Email Persuasion – 7 Reasons Why You Need To Put Your Email Messages On A Slimming Diet

October 16, 2008 by 8 Comments

In my previous post I explored why many
of the top Internet Marketing Gurus
craft their emails in a certain style

Skinny People Make More Money Online, Fat People  Get Ignored !!

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.

.

Following on from that I wrote a quick 7 point list
showing the reasons why writing narrow email messages
will increase you response rate and make your communication
more effective

1)  Narrow Messages Are Easier To Read

A narrow  message  allows you to scan through it  quickly.  Your message can be absorbed in a single glance. The foveal vision in our eyes can only see detail in a small  area of the screen; Everything on the periphery is ignored. Peripheral vision is designed to detect movement.  Always be  respectful of human physiology.

2) We Are  Conditioned  To  Read Newspaper Columns And Magazine Print

Our  brains are already trained to read things in this format so make your messages feel  familiar, Observe the style of your favourite print newspaper or magazine and replicate it in your messages

3) People Have A Limited amount Of Time And  Attention

By making your message brief and to the point you are respecting peoples time. If you don’t grab peoples attention in the first 3 seconds you will lose them so summarize your whole email in the first sentence so busy people can decide if they want to read further

4) Mobile Devices Will Be The New Way People Consume Information On The Internet

Ipod,  Iphone, Nokia N95,  Amazon Kindle;  A whole new generation of technology is awaiting  adoption by the mainstream, look ahead and make sure you can communicate across the platforms of choice

5) As People Get  Older Their Eyesight Can Degenerate

The number of older people using the internet is increasing.  Don’t alienate a huge potential audience. Use large sans serif fonts  and  choose 14 or 16 point text. For someone with poor eyesight a well formatted email made up of short sentences is much easier to read than a huge block of text

6) You Can Take Total Control Of Your Formatting.

Using hard carriage returns ensures your message will be read exactly  as you intended it to be on any browser and in any device.  If you are using embedded hypnotic commands and emotional triggers this can be crucial to their effect and overall impact

7) You Want People To Take Action

You want people to read your  message  and know  what you want them to do next. Top marketers usually  convey the essence of their entire message in the opening sentence followed by an immediate call to action. they include several links at different places and  they use services like tinyurl.com to make their links shorter and more attractive.

Share With Your Friends
If you enjoyed this post please share it with your friends, you might also consider subscribing to my full RSS feed so you never miss a future post

Follow Me
Be sure to check out the rest of my blog
http://www.iandavidchapman.com
And follow me on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/iandavidchapman

This post was inspired by a Marketing Online Live Podcast  from Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian. I Love Ed Dale in case you were wondering and hope he has a good sense of humour


Filed Under: copywriting, email persuasion, social media marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Skinny People Make More Money Online, Fat People Get Ignored??

October 15, 2008 by 36 Comments

This article explores why
The width of  your
Email messages is so important
And will explain why
Changes in technology are
Forcing marketers to  change
The way they communicate,

The Gurus Style
Have you ever noticed that the
Top  Internet Marketing
Gurus  format their emails
In a  similar way?

Do you understand
Their  Reasons for  doing this
Or do you just think they
Like writing in short sentences?

Have you ever wondered?

Why they are making their messages
Briefer and more direct?

Why Skinny is Better Than Wide?

As you start to  change
the way you communicate
your  messages will

Have More IMPACT,
Get opened more often
And your readers will listen
To what you have to say

Some experts like Alex Mandosian
Claim that 25-40 characters is the ideal
Width and that you need to end each
Line with a hard carriage return. If
Someone sends him a message that isn’t
Formatted in the style that he expects
It just goes straight in the trash

Others like Ed Dale don’t bother so much and  go for up to 70 Characters. Anyone who has ever watched any of Ed’s videos will know that he likes to ramble on a bit, So I guess the people who follow him have got used to his style of presentation and enjoy his  emails.

Just How wide is 25 Characters?

Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Ttttttttttttttttttttttttt
Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

And How Wide is 40 Characters?

Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

As you can see it varies so choose
A width that is equivalent to
25-40 repetitions of the letter “a”

What Happens If  You Are Too Wide?
If you choose to write long sentences with really  wide paragraphs and not include any formatting  and just continue  without any regard for the fact that people will find it more difficult to read what you’ve written and if you are one of the few people who actually read a paragraph that is so long and doesn’t even pause for any breath  by the time you get to end you have forgotten what the author was talking about because you are concentrating so hard to read all the words that they’ve written that you can’t actually understand anything and by the time you get to this far  in the paragraph you are already so bored because the author hasn’t been able to get to the point and express what they meant to say  and ended up  repeating themselves . If they don’t  get to the point and express what they meant to say  and end up  repeating themselves you might even decide to press the back button on your browser and go and give your attention to something that is a little easier and doesn’t make you work so hard and if you have managed to stay this long then you must either be a die hard fan or just one of those people who doesn’t like to miss any details,  I would guess that maybe only 20% of my readers  actually made it this far down the paragraph and the rest skipped to the next bit

Did You Skip That Last Paragraph?
If you did then you are like most normal people,
When you see a big mass of text you tend to ignore it
And skip on to the next bit, you probably read the
first two sentences and maybe the last

Write In A Way That Is Easy To Digest
Its easy to lose interest  and
decide that its time to leave
If you want to engage people you have to
Write in away that makes it easy  to digest
Write in  small chunks and
Make sure  that it’s well formatted
and includes bolded subheadings

Change Your Habits Now
Where will the Internet be in 5 years time?
Things are changing so rapidly that you
Need to start adopting the right habits
Now and not sometime in the future

Technology Is Leading The Way

There is a whole new generation who will consume
The internet via  handheld devices like the iphone,
Ipod, nokia N95, Amazon Kindle etc.

You only have to notice the increased use
Of micro blogging platforms and video sites
to understand the way thing are moving

Will  your message and content translate to this
New medium or will you just become part of
The background noise?

Size Limitations
These devices tend to have small, narrow screens
so you don’t want to force people to scroll
across to be able to read your message.

The Essence Of Your Message
If you have a call to action and include a link,
place it where it can be easily seen  straight after
The opening sentences. You can grab more
people this way. Those who want to read more
can scroll down.  Those who don’t can still get the
Essence of your message in a quick glance.

My next blog post in this series will be released very soon

Are You Overweight?  –  7 Reasons Why You Need To Put Your Email Messages On A Slimming Diet

Share With Your Friends
If you enjoyed this post please share it with your friends, you might also consider subscribing to my full RSS feed so you never miss a future post

Follow Me
Be sure to check out the rest of my blog
http://www.iandavidchapman.com
And follow me on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/iandavidchapman

This post was inspired by a Marketing Online Live Podcast  from Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian


Filed Under: copywriting, email persuasion, Popular Posts, social media marketing Tagged With: , ,

Facebook Notes – 10 Steps To Writing A Winning Post

August 19, 2008 by 42 Comments

Facebook Notes – A New Strategy To Get Viral Visibility

Many of you have probably observed the increase in the number of Facebook Notes that are floating around these days. This has happened since the introduction of the new look Facebook. More people are becoming aware of the potential to gain massive viral exposure by writing notes and participating in discussions . They have also been responsible for bringing many people much closer together and creating a real sense of community


Build Solid Relationships

These are much more than just social events, or blog posts to get traffic or publicity, most people who are taking part are actively using Facebook for business and by exposing themselves with such honesty and transparency they are building real connections and solid relationships with all the other participants.

What is most interesting is the depth that some of the discussions are reaching and when posed with a stimulating question or issue to address the original post acts as a springboard to dive into and explore each topic.


Increase The Value Of Each Note

The value of the Note increases as more people add their own personal insights.The way Facebook have structured the system it forces the most popular notes to the top of your newsfeed so there is a huge potential to get massive exposure for yourself or your business if you understand some of the basic principles behind writing a good note and spotting the ones that are going to become popular.


1 – Choose A Controversial Topic And Get Personal

Sometimes this is the hardest thing to get right,  follow other notes and see if there is a theme emerging that you can write about. If you are stuck for ideas pick something that is happening in the world and reflect on its impact or the lessons that can be learned or find a quote or article from your favourite author and add your own personal understanding. Getting personal is the key to successful Facebook notes. All the best ones I have read have revealed something interesting about the author, this creates a real bonding and sense of intimacy.


2 – Write A Short Punchy Article That Ends With A Question

This will stimulate people to respond. If your note becomes too long and convoluted you will lose your readers. Consider breaking a long note into a series of shorter ones. Most people don’t have the time to read a 3000 word essay. The Blog Squad talk about the 4 E’s – Engage, Entertain, Educate and Enrich. Make sure your note ticks these 4 boxes.


