You’re reading an article about words, you’re probably wondering why you’re reading about words. But here’s the thing: words are extremely powerful. And the right word, at the right time, in the right place, surrounded by the right people, can make or break your marketing campaigns.
But what makes a word powerful, well, that’s not easy to tell. A few characteristics, though: repetition, ambiguity, and concreteness.
Let’s take a look at each one, shall we?
Repetition
Repetition is, quite simply, when the same word or phrase is used multiple times in close succession. For instance, let’s take a look at this piece from Bloomberg:
“Despite a recent sell-off, shares of Tesla rose 3 percent after the company said it would soon start taking orders for its new Model 3 car. That follows a tweet from Elon Musk that hinted at big price cuts for the electric carmaker’s new vehicle. Still, investors might be hesitant to get too excited about the stock until they know more about how the company will make money in the future.”
Here, we have a case of repetition at the beginning of the article. Multiple mentions of the word “Tesla” appear in close succession.
“Tesla shares rose 3 percent to $346.20 in extended trading as the electric-car maker announced plans to cut prices on its Model 3.”
In between the lines, we have some more repetition as the author describes Tesla’s previous two stock price surges.
“The company’s shares have shot up more than 40-fold since Aug. 7, 2018 when Tesla first became a public company.”
“Tesla’s stock price has more than doubled in the last year, reaching an all-time high of $740 on Feb. 5.”
Ambiguity
Ambiguity is, simply put, when the meaning of a word or phrase is unclear or depends on more than one meaning. For instance, the word “bankruptcy,” as you may well know, can mean the financial downfall of a company, the filing of a court petition, or the act of declaring bankruptcy.
Ambiguity is always a matter of degree, and you can usually find a way to work around it. In the case of “bankruptcy,” you could choose to use a more specific legal term or you could explain further in the text how an individual bankruptcy filing impacts a company.
But ambiguity doesn’t always have a simple solution. As I’m sure you know, the phrase “fake news” has been used to describe inaccurate or misleading articles in the news media. While it may be that your product or service is completely unrelated to the topic of a news article, the phrase “fake news” has a specific and unambiguous meaning to the average person.
In most cases, you can’t do much about ambiguous words and phrases in copy except for avoid using them and provide a clarifying example. So if you want to keep your copy concise and to the point, you’re probably better off avoiding ambiguity altogether.
Concreteness
Finally, concreteness is the tendency for words to be more effective when used in a narrow, precise context. For instance, let’s take a look at this short but sweet piece from The New York Times:
“The U.S. equity market has risen and fallen over the past year on confidence, clarity and concreteness of the messages delivered by corporate executives and financial experts.”
In this case, we have quite specific and well-chosen words that, when used in isolation, may not be immediately recognizable as links to an event or a situation. But here, within the context of the piece, we know exactly what the words “over the past year” mean. So while we may not know the full story behind the rise and fall of the U.S. equity market, we do know that the words “over the past year” had something to do with it.
As you may have guessed, repetition, ambiguity, and concreteness are all characteristics of powerful words. But it’s not just about the isolated words themselves; it’s the way the words are used that determines their power. For instance, the word “bankruptcy” has an extremely specific legal definition, and it’s only in the context of a court filing that you can understand what it means. But the average person on the street probably has no idea what “bankruptcy” means in the legal sense.
So, if you want to use words effectively, you have to understand how to use them in the right context. Otherwise, you may be relying on your readers to do all the heavy lifting. And it’s not always easy to figure out what the right context is. Repetition, ambiguity, and concreteness are all easy to spot, but exactly where do you draw the line?
To be completely transparent, I’ve found that drawing on my own experience as a copywriter has helped me to understand how words work and how to use them effectively. So, I would absolutely love it if you would check out my blog posts about copywriting and let me know what you think.