Run, right? James Taylor had better play Shower the People. They may weave in new content, but audiences want and need repetition. Before you start talking about a topic, make sure that in a year and 5 and 10 you still want to be talking about it!
Betrayed
I’ve used phrases like betrayed by your body and betrayed by the fitness industry and even medical community in blogs and presentations. It evokes a strong emotion, right? So it’s not the same as if you’d been betrayed by a spouse, but betrayal by anyone or anything can make your content memorable, or remarkable.
And to stand out, be something liked, shared, commented on that’s exactly what you want.
What they don’t tell you…
This one would be easy to insert into a post. What they don’t tell you is…
When I talk about stress with clients, especially when I’d first published You Still Got It, Girl! I would point out that though our parents probably all had the sex talk with us, what they didn’t tell you was that we were going to feel stressed. They didn’t give us the ways to abstain from that or to a morning-after solution if we did have stress. There wasn’t a stress-talk like the sex talk.
In talking about it like that I made it not their fault. And I made them think back to that moment when they had the 5thgrade health session where parents come to talk about puberty and all the things. It got personal because of a memory.
More Words You’re Not Using (and That’s Costing You Customers!)
Misleading …
I’m about to publish a post for my Flipping 50 community about Misleading Fitness Studies and Poll Results from an annual trends report. I do it every year and yet it always a hot topic among both fitness professionals and midlife women seeking intelligent fitness tips.
So think about how you can look at 5 of your recent titles and see how you could have put an emotional hook in the title.
Myth-buster –
This is used commonly in titles and it’s almost always a winner. The only exception is if you over use it or it’s not an emotionally enough charged title directed at a narrow enough audience.
Weight loss Myth-Busting
Debunking Weight Loss Myths
Those are both potential titles. Yet, they’re pretty general.
Change to Menopause Weight Loss Myths or to Debunking the Menopause Weight Loss Myths in 3 Recent Fitness Magazine Articles – now you’ve got something specific, targeted at an audience, and timely with some urgency.
Two More Empowering Words
These last two words- and by no means this is an exhaustive list – you may realize you do have emotional words in your posts, emails and conversations already. This podcast is just going to give you more of them to use strategically.
These two words are ones you could use in titles and in copy to provide a solution when you might start talking about your program or service.
Reclaim
Here’s an example of a title: How to Reclaim the Muscle You’ve Been Losing Since 30
That would peak curiosity for one, if women are like, wait a minute! I’ve been losing muscle? And it gives a solution for them too, and gives a solution to someone who you may already have informed of muscle losses that start after 25.
Here’s an example of using that word in the body of an article or email:
You can reclaim that muscle and in doing so boost your metabolism.
Get back
This is another way to say reclaim. Try them both out, or use them both. Because remember you’re going to be writing, and talking, and creating video about your topic for a long time. You’ll want to use different words to appeal to different customers as you do it.
There you are! Some specific examples of how to avoid words you use costing you customers!
It’s Not To Late!
Remember it’s not too late to change titles of YouTube videos. If it’s not getting traction and you know it’s good, go revise it. If you really haven’t had any traffic to your website articles, and you’re sure S.E.O. is something you’ve never thought about?
I’d go in and change it. Then from here on out think about your title, the key words in your title you want to be found for (these are words and phrases your customers say and search for frequently), before you post.
For now, what I want you to do is go back and look at your content and title. Are you repeating the words you want to be found for? For instance, the words you use costing you customers is the phrase I’m using in this post. Did you hear/see what I did there? I just inserted the phrase again in the post.
Words You Use Costing You Customers (and relationships)
Really, this works two ways. The words you use, and the words you don’t use could both be costing you customers. And it’s no surprise. Because if you’ve got a family, whether it’s kids, a spouse or parents and siblings, it’s HOW you say anything that gets the results you want, right?
So, try on everything!
Read your Instagram posts! Do they sound preachy and teachy? Instead of the motivating and inspiring you were shooting for? That’s good homework. Then as you begin to weave in some of these emotion-laded words you’ll begin to engage even more.
Resources mention in this post:
Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist FREE masterclass
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Words to Leave Out of Your Posts, Tweets, and Blogs
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