3 – Keep To The Point, Make It Short And Sweet

Don’t ramble and discuss 2 or 3 different subjects in one note, this will confuse people. Keep it short and sweet. Respect your readers time, edit your note down and only include what is absolutely essential to get your point across. You can always add more later in the comments section


4 – Make Your Note Attractive

this means have good formatting, use subheads and break your note into manageable chunks. Pictures make the note more visually appealing and can give your note a stickiness factor.


5 – Tag People Who Want To Participate

Its no use tagging all your friends who are too shy to write something or are too busy to even read the note. Tag the people who you know like to participate and are regular commentators. Some people also like to tag those people who have big networks or who are centres of influence. This works well as long as what you write is appropriate and as long as you feel you have permission to do this . Not everyone wants you to use their wall and their newsfeed to spread your message so be respectful and consider asking permission first.


6 – Release Your Note At The Optimum Time

I have noticed that for my network, Facebook activity drops over the weekend, and is highest during the weekdays.  Its up to you to know your own network and when the peaks of activity are as it may vary considerably. Get the timing wrong and your note will get pushed down the newsfeed and no one will notice it.


7 – Comment On Your Own Note and Participate

Always get into the habit of commenting on your own notes and refer back to what other people have written. Become a regular participant in other peoples notes. Build a reputation as someone who adds value and always has something interesting to say, if you do this then other people will start to tag you in their notes. Which will increase your viral visibility.


8 – Press The Share Button

Sharing is a way to vote up the best quality discussions and expose them to the widest possible audience. The note will be posted to your profile page and will also be pushed out into all your friends newsfeeds. Pressing the share button because you feel obliged to reciprocate isn’t a good strategy. You will not build a reputation as someone to follow and pay attention to if you spread poor quality articles and information. Press it because it has added some value and you think your friends will appreciate it.


9 – Use Feedback and Build on Success

You know when you have written a good note by how many comments you receive and how many people press the share button. This is important feedback and it’s a valuable exercise to look at your notes and work out what elements made one note more popular than another. This way you can build on your success and continually strive to improve. My article “If Your Headline Sucks No One Will Listen“ was a good example of this process. If you write a note and no one comments go over this checklist and see what areas you could improve upon.


10 – End With A Call To Action

Invite your readers to your Blog or Website, To follow you on Twitter or to check out your latest book. Ask them in a casual conversational manner in the same style as the rest of your note. Suddenly switching to a hard sell might create a disconnect and you might come across as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is also the case if you have too many outbound links to your own products and services. By all means include them but keep them to a minimum and be subtle about how you present them. If you comment on a note and just promote yourself without really taking part in the discussion you will might get viral visibility but it will be for the wrong reasons.


I  go into much more depth about Facebook notes in my book, The Facebook Strategies Guide available from http://www.thefacebookguide.com


If you have enjoyed this article you  might want to consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. and join my Facebook Fan Page – http://www.budurl.com/idcfbp


You can also find me on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/iandavidchapman

Filed Under: copywriting, email persuasion, facebook, Popular Posts, Viral Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

If Your Headline Sucks No One Will Listen

August 6, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Strong Headlines are Vitally Important

In the world of social media your headline is the most vitally important aspect of your efforts to get noticed and if it sucks you can be sure that no one is going to pay much attention to your message no matter how good your content is or the quality of your product

This is something that so many people seem to forget or don’t even realise the full importance and is what separates the successful from the failures.

Its Responsible for 80% Of Your Success

Direct response marketers have already shown that the headline is responsible for 80% of the success of any advert, article or email response. It often becomes the determining factor in the title of a book or the name of your website and is something you need to get right. Its not just your words that are important its your graphics and visual impact above the fold that will decide if people stay to read what you have written or will bounce out after only a brief glance

Stickiness Factor

Marketers have coined a term that they call the stickiness factor, I got a great insight about this while listening to a Rick Butts recent interview with Coach Deb, the undisputed Queen of Twitter about the importance of names. Rick was commenting about the great name Deb had chosen for her blog – “Tribal Seduction” and it had impressed him so much he had signed up to her mailing list while at the same time recommending to others to unsubscribe from all the marketing lists that clutter up their inboxes and distract us from the work we really need to be doing.

A Group Orgy?

“Tribal Seduction” is such a good name because it is short and direct and has a number of levels of meaning. Its also poetic in a certain way by juxtaposing two words that would not normally go together and using a sexual adjective it conveys the image at the unconscious level of a group orgy.

