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THIS
MONTH:
“Hypnotic Writing: How to
Use Words to Hypnotize Your Audience"
 download pdf (102
kb)
THE SOFTWARE MARKETER'S TOOLKIT
Volume I, Issue 7, October 2006
Dear Software Marketer,
This month I’d like to share with
you a fascinating concept: hypnotic writing. When I
first stumbled upon this I thought to myself: “what
is this…hocus pocus?” But as it turns out, it makes
a lot of sense…even business sense and
business cents!
Experts
agree that people don’t just buy products or
services, they buy "feelings" and "ideas". The
buying decision may be justified using reasoning,
but it’s made based on emotions. Some marketing
gurus even claim that you can use subconscious
"psychological triggers" to get people to buy
your product.
Clearly, you
want to plant mental images in your readers'
minds that make them react positively to your
proposition.
How do you
do this? A good way is through hypnotic writing*:
“Hypnotic
writing is intentionally using words to guide people
into a focused mental state where they are inclined
to buy your product or service.”
Hypnotic
selling is a form of waking hypnosis. It is a trance
state where you are wide awake but focused on
something you are reading.
Hypnotic
Writing achieves this state by the right use of
words to create mental experiences. In other
words, you get people fully focused on your website,
brochure or sales letter, and your Hypnotic Writing
leads them to take action.
Are you
ready to see some hypnotic selling in action?
Below is a picture of a massage pen.
It’s a
regular pen – it writes – and the tip of it also has
a massaging head on it. Press it against your skin
and you get a massage. Now, how would you write a
paragraph to sell this pen?
Try jotting
down a few ideas yourself, if you like…
Now, here is
how one website describes the massage pen:
Product
Description:
The unique
metal ball-point pen with built in massage.
- Rugged
metal construction
-
Attractive design
-
Patented massage function
-
Replaceable ink refills
-
Batteries included
Well, is
that Hypnotic Writing?
I don’t
think so.
It’s got the
facts, but it doesn’t have any reason, or benefit,
for you to care about the facts. Result: Boredom.
Now, here is
how a copywriter described the exact same massage
pen:
IMAGINE
you had a teensy-weensy masseuse to carry around in
your shirt pocket. Any time you desired, you could
order your mini-masseuse to soothe your tired
muscles and rub away your tensions. Now imagine this
tiny masseuse had a pen sticking out of his head and
ran on batteries.
Well,
you’re not likely to come across a miniature,
pen-headed masseuse -- but here’s the next best
thing. Introducing the world’s first MASSAGING PEN!
Is that
Hypnotic Writing?
You bet!
Would using
Hypnotic sales copy like that improve your results?
Why do you think the “stupid” sales copy was
hypnotic?
Here are
some reasons:
- Use of
the word “Imagine” (proven to improve results).
- It
talks about benefits rather than just features
(people want a hole in the wall, not a drill).
- It uses
a powerful metaphor, your own “mini-masseuse”,
to create an attractive mental image.
- Sets up
expectations (the mini-masseuse) and then shows
how they can be met (the “next best thing” – the
massaging pen).
- Shows
that it’s unique (“you’re not likely to come
across…”)
- It lets
the user be in-control (“anytime you desired,
you could order…”)
-
Describes the benefits in a non-technical way
Hypnotic
Writing and Software
“But is
Hypnotic Writing relevant to technical products such
as software?” you may ask.
Absolutely!
The buyers
of software are still people. They experience
emotions just like everyone else on the planet. And
even technical buyers buy based on emotions. If,
like me, you’ve ever been in a room full of techies
arguing about the relative merits of different
technologies, then I’m sure you’ll agree that
technical people can get highly
emotional!
Two ‘Hot’
Hypnotic Tips
I want to
end this issue by sharing two of my favorite
hypnotic writing “tips”.
Tip #1:
You can
command someone to do something by embedding the
command within a larger sentence. Most people won’t
even realize that they’re being commanded to take a
specific action. It will go right past their
screening mind and into their subconscious. For
example, you can say:
“When you
buy this software you’ll discover why over 100
multinationals are using it today” or
“When you
attend this seminar you’ll find out why so many
participants have chosen...”
Remember
from last month’s issue that you should (almost)
never use the conditional tense (as in “If
you buy”) because it creates doubt in the reader’s
mind.
Tip #2:
Hypnotists
know that words ending in ‘ly can slip right into
people’s minds. For example, “you can clearly see
that hypnotic writing works.”
That's it
for this issue of "The Software Marketer's Toolkit".
If you have any questions, comments or an issue that
you'd like to see covered, please send me an email:
paul@paularinaga.com.
To your
software success,
Paul Arinaga
paul@paularinaga.com
www.paularinaga.com
Tel: +32 2 782 0207
Next month:
“Is ‘Authentic Marketing’ an Oxymoron?”
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