Use of the word "hell" in a sales page?

Who is your target reader?

I think a little bit of light cursing can give some flavor to sales pages personally. I've had a lot stronger readership by being "real" about my thoughts on things in my posts, and had several sales yesterday just from a negative review on a product.

Hell is not a curse or swear word. Why would anyone care? Personally I find the use of "heaven" to be more offensive.

I don't know why this is up for debate or how this has any relevance to any target market.

Hell is just 1 word. Its not a curse word. Its not offensive. You can say it anywhere at anytime even during church. Rich people use it. Poor people. Adults, kids, women and men.

The only thing that matters is how the word is used. Because it is misused in place of so many other different words. And this characteristic neutralizes it more than 99% of words in the English language.

If you write something like "by not buying this product you will go to hell", only then does it gain meaning and become distasteful. But if you use it in a story, like "I was going through hell", you can hit on pain points and use it to your advantage.

The point is, it must be used in a specific context before it gains a real, operational meaning. And without context there is nothing to debate. Unlike words like "ass", "shit" or "fvck" which all by themselves can clearly be distasteful.

-RS

I'd use the word "Hell", and I'd put it in red letters, too. Get people's attention with it. If you're going to be squeamish about it, don't use it at all.

My totally biased opinion, do you want your kids going around using that type of language?

Habits are hard to change, and pretty soon, such language becomes invisible to those people who consider it part of THEIR natural language, And it is offensive to others.

If it is a natural part of the language for your target market, then use something that won't be invisible to get their attention.

So IMNSHO, it is inappropriate as there are really no good reasons to use it.

Marvin

Rob,
Unless you are asking because you've been playing with ad copy that uses "hell", i think the word hell is irrelevant here. IMO, the most important thing in ad copy in 2014, whether it is written or video, is to simply be yourself.

I'm in the rock'n roll business as well as IM, I have piercings, crazy colored hair and a very in-your-face, outgoing personality. So when I launched my first WSO, instead of trying to fit into what seemed 'appropriate', based on what everyone else was doing, I let it all hang out.

I did my sales copy and videos completely as myself. And I still do. Sometimes that includes the word hell, or crap, or casual words like dude, etc. If I feel like joking, I joke. If I feel like shocking people, I do that too. Mostly all off the cuff.

Long story short, all of my launches have gone viral, gotten WSO of the day, and made me a ton of money. My OTO's have never converted below 50%, which is pretty much unheard of. Raunchy language and all. Because people like REAL. I don't care what anyone says - most people are fed up with slick sales gurus and lines, and they will buy a product by someone who is real, and says 'hell' over the next guy who tells them what he thinks they want to hear.

So give them real. Whatever your personality is - capitalize on it. If you're weird, then be weird. If you're funny, then be funny.

Of course, you still have to remember that you're in internet marketing/sales, so you do have to adhere to the basic rules within that, but if you can do that, be yourself at the same time, AND deliver great content, success will be inevitable.

I've written a large number of sales letters, but don't EVER recall using the word "hell." I prefer "heck."

The reason?

"Hell" WILL offend a certain percentage of people; "heck" will not. Furthermore, I think "hell" is too forceful in tone for most sales letters.

(For those who contend that it depends on the target market, I would reply that I guess I've never written for a market where using it seemed advantageous.)

John

All comes down to the sort of people you want to deal with. I've met a few marketers who deliberately drop the F & C bombs in their copy & videos, because they don't want to work with the sort of people that are offended by this.

Not saying its right or wrong, but write in a language thats appropriate for your target. If you're selling motorised scooters to people over 70, I'd be pretty tame with my language. If I'm selling fish net stockings to roller derby girls, I wouldn't be concerned about a few blue words.

I'm with RedShifted on this one. Context is everything. I think a reader would need to be particularly sensitive to be offended by the word hell. In modern parlance it simply means 'something bad'. It is pretty much devoid of any negative religious connotations these days.
Much more offensive to me is the gratuitous use of swearwords and poor grammar.