Sex Sells

As all marketers know sex sells. The website had another shocking image of a naked woman sitting on a chair facing us but with her head turned 180 around. It’s a very sexy image and doubles up the sexual implications that the title also suggest. Again its another multileveled image that excites and entices while at the same time has a certain artistic tasteful quality. It keeps enough covered up so as not to offend. And jars you into paying attention in a different way because the woman’s head is not facing the direction you would expect it to. Again a symbol of how they hope to make you look at social media in a unique way and reveal new perspectives within this world.

Advertising Magic

The combination of all these factors gives a name that stickiness factor, and is why large companies pay advertising agencies millions to perform the same magic to rebrand and repackage their products and services so that their names stick in a customers mind and instantly returns whenever they make a purchasing decision.

A Personal Lesson

Last week I wrote a blog series about the changes Facebook have made to their design and the implications it would have to people using facebook for business purposes. I was struggling with the title for the posts and following a strange twist of my intuition I settled on a title that I knew was less than satisfactory. It was boring and had none of the usual excitement or interest that I usually chose for my blog posts. The content of the article was great, I was happy with the results and what had started as a quick outpouring of my anger towards the new facebook design had turned into a lengthy and detailed analysis that I had to split into four parts

Bad Strategy

I finished the blog post on a Friday and instead of waiting to optimise the time of publication I released them all at same time heading into a weekend. Again my intuition said this was the right thing to do even though my conscious mind was complaining that it was a bad move strategically and I was wasting all the work and effort I had put into those posts.

A Poor Result

As I expected no one took much notice and I only had about 80 visitors to my blog and received only 2 comments. On Monday I tagged all my friends on the note that had been imported and started to get some response.

Beaten By Brian?

Meanwhile my close friend Brian Campbell had made some almost identical posts and had given his much more powerful titles. The Funny thing is that the titles were very similar to ones that I had originally considered using.

“New Facebook Layout – beginning of the end?”

“New Facebook Changes – A Wake Up Call for marketers”

Are much more sticky than my titles

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 1 – Strengths

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 2- Weaknesses

My article series is full of great content but it never had the impact that I had originally intended and the payoff was unimpressive considering the time I spent writing them. This is all the result of choosing a poor headline

Don’t Cripple Yourself

I am really happy now to realise that there was a purpose behind choosing weaker names because I now get the opportunity to use this as a teaching example to others. What often happens in marketing is that someone might have a great product but have no clue how to present it to the world. Its very difficult to be objective about your own work and I think a lot of people get stuck or don’t realise their full potential because they have crippled themselves from the start with a weak name.

Filed Under: copywriting, social media marketing

Mastering Manipulative Magic – Email Persuasion at it’s best

June 25, 2008 by Leave a Comment

A Friendly Invitation

I got a letter a few days ago from Martin Allsop telling me about his new ezine that was coming out soon, at first glance it was just another email, and as I was already signed up for his ezine anyway I just skimmed over it. What struck me instantly though was the language patterns that he had used, take a look and see what you think.

A word of warning, don’t click on his link until you have read the entire blog post or you will miss some valuable information that I reveal later on. You will be amazed when you discover what is hidden within it

Martin Allsop sent a message to the members of Social networking makes money for you. Too good to miss!.

——————–
Subject: “Unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.”

Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?

You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now.

As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities.

In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.
And there’s lots of other interesting stuff!

If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free.

You will then be one of the first to get access to the second edition – and you’ll also be able to read the first edition.

You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits.

Warm regards

Martin
——————–

Hidden Hypnotic Commands

If you read the letter above it just looks like an ordinary email you might not notice anything untoward or devious about it. What you may not realise is that it’s filled with hypnotic commands to get you make a certain response.

Brain Wipe

Before you read the rest of the article, see if you can even remember what the email talked about in the first 4 sentences. My guess is that it is totally blanked from your memory. Even if you go back and re-read it you still probably can’t remember or explain it.

NLP gives a Secret Competive Edge

NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming originated as an alternative approach to psychotherapy that was co-created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s. It was based on the subjective study of language, communication and personal change. It later evolved and was utilised in Business, particularly sales and advertising. If you are in any of Martin Allsop’s groups you will know that he is a Personal development and NLP Trainer, management consultant and entrepreneur.It is clear to me from looking at this email that he is using his skills to best advantage and most people don’t even realise it.

Grown Huge

Maybe this is one of the reasons why Martin has been able to amass such a huge following and create such a large list in such a short period of time and why he has high paying coaching clients seeking him out to help them repeat the same success in their own business. He grew a Facebook network of 5000 friends in under 2 months and now has a total Facebook network of over 9,000.

