Why I hate power words
I get this question a lot:
“Kelsey, what are your favorite power words?”
To which I — lovinglyyyyyyyyyy — vomit.
I HATE THE CONCEPT OF POWER WORDS.
Sorry, wait. That felt good … I’m gonna do it again.
I WANT TO LITERALLY TIE POWER WORDS UP AND CUT OFF THEIR LEGS SO THEY BLEED OUT IN AGONY.
Hm, got too dark. Back it up.
WHAT IS A POWER WORD?
People sell lists of these. You’ll often see … Effortless. Life-changing. Transform.
Yeah. Random-ass words.
Because a “power word” has a vague fucking definition:
“A power word is a word that evokes a strong emotional response, grabs attention, and inspires the reader to take action.”
If ONE WORD can actually do ALL OF THAT … why are people paying me so much money to write 5,000 of them?
But … I suppose I can’t be TOO harsh here.
I do often use one English word — and one English word alone — that can do all three of those things.
(And it’s one of my favorites.)
✨ FUCK. ✨
WHY I HATE POWER WORDS
I hate them because the concept distracts from learning how to actually write.
The world (made of losers hawking lists of power words that “will revolutionize your writing!” for $19 and change) is waving a band-aid in front of your face.
It’s just what marketing does. People buy simple solutions. So marketers ask themselves:
“What’s the least helpful thing I can sell with the most egregious promise?”
I’ll tell you: Power Words.
If I go to your website that’s full of disjointed, vague copy with zero personality …
No number of “Life-Changing”s and “Reinvent”s are going to save it.
Think of it like a résumé. Every time you dust it off, you do a quick thesaurus search to change the boring verbs, right?
Used → Leveraged
Helped → Facilitated
Improved → Optimized
But …
Those words don’t make it more impressive that you:
leveraged Google Docs
facilitated one sad team happy hour
optimized the office spotify playlist
POWER WORDS DO NOT EXIST
There is no definitive list.
Just as there’s no definitive list of best Real Housewives cast members (Beverly Hills, obvs, fight me).
For me to sell you a list of power words, I’d need to have proven that “KICKSTART” made a single fucking difference in my website copy.
Can’t.
POWER WORDS ENCOURAGE EMBELLISHMENT (A BAD THING)
One of my favorite power words to hate: Life-changing.
There are very few things in our lives that actually change them.
Having a baby, yes.
Moving to a different country, yes.
Changing your favorite brand of boxed wine, yeeeees.
But … A business course? A writing course? A sales page template?
Those things aren’t going to change your life. They’ll enhance them, sure. They might make things a bit easier, definitely. But they’re not life-changing.
Or effortless.
Or revolutionary.
You are probably not selling something life-changing.
AND THAT IS OKAY.
When you choose random power words (instead of focusing on your overall message), you’re likely to overpromise. To give the impression that your thing is way more than it is. That leads to — at best — a disappointed customer and — at worst — a revengeful customer.
SO WHAT SHOULD YOU USE INSTEAD?
The bad news: Copywriting is a skill. There is no shortcut. And, you can trust me on that. (Because I’m the girl who looks for them whenever I can.)
The good news: You CAN become a good copywriter (or — psst — you can hire one).
The irony of this entire blog post is that good copywriting DOES try to accomplish the very definition of a power word:
evoke a strong emotional response
grab attention
inspire the reader to take action
And you can do all of that with good copywriting.
Good copywriting comes down to:
Clarity in what you do and who you do it for
Authenticity (and a commitment to uncovering it in the long term)
A few writing techniques that give personality
IF YOU’VE BEEN USING POWER WORDS AS A CRUTCH…
… it’s okay!
(I probably should have prefaced this highly judgy blog post with that statement.)
Here are some *new* things to take up that brain space:
IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A BETTER WRITER → my self-paced writing course (much more exciting than it sounds) is thuh place.
IF YOU HAVE A WEBSITE THAT’S JUST *NOT QUITE THERE* → borrow my eyes and my brain for a quick-and-dirty audit.
IF YOU’RE READY FOR A COMPLETE REDO → get me to do it all.
IF YOU WANT TO SOAK UP GOOD WRITING FOR FREE → get my emails.
IF YOU WANT TO RAIL AGAINST POWER WORDS WITH ME → let’s hang out on Instagram.
Now …
Go write awesome copy so you can finally ….
Unleash unstoppable strategies to skyrocket your success and dominate your industry!