Use Imagery In Your Copywriting To Bond With Your Audience

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A picture is worth a thousand words.

We’ve all come to know this adage.

As a business owner, it’s your job to paint that picture in your clients’ minds.

You need the right words to paint the right verbal picture.

Let’s explore three simple ways to incorporate this into your copy.

1. Imagery Hack

This is where you get to create a positive frame around your product or service.

It’s an opportunity to get your tribe’s attention with data. But, not in a boring or overbearing way.

Nope.

It’s about setting the scene. You do this by letting facts and figures tell (and enhance) your story.

This can work for an individual product, a launch, or your entire brand.

Let’s say you’re a course creator. You create courses to help people pass a specific examination.

You can say something like this:

“8 out of 10 people that take this course pass the exam on their first try.”

It provides hope to people who need to take this exam. More importantly, it lets them fill in the obvious part of the story — where YOUR COURSE is the reason they become a hero.

A real winner there. Good job.

2. Power Verbs

Passive voice is weak.

It adds very little to your copy.

Plus, it could potentially confuse your audience.

If your audience is confused, you lose them. They have no interest in what you’re offering — and they may never return.

Power verbs — those that are active and descriptive — give life to the written word.

They allow the person to engage with the words on the page — and form their own take on it in their mind.

Often this helps them place themselves in the middle of your story. But, it’s now a story about THEM and your product is their SOLUTION. It helps them achieve the outcome they desire.

Which is what you want.

Let’s say you’re a luxury car company — and you want to evoke a sense of excellence in your clients.

You may say something like this:

“You pull into the parking lot at your reunion. Everyone stares shockingly as you get out of your luxury sports car. Tonight, you’re the star attraction.”

3. Sensory Words

You ever get caught up in a good novel?

The words on the page evoke emotion and even tap into your senses. We can taste the food, smell the crisp winter air, and hear the clamoring on the streets. Blogging Wizard shares how this concept is spelled out in Drew Eric Whitman’s Cashvertising:

• Visual (sight)

• Auditory (sound)

• Kinesthetic (feeling or emotions)

• Olfactory (smell)

• Gustatory (taste)

Charles Dickens was one of the best at this — especially with The Christmas Carol. The way he paints a picture with words is remarkable — any one of his works is a true masterclass. Here’s an example from Stave 1 of The Christmas Carol:

“Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.”

You can see the phantom — Marley’s Ghost.

You can feel the chill all over the body from it staring at you as it did Scrooge.

You understand the emotions — the fear and awe — of being in the ghost’s presence.

You can appreciate the damp smell of Scrooge’s drafty house — and even the musty smell of the ghost’s kerchief.

See how easily Dickens’ words put you right there?

Give your reader the chance to get swept up in your brand’s story.

Make them feel part of it.

Quick Takeaways

1. Imagery Hack — give life to your data, tell a story, and put a positive spin on it.

2. Power Verbs — people want the action and to feel like the hero of the story.

3. Sensory Words — make people feel like they’re there with all the sights, smells, tastes, and emotions.

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