Analysis

In this article I would like to explain just why these NLP techniques work by analysing his short email.

Which I think is a masterful example of persuasive writing

When you break it down you can easily learn the structure and elements that comprise this letter

The first line reads

“Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?”

This is asking you to look into your own memory and try to remember a time when you were excited about the future and the options that are open to you. He uses ambiguous language patterns so you can fill in the blanks. He doesn’t specify when or where or with whom that is all left up to you. This type of ambiguous open structure makes it universally applicable to everyone.

The second sentence is getting you to connect that memory to an actual feeling. For many people who think in pictures, going to the feeling level amplifies the experience and also brings it into to the present moment. You can’t remember how it felt unless you reproduce the same internal experience again as you are reading the letter

“You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now.”

Feel Excitement Now

This second paragraph is telling you that you need to feel the excitement now. This is also confirming that you might not realise that you are getting excited and also acts as a way to pace and get rapport. These types of sentences talk straight to the unconscious mind. They have no real meaning thinking about something undreamed of that you have to wait to discover doesn’t make sense and so the conscious mind ignores it and the other embedded command is delivered. “Such a time is upon us now”, which links back to the first 2 sentences which were all about a feeling in the past and that feeling is being brought into the present moment reinforcing the effects.

So now you have a feeling of excitement and curiosity and you are “waiting to discover“ something new.

“As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities.”

“In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.”

Anticipation

Now Martin introduces the amazing opportunities that are available in the world of WEB 2.0 and links this to his new ezine, where he promises to unlock the secrets. You are being forced to wait again, he won’t tell you right now. What he has done is created a very real sense of desire. Secrets are enticing , you want to know what the secret formula to success is and that secret is only exposed in his Ezine

So now you have even more excitement and curiosity and anticipation.

Direct Commands

Martin now offers a way to fulfil your need to know, just go and sign up

“If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free.”

He uses “if you” implying that you have a choice whether to go or not and then gives the link and below the first word is “now“. When you take away the fluff this is a direct command and reads

“go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ now”



It looks so sweet and innocent but is an extremely powerful way to get someone to click on a link and you don’t even feel that you have been directly commanded. It all happens at the unconscious level. Which is the real power of NLP.

“You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits.”

Martin finishes off with another direct command embedded in the sentence, can you spot it?

“go to sign up now”

You miss it consciously because of the URL and because it is placed carefully between two lines and within a larger sentence that has another meaning. Be intelligent and enjoy all the benefits.

The Real Meaning

So below the surface you are being told directly to

Feel excited anticipation about discovering the web2.0 secret formula that Martin will reveal in his ezine, go to http://www.martinallsop.com/now and sign up now.

Now you can click the link

Ok, now you can go and click the link, if you haven’t done so already. I would suspect that at least half of you will have clicked the link before you even reached this point, I will report back in a few days when I analyse my blog stats and see if this post has an unusual number of click outs.

Warning

Please be aware that this is only one of many styles of hypnotic language patterns, if you want to find out more I would first suggest learning a bit about NLP from books before you try and repeat or copy what Martin has done. This is very powerful stuff and you really need to know exactly what you are doing or the effects that you achieve might not be what you expected. If you do it wrong then people will notice and might steer clear of what you have to offer or you might be unintentionally telling people the opposite of what you intended.

Manipulation and Ethics

It also brings up the issue of manipulation. Some people think that using NLP in this way is unethical or manipulative. They maybe tend to forget that almost all communication is manipulative in some way or another. It’s just that with NLP the effects are aimed at the unconscious mind. One of my favourite trainers Chris Howard addresses these issues and says that you must always create Win Win situations and he refuses to certify people unless they are clearly operating from an ethical standpoint. As with any powerful tool there is a danger that it can be abused. It is up to you to make the right choices and your reputation and long term success can depend on this.



Modeling Others

I want to make it very clear that I believe Martin to be a very ethical person and a respected pillar of the Facebook business community. You only have to check out the testimonials on his webpage to see this. The purpose of this article was to bring to light just how powerful NLP patterns can be. I have been impressed by his success on Facebook and it has always been my philosophy to examine and model what others are doing well so that I can emulate this and integrate it into my own business and personal life. I carefully examine what people do and also what they don’t do as this can be just as revealing.

Communication to Increase Response

Communication from a marketing or sales perspective is always about persuading someone to take action. You need to know the secrets that the professionals adopt in order to increase the impact and effectiveness of your own efforts. By using NLP techniques you can dramatically increase your response rate and can create a rapport and connection to you customers that you might not have generated otherwise.

