Happy New Year everyone.  I hope 2014 is a productive and prosperous year for you. Using positive language to motivate your customers to buy is one of the most important things you can do to increase your sales and retention.  However, often language designed to motivate a customer to buy a product or service is written in the negative. Let’s look at a very common example. “Don’t miss out” The human mind can only move toward something, not away from it.  So when you write “don’t miss out” in your copy you are effectively telling your client’s potential customers to miss out on purchasing their products or services.  I am sure that this is not the outcome you are aiming for as a professional copywriter! I have a two and a half year old and while we were out walking yesterday we came across an enormous puddle.  He did not have his wellington boots on and before I could stop myself I said “don’t jump in the puddle!”. Can you guess what happened? That’s right, he jumped right in with both feet and completely soaked his shoes. I should have said “stay on the dry path”. But given that he is two and a half I may have got the same outcome regardless. When you edit your copy check to see if you are telling the reader what you want them to do not what you don’t want them to do. To frame “don’t miss out” in the positive you could write “get in quick” or “buy now” Another common example is putting “please do not hesitate to call” when closing off a letter, web page or piece of marketing collateral.  When a person reads this the subconscious immediately zeros in on the word “hesitate”.  I am sure when you are asking someone to call your business to find out more about your product or service you do not want them to hesitate before doing so.  So do not write it.  Simply say “call today to find out more”. Finally there is “don’t forget”.  This is the perfect example of using negative language to try and gain a positive outcome.  The receivers subconscious mind only hears the word “forget”.  Whether you are writing sales copy or talking to someone face to face you need to word this as “please remember to”.  This way the subconscious will take in the word “remember” and the person or customer will do exactly what you have asked them to do which is to “remember” remember.