Sensory & Visual Writing [Examples & Inspiring Tips]

How can you bring your texts to life with visual and stimulating language? For example for your stories, blog articles, marketing texts or sales texts? Here you will find tips and examples for sensory writing. Read along…

Do you still write clinical, factual texts without emotion?

In universities – and even in high schools – you were probably taught to write business and factual. A very useful skill, but it does put your creativity far away. It is therefore far too common: lyricists who only incorporate facts into their texts while forgetting to add emotional and sensory words.

In doing so, they missed a great opportunity to paint a tangible picture for their audience about the communication message they are presented with. Visual writing is very meaningful in life – also in business contexts.

Why is sensory writing important?

Participants in a 2010 study responded most positively to the ads expressed in their preferred sense. A 2009 study also confirmed the usefulness of sensory words in communication.

When individuals in the study came across a marketing communication for charity, their choices were based on their senses. It is important to paint a picture of what you are communicating so that it becomes easier for your readers to ‘see’ what you want to convey. So think in images while writing.

Examples from practice

So you can make your speech and your communications more spectacular with sensory words instead of using boring corporate language. In internal consultation you can convince your team by using the following sentence:

“There are so many opportunities in life. We have to take advantage of this opportunity and satisfy our customer. ”

You could add some sensory elements:

“There are so many opportunities in life that you can just taste it, you have to take it.”

Martin Luther King also used all the senses in his speeches.

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

The importance of appealing to all senses in your texts

Information enters the brain through the five senses. Every individual has a preference for one sense over the others. Some people are primarily visual, others more auditory, while other people are primarily kinesthetic (feelings). To be able to speak to a person optimally, you will have to use language that suits his preferred sense.

In marketing communication for a large group of people, such as a product description, it is important to address all sensory systems. This allows you to connect to the maximum number of readers.

Is it enough if you write: ‘ View the  speech- making collection’, with which you have stimulated the auditory sense thanks to the words ‘ view ‘ and ‘make speech ‘? Not yet … because if you had also involved the kinesthetic sense, all your readers would have taken along: ” View the  speech- making collection &  take your chance.”

Examples of sensory stimulating texts

Click on any cosmetic article on Bol.com and read the product description. In the example below from Bol.com you can see that a corresponding word has been used for each sense. “Delicious”: taste. “Fantasy world”: eyesight. “Warm feeling. “Smell”: sense of smell. “High-profile”: auditory.

Delicious perfume …

Dive into a fantasy world …

Lovely warm but fresh scent …

High-profile collections …

But what if I have to address a business audience? More examples!

Visual writing does not have to be limited to business to consumer. Business products and services can also be perfectly supported by texts that appeal to the senses of the readers.

In the example below from Exact Software, the three main senses have been addressed: sight, touch and hearing.

Deliver profitable projects on the assembly line. Grab your new opportunities. Quickly put new quotations on the table.

“On the assembly line” uses imagery. The sense of touch is addressed with “grasp”. “Furious” slightly appeals to the audience. This is a synonym of ‘whiz’ or ‘rant’. “Sharp” can appeal to the sense of touch as well as to eyesight. Think of a sharp thorn and a sharp image on a screen.

Okay, how can you apply this now? 5 tips …

Tip 1 – Use imagery

We know imagery from literature and poems. Here you will find a list of great examples of imagery for inspiration.

Tip 2 – Use predicates

Predicates are simple words that have something sensory in them. These words are excellent to use in selling texts. Here you will find a large list of examples of predicates.

Tip 3 – Use metaphors

Metaphors are ways of conveying factual information in an imaginative, tantalizing way. Here you will find a step-by-step plan for making metaphors.

Tip 4 – Learn from the best

No, a look at the product descriptions of your favorite web shops. Successful web shops are doing something right, and stimulating descriptions will certainly play a role in this.

Tip 5 – Use your own creativity

In addition to the above tips, a lot of ideas will undoubtedly arise from yourself. Trust that and experiment.

Now you can try it yourself

Do the above examples appeal to you? Let your texts rhyme with this theory. For example, check your (marketing) communication texts for the use of sensory words. You can use the examples below to get started.