Filed Under: copywriting, email persuasion, facebook, nlp, social media marketing

Mastering Manipulative Magic – Email Persuasion at it’s best

June 25, 2008 by 1 Comment

A Friendly Invitation

I got a letter a few days ago from Martin Allsop telling me about his new ezine that was coming out soon, at first glance it was just another email, and as I was already signed up for his ezine anyway I just skimmed over it. What struck me instantly though was the language patterns that he had used, take a look and see what you think.

A word of warning, don’t click on his link until you have read the entire blog post or you will miss some valuable information that I reveal later on. You will be amazed when you discover what is hidden within it

Martin Allsop sent a message to the members of Social networking makes money for you. Too good to miss!.

——————–
Subject: “Unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.”

Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?

You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now.

As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities.

In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.
And there’s lots of other interesting stuff!

If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free.

You will then be one of the first to get access to the second edition – and you’ll also be able to read the first edition.

You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits.

Warm regards

Martin
——————–

Hidden Hypnotic Commands

If you read the letter above it just looks like an ordinary email you might not notice anything untoward or devious about it. What you may not realise is that it’s filled with hypnotic commands to get you make a certain response.

Brain Wipe

Before you read the rest of the article, see if you can even remember what the email talked about in the first 4 sentences. My guess is that it is totally blanked from your memory. Even if you go back and re-read it you still probably can’t remember or explain it.

NLP gives a Secret Competive Edge

NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming originated as an alternative approach to psychotherapy that was co-created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s. It was based on the subjective study of language, communication and personal change. It later evolved and was utilised in Business, particularly sales and advertising. If you are in any of Martin Allsop’s groups you will know that he is a Personal development and NLP Trainer, management consultant and entrepreneur.It is clear to me from looking at this email that he is using his skills to best advantage and most people don’t even realise it.

Grown Huge

Maybe this is one of the reasons why Martin has been able to amass such a huge following and create such a large list in such a short period of time and why he has high paying coaching clients seeking him out to help them repeat the same success in their own business. He grew a Facebook network of 5000 friends in under 2 months and now has a total Facebook network of over 9,000.

Analysis

In this article I would like to explain just why these NLP techniques work by analysing his short email.

Which I think is a masterful example of persuasive writing

When you break it down you can easily learn the structure and elements that comprise this letter

The first line reads

“Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?”

This is asking you to look into your own memory and try to remember a time when you were excited about the future and the options that are open to you. He uses ambiguous language patterns so you can fill in the blanks. He doesn’t specify when or where or with whom that is all left up to you. This type of ambiguous open structure makes it universally applicable to everyone.

The second sentence is getting you to connect that memory to an actual feeling. For many people who think in pictures, going to the feeling level amplifies the experience and also brings it into to the present moment. You can’t remember how it felt unless you reproduce the same internal experience again as you are reading the letter

“You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now.”

Feel Excitement Now

This second paragraph is telling you that you need to feel the excitement now. This is also confirming that you might not realise that you are getting excited and also acts as a way to pace and get rapport. These types of sentences talk straight to the unconscious mind. They have no real meaning thinking about something undreamed of that you have to wait to discover doesn’t make sense and so the conscious mind ignores it and the other embedded command is delivered. “Such a time is upon us now”, which links back to the first 2 sentences which were all about a feeling in the past and that feeling is being brought into the present moment reinforcing the effects.

So now you have a feeling of excitement and curiosity and you are “waiting to discover“ something new.

“As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities.”

“In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.”

Anticipation

Now Martin introduces the amazing opportunities that are available in the world of WEB 2.0 and links this to his new ezine, where he promises to unlock the secrets. You are being forced to wait again, he won’t tell you right now. What he has done is created a very real sense of desire. Secrets are enticing , you want to know what the secret formula to success is and that secret is only exposed in his Ezine

So now you have even more excitement and curiosity and anticipation.

Direct Commands

Martin now offers a way to fulfil your need to know, just go and sign up

“If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free.”

He uses “if you” implying that you have a choice whether to go or not and then gives the link and below the first word is “now“. When you take away the fluff this is a direct command and reads

“go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ now”



It looks so sweet and innocent but is an extremely powerful way to get someone to click on a link and you don’t even feel that you have been directly commanded. It all happens at the unconscious level. Which is the real power of NLP.

“You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits.”

Martin finishes off with another direct command embedded in the sentence, can you spot it?

