You "should" use this

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Influencer marketing pros Andreea & Valeriia explain topics like:

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• Finding & recruiting influencers

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• … and more (including real-world launch examples)

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📝 Intro

You’re launching a new service, with its main difference being the flat fee you offer, compared to the pay-per-use model used by your competitors.

You’re putting together your first social media campaign and are deciding between two options for your tagline:

• ACME Solutions - No need to worry about how much you use

• ACME Solutions - You shouldn’t have to worry about how much you use 

Research finds that the second option is likely the most effective at getting attention and engagement.

P.S.: Using assertive words in your social posts (e.g. “Always there for you” vs. “Here for you” also increases engagement - by making you sound more powerful.

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Use copy that highlights a gap between people’s current state and the way they’d like things

Topics: Messaging & Copy
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B 
Research date: November 2023
Universities: University of Adolfo Ibáñez

📈 Recommendation

Highlight the discrepancy between what your customers are currently facing versus how they would be after using your product.

Use words such as should, wish, want, or lacking. For example, “You shouldn’t be lacking a designer when you need one”.

People will be more likely to engage with the message.

🎓 Findings

• People engage more with social media posts that help them imagine the discrepancy between the way things currently are and what they desire them to be (using words like should, could, hope and others to evoke this disconnect).

• As part of a series of 3 online experiments and an analysis of 13,296 Facebook posts by 17 brands, this study found that:

  • Facebook posts that used more words that evoke a discrepancy between current and desired states received on average more engagement (likes, comments, or shares) than posts that didn’t

  • An ad for a financial services company was rated as 20.3% more engaging when it used language that evoked the discrepancy between the audience’s current state and the way they wished they were (“You should enjoy financial freedom” vs. “You shall enjoy financial freedom”)

  • A job search ad that evoked a discrepancy (We help you get the job you want) was rated 16.3% more engaging than a post that didn’t highlight a discrepancy as much (We help you get a good job)

  • An ad for a bank was rated 14.9% more engaging when it used a message more forcefully evoking a discrepancy between the present and future (You should enjoy financial freedom) versus when this discrepancy wasn’t alluded to (You shall enjoy financial freedom)

• The effect doesn’t work on people who feel they have a high degree of personal control over their lives (e.g. aren’t impulsive or feel they, not external factors, are responsible for outcomes in their lives).

🧠 Why it works

• When we hear specific words or phrases (e.g. should, want, wish, desire, or lacking), it highlights in our minds the discrepancy between the way things currently are and the way we’d like them to be.

• These words and others that trigger psychological reactions are effective at driving actions, including engagement with social media posts.

• How much we engage with a message however depends on how personally relevant it feels to us. For example, when people feel they lack personal control, they tend to focus more attention on themselves, making them more interested in messages they find relevant.

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✋Limitations

• The research looked at the impact of engagement on social posts for services (e.g. job searching, banking) - it did not look at physical products or whether this increased engagement impacted buying behavior.

• The experiments looked primarily at desired scenarios that relate to money - good jobs and financial freedom - other services and products might not evoke such a strong feeling of discrepancy, leading to weaker effects.

• The panel data focused only on top brands on Facebook. It is possible that audience responses may be different for smaller brands and on different platforms, like LinkedIn or TikTok.

🏢 Companies using this

• In this research’s analysis of 13,296 Facebook posts, only 13.9% of posts contained words highlighting the discrepancy between the present and future, showing the practice might not be very common, or used intentionally.

• Some examples of brands using this language include:

  • “You’ll want to take advantage of our latest plan” (AT&T)

  • “High hopes for the weekend” (Budweiser)

  • “Consider your wish granted! Here’s everything you need to know about Disney+” (Disney), 

  • “What would you do if you were slightly superhuman?” (Google)

Spedster would be able to increase the effectiveness of their post by evoking what people are missing out on, rephrasing the post to “What could it feel like to unlock the potential of EdTech? Spedster can take you there!”

⚡ Steps to implement

• Use words that highlight the discrepancy between your customers’ current and desired scenarios to boost engagement on social media. This includes words like “could, should, want, wish, desire, and lacking” to highlight the difference.

• Highlighting this gap is most effective when customers feel they have low personal control, like advertising in disorganized environments (e.g. billboards at chaotic traffic intersections), or crowded public spaces with minimal privacy (e.g. branding on public transport).

• You can further maximize the engagement on your social media posts by using words that convey certainty (e.g. always, definitely, never), interspersing emojis with your text, or telling stories that focus on other people.

• Using negations (e.g. “Don’t forget to like and subscribe” instead of “Make sure to like and subscribe”) can also make your copy more powerful, increasing engagement and the chances of people recommending your brand.

🔍 Study type

Online experiments and market observation (analysis of 13,296 Facebook posts from 2012-2019 from 17 brands)

📖 Research

Highlighting discrepancies in brand messaging increases social media engagement. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (November 2023)

🏫 Researchers

• Todd Pezzuti, University of Adolfo Ibáñez

Remember: This is a scientific discovery. In the future, it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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