Three More Power Words That Quietly Win You More Clients
May 21, 2026Isn't it strange, or perhaps surprising, how just the slightest change in a few words can make such a difference.
A difference to the impact.
A difference to the conversions.
A difference to the number of clients you and I attract from the very same marketing message.
I have watched this happen for 30+ years now, helping coaches, consultants, speakers, trainers and small business owners share their knowledge and build businesses and lives of choice. And the pattern is always the same. The people who pay attention to the actual words they use get better results than the people who do not.
So today I want to give you three power words you can take away and start using straight away. There are only three of them, and the third one I would call magnetic. I will come to that one at the end, because it is my favourite.
Let's get into it.
What We Will Cover
First, A Word About What Makes Marketing Work
Towards Or Away: The Bit Most People Miss
Power Word Three: These (The Magnetic One)
Putting The Three Words To Work
First, A Word About What Makes Marketing Work
Before I give you the words, let me back up a moment, because the words only do their job when they sit on top of the right foundation.
Think about the marketing you do every week. The email subject lines. The headlines. The first line of a post. Over the years I have found that the strongest marketing tends to do one of three things, and I rank them in this order.
- It leads with a benefit the reader, listener or viewer is genuinely likely to get. This is the strongest of the three.
- It creates curiosity. Something the reader simply has to find out more about.
- It carries news value. Something new, something now, something that has just changed.
I am not putting news value down by placing it third. News is powerful. But if I had to choose, I would lead with a benefit, then reach for curiosity, then use news to support both.
Keep that little order in your mind, because every one of the three words I am about to give you works by pulling one of those three levers.
Power Word One: Secrets
The first word is secrets.
What a powerful little word this is, particularly in the title of a free report you have created.
The Seven Secrets Of, whatever it might be for your world.
It works because it creates curiosity, and it can carry an implied benefit at the same time. If there are secrets, then there is something I do not yet know. And if I do not know it, I might be missing out. That is the quiet fear of missing out doing its work in the background, and it is part of why secrets pulls so well.
Secrets is good because it works. The real skill is knowing when to reach for it and when to reach for something else.
But here is where you have to think a little harder than most people do. And it is the difference between a word that works and a word that works for the audience in front of you.
Towards Or Away: The Bit Most People Miss
Some words pull people towards something they want. Some words push people away from something they fear. Both are useful. They are just useful at different moments.
Secrets tends to be a towards word. It points at something good that you want to move closer to.
Now here is what I have found, tested over many years, and taught to thousands of people in the helping industry.
When you are marketing to an audience that does not yet know you, an away message tends to out pull a towards message.
So instead of talking about the secrets of something, I might talk about the mistakes to avoid. Mistakes is an away word. It taps into something the reader does not want to be true about themselves, and that gives it surprising pull with a cold audience.
One of the most responsive pieces of marketing I ever created was an email offering a free report. The report had a long title, and I have never had a problem with long titles when they earn their length. It named the big mistakes business owners make without realising, what those mistakes were costing them, and how to avoid them.
That away message, on the report title and in the email subject line, worked far better than the polite towards version would have. The people who took the time to test this for themselves found exactly the same thing I did.
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A small habit worth keeping: when you are speaking to people who already know and trust you, a towards message often works beautifully. When you are reaching people for the first time, test an away message. Same offer, different door in. |
One more small thing while we are here. When I write about mistakes, I tend to use what I call spiky numbers. Odd, prickly numbers like seven, rather than smooth, round numbers like eight. Round numbers suit a benefit. Spiky numbers suit a warning. It is a tiny choice, and tiny choices add up.
Power Word Two: Breakthrough
The second word is breakthrough.
I like this one because it does two jobs at once.
It implies news, and it implies something new. And new, on its own, is one of the most powerful words in all of marketing, so you are getting a quiet bonus word here for free.
Breakthrough also creates curiosity. The moment a reader sees the word, a question forms. A breakthrough in what? And if you craft the words around it with a little care, they will also start to wonder about the extra benefits that breakthrough might bring them.
Where to use it
You can put breakthrough almost anywhere your message needs lifting.
- As the title of a programme.
- As the headline of a report.
- As the first word of a report title, sitting in front of your seven secrets, or in front of your handful of mistakes to avoid.
Say it on its own and let it land. Then let the rest of the sentence pay off the promise it just made.
Breakthrough quietly carries three things at once: news, novelty and curiosity. Few words do that much work for so little effort.
Power Word Three: These (The Magnetic One)
Now for the one I promised you. The magnetic one.
It is not really one word. It is a small family of words. This. These. And it matters enormously that you choose this and these, rather than that and those. Let me show you why, with a story that is famous in marketing for good reason.
Many years ago there was a headline that did not work. It read, more or less, do you make mistakes in English.
It fell flat. And I believe it fell flat because it carried a faint criticism of the reader. Do you make mistakes in English. As a reader, you almost lean back, fold your arms and think, no, of course I do not, even though every one of us does.
Then somebody added one small word. Do you make these mistakes in English.
And everything changed.
Suddenly there is curiosity, and there is an implied benefit sitting right behind it. Once I know what these mistakes are, I can stop making them, and I will stop looking silly in the way I might have been looking silly without even knowing it.
Now imagine the weaker versions for a second.
- Do you make those mistakes in English. Those are over there somewhere. They are at arm's length. They are not really my problem.
- Do you make that mistake in English. Again, a little distant, a little detached.
- Do you make these mistakes in English. Oh. These are close. These are right here, on me, now. It is almost uncomfortable how near they feel.
That nearness is the whole point. The word these reaches out and pulls the reader in. That is exactly why it is called a magnetic word in marketing. It draws people towards the message instead of letting them stand back from it.
So with that free report on the big mistakes, I would not write, do you make seven mistakes in business. I would write, do you make any of these seven mistakes in business. Read those two lines back to yourself. Feel the difference. It is the word these doing the heavy lifting, and it was the hardest of the three to explain and the easiest to use.
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Try this today: find one headline, subject line or post opener you already use. Swap that or those for this or these. Send it. Watch what happens. It is the smallest change in this whole article and often the one people notice most. |
Putting The Three Words To Work
So there you have it. Three simple words, and a free bonus word, that you can sprinkle into your marketing.
- A towards word that creates curiosity. Strong with an audience that already knows you.
- News, novelty and curiosity in a single word, with new riding along beside it.
- These, and this. The magnetic words that pull the reader in close instead of holding them at a distance.
And sitting underneath all three, the principle that matters most. With a cold audience, test an away message. With a warm audience, lean towards. Same value, different door.
None of this needs a bigger budget. It needs a sharper eye on the words you are already writing. If you want to go further with the wider craft of persuading people ethically and well, I have pulled together far more of this thinking in one place, and I would like you to have it.
There is a lot more where this came from, including the deeper structures behind why these words work and how to build whole messages around them. You can read more of my thinking on persuasion here, and on writing and selling with words here
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Get My Persuasion Book, Free If you found these three words useful, you are going to want the rest of the toolkit. I have written a whole book on persuasion, and right now you can have a copy at no cost. Download your free copy of The Persuasion Book here: www.peterthomson.com/the-Persuasion-Book |
A Quick Word Before You Go
Take those three words away and actually use them. Do not just nod along and leave them on the page. Pick one message this week and change a single word.
And remember the bigger idea. With a cold audience, an away message tends to work harder. Test it for yourself the way I have, and I think you will find the same thing I found.
In the meantime, I wish you every success in all your adventures in life. Freedom from anything that may have held you back, and freedom to be, do and have, always in that order, whatever you set your heart and mind upon.
Until next time, every success.
Peter Thomson
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