“go to sign up now”

You miss it consciously because of the URL and because it is placed carefully between two lines and within a larger sentence that has another meaning. Be intelligent and enjoy all the benefits.

The Real Meaning

So below the surface you are being told directly to

Feel excited anticipation about discovering the web2.0 secret formula that Martin will reveal in his ezine, go to http://www.martinallsop.com/now and sign up now.

Now you can click the link

Ok, now you can go and click the link, if you haven’t done so already. I would suspect that at least half of you will have clicked the link before you even reached this point, I will report back in a few days when I analyse my blog stats and see if this post has an unusual number of click outs.

Warning

Please be aware that this is only one of many styles of hypnotic language patterns, if you want to find out more I would first suggest learning a bit about NLP from books before you try and repeat or copy what Martin has done. This is very powerful stuff and you really need to know exactly what you are doing or the effects that you achieve might not be what you expected. If you do it wrong then people will notice and might steer clear of what you have to offer or you might be unintentionally telling people the opposite of what you intended.

Manipulation and Ethics

It also brings up the issue of manipulation. Some people think that using NLP in this way is unethical or manipulative. They maybe tend to forget that almost all communication is manipulative in some way or another. It’s just that with NLP the effects are aimed at the unconscious mind. One of my favourite trainers Chris Howard addresses these issues and says that you must always create Win Win situations and he refuses to certify people unless they are clearly operating from an ethical standpoint. As with any powerful tool there is a danger that it can be abused. It is up to you to make the right choices and your reputation and long term success can depend on this.



Modeling Others

I want to make it very clear that I believe Martin to be a very ethical person and a respected pillar of the Facebook business community. You only have to check out the testimonials on his webpage to see this. The purpose of this article was to bring to light just how powerful NLP patterns can be. I have been impressed by his success on Facebook and it has always been my philosophy to examine and model what others are doing well so that I can emulate this and integrate it into my own business and personal life. I carefully examine what people do and also what they don’t do as this can be just as revealing.

Communication to Increase Response

Communication from a marketing or sales perspective is always about persuading someone to take action. You need to know the secrets that the professionals adopt in order to increase the impact and effectiveness of your own efforts. By using NLP techniques you can dramatically increase your response rate and can create a rapport and connection to you customers that you might not have generated otherwise.

Filed Under: copywriting, facebook, social media marketing

Mastering Manipulative Magic – Email Persuasion at it’s best

June 25, 2008 by 4 Comments

A Friendly Invitation

I got a letter a few days ago from Martin Allsop telling me about his new ezine that was coming out soon, at first glance it was just another email, and as I was already signed up for his ezine anyway I just skimmed over it. What struck me instantly though was the language patterns that he had used, take a look and see what you think.

A word of warning, don’t click on his link until you have read the entire blog post or you will miss some valuable information that I reveal later on. You will be amazed when you discover what is hidden within it

Martin Allsop sent a message to the members of Social networking makes money for you. Too good to miss!.

——————–
Subject: “Unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.”

Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?

You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now.

As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities.

In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.
And there’s lots of other interesting stuff!

If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free.

You will then be one of the first to get access to the second edition – and you’ll also be able to read the first edition.

You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits.

Warm regards

Martin
——————–

Hidden Hypnotic Commands

If you read the letter above it just looks like an ordinary email you might not notice anything untoward or devious about it. What you may not realise is that it’s filled with hypnotic commands to get you make a certain response.

Brain Wipe

Before you read the rest of the article, see if you can even remember what the email talked about in the first 4 sentences. My guess is that it is totally blanked from your memory. Even if you go back and re-read it you still probably can’t remember or explain it.

NLP gives a Secret Competive Edge

NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming originated as an alternative approach to psychotherapy that was co-created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s. It was based on the subjective study of language, communication and personal change. It later evolved and was utilised in Business, particularly sales and advertising. If you are in any of Martin Allsop’s groups you will know that he is a Personal development and NLP Trainer, management consultant and entrepreneur.It is clear to me from looking at this email that he is using his skills to best advantage and most people don’t even realise it.

Grown Huge

Maybe this is one of the reasons why Martin has been able to amass such a huge following and create such a large list in such a short period of time and why he has high paying coaching clients seeking him out to help them repeat the same success in their own business. He grew a Facebook network of 5000 friends in under 2 months and now has a total Facebook network of over 9,000.

Analysis

In this article I would like to explain just why these NLP techniques work by analysing his short email.

