Ever wonder why some websites pump out viral post after viral post?

Or why some brands have products that fly off the shelves while their competition falls flat?

Or why you couldn’t resist clicking on a link you knew was a sleazy sales page?

The answer is simple.

These brands have smart marketers. Marketers who use power words.

​These power words trigger an emotional response and pack some serious punch, getting us to click on ads, share blog posts and buy from sales pages.

Power words crank up your marketing effectiveness by:

Evoking emotion: People connect to emotion, not words. Studies show that content that elicits emotion (anxiety, amusement) is more likely to be shared than those that aren’t “emotionally charged.” Power words are key to evoking these “high arousal” emotions. Examples include words like “Instantly”, “Mistakes”, and “Hilarious”.[*]

Triggering curiosity: Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it makes the marketer’s life easy. Research found curiosity to be one of the most powerful triggers for virality. Since we have a hard time resisting our curiosity, strategic use of power words makes it almost impossible for us not to click, share, and read. Power words that trigger curiosity include words such as “Reveals”, “Proves”, and “Ridiculous”.[*]

​Take this BuzzFeed headline:

The power words “Cringeworthy” and “Poor” both elicit emotion, and their combination triggers curiosity (“Why are these notes so cringeworthy?”).

If this headline just said “14 Funny Sibling Stories”, you probably wouldn’t be that interested. But 14 cringeworthy horror stories? What entertaining surprises this article must contain!

The best thing about power words is that there are hundreds to choose from.

​Check out the list below.

Guilt

Obsessed

Decadent

Guilt-free

Ravenous

Opulent

Indulgent

Lazy

​Lavish