Which I think is a masterful example of persuasive writing

When you break it down you can easily learn the structure and elements that comprise this letter

The first line reads

“Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?”

This is asking you to look into your own memory and try to remember a time when you were excited about the future and the options that are open to you. He uses ambiguous language patterns so you can fill in the blanks. He doesn’t specify when or where or with whom that is all left up to you. This type of ambiguous open structure makes it universally applicable to everyone.

The second sentence is getting you to connect that memory to an actual feeling. For many people who think in pictures, going to the feeling level amplifies the experience and also brings it into to the present moment. You can’t remember how it felt unless you reproduce the same internal experience again as you are reading the letter

“You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now.”

Feel Excitement Now

This second paragraph is telling you that you need to feel the excitement now. This is also confirming that you might not realise that you are getting excited and also acts as a way to pace and get rapport. These types of sentences talk straight to the unconscious mind. They have no real meaning thinking about something undreamed of that you have to wait to discover doesn’t make sense and so the conscious mind ignores it and the other embedded command is delivered. “Such a time is upon us now”, which links back to the first 2 sentences which were all about a feeling in the past and that feeling is being brought into the present moment reinforcing the effects.

So now you have a feeling of excitement and curiosity and you are “waiting to discover“ something new.

“As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities.”

“In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.”

Anticipation

Now Martin introduces the amazing opportunities that are available in the world of WEB 2.0 and links this to his new ezine, where he promises to unlock the secrets. You are being forced to wait again, he won’t tell you right now. What he has done is created a very real sense of desire. Secrets are enticing , you want to know what the secret formula to success is and that secret is only exposed in his Ezine

So now you have even more excitement and curiosity and anticipation.

Direct Commands

Martin now offers a way to fulfil your need to know, just go and sign up

“If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free.”

He uses “if you” implying that you have a choice whether to go or not and then gives the link and below the first word is “now“. When you take away the fluff this is a direct command and reads

“go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ now”



It looks so sweet and innocent but is an extremely powerful way to get someone to click on a link and you don’t even feel that you have been directly commanded. It all happens at the unconscious level. Which is the real power of NLP.

“You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits.”

Martin finishes off with another direct command embedded in the sentence, can you spot it?

“go to sign up now”

You miss it consciously because of the URL and because it is placed carefully between two lines and within a larger sentence that has another meaning. Be intelligent and enjoy all the benefits.

The Real Meaning

So below the surface you are being told directly to

Feel excited anticipation about discovering the web2.0 secret formula that Martin will reveal in his ezine, go to http://www.martinallsop.com/now and sign up now.

Now you can click the link

Ok, now you can go and click the link, if you haven’t done so already. I would suspect that at least half of you will have clicked the link before you even reached this point, I will report back in a few days when I analyse my blog stats and see if this post has an unusual number of click outs.

Warning

Please be aware that this is only one of many styles of hypnotic language patterns, if you want to find out more I would first suggest learning a bit about NLP from books before you try and repeat or copy what Martin has done. This is very powerful stuff and you really need to know exactly what you are doing or the effects that you achieve might not be what you expected. If you do it wrong then people will notice and might steer clear of what you have to offer or you might be unintentionally telling people the opposite of what you intended.

Manipulation and Ethics

It also brings up the issue of manipulation. Some people think that using NLP in this way is unethical or manipulative. They maybe tend to forget that almost all communication is manipulative in some way or another. It’s just that with NLP the effects are aimed at the unconscious mind. One of my favourite trainers Chris Howard addresses these issues and says that you must always create Win Win situations and he refuses to certify people unless they are clearly operating from an ethical standpoint. As with any powerful tool there is a danger that it can be abused. It is up to you to make the right choices and your reputation and long term success can depend on this.



Modeling Others

I want to make it very clear that I believe Martin to be a very ethical person and a respected pillar of the Facebook business community. You only have to check out the testimonials on his webpage to see this. The purpose of this article was to bring to light just how powerful NLP patterns can be. I have been impressed by his success on Facebook and it has always been my philosophy to examine and model what others are doing well so that I can emulate this and integrate it into my own business and personal life. I carefully examine what people do and also what they don’t do as this can be just as revealing.

Communication to Increase Response

Communication from a marketing or sales perspective is always about persuading someone to take action. You need to know the secrets that the professionals adopt in order to increase the impact and effectiveness of your own efforts. By using NLP techniques you can dramatically increase your response rate and can create a rapport and connection to you customers that you might not have generated otherwise.

Filed Under: copywriting, facebook, social media marketing