A copywriter persuades with concepts and language. Agility with words is just one element in the toolkit.
When I added “hypnotist” to my business card, I acquired more training in persuasion than during all my ad-agency days. Learning the language of hypnosis, I discovered how to persuade the subconscious mind, where thoughts and beliefs truly reside.
I used these principles in my hypnosis office and then infused them into freelance work to make copy hit home. Enhanced persuasion power won me nods when I attended networking events, presented creative work, and raised my day rate.
Not bad for an introvert.
Lately many writers are exploring what Joe Vitale calls “hypnotic writing.” Some began doing it unknowingly. Those long copy, no-visual, multi-page ads that we’ve scoffed at because they won’t win Clios are read by millions.
And, boy, do they sell.
But if direct-mail copywriting makes you shiver, and you’re chasing Gold Lions, you can still apply hypnotic elements sparingly:
- COPY RHYTHM. In the spoken word, rhythm is powerful. It relaxes the conscious mind and engages the subconscious. That power also resides in print, where the reader contributes rhythm while reading silently.
Consumers are sometimes wary about commercials and the notion of being sold or influenced. But language with rhythm, whether heard or read, is both engaging and reassuring, encouraging the mind to abandon analytical thinking momentarily to connect viscerally.
Language that gets inside the reader or listener persists. And persuades.
- JUDICIOUS REPETITION. The more your audience encounters the same image, idea or thought, the more persuasive.
But the same commercial or sound bite repeated doggedly becomes offensive. Stop short of overexposure.
- COMPELLING WORD PICTURES. We love great visuals and art direction, but writers create word pictures with unique power.
See a photo of a peach and you experience the photographer’s conception. Read “a flawless, ripe peach, just plucked, with an enchanting aroma,” and you design your notion of the best imaginable peach and implant it in your mind.
What is more persuasive than what we craft to our own liking?
Word pictures, unlike photographs, cost nothing, so use them liberally but appropriately. Avoid unintentionally crafting a steamy romance novel for a forklift company.
- NEGATIVES: FEW TO NONE. Here’s a surprising tip hypnotists know and creatives may want to consider: The use of the negative is not easily registered by the subconscious mind.
When you use “not,” “isn’t,” “won’t” or “doesn’t,” the subconscious mind often processes the positive and ignores the negation.
If you say that a product “won’t cause rash,” the subconscious mind immediately grabs the image of a rash. Then it detects the negative (“won’t cause”) and attempts to imagine the lack of a rash.
Often it fails.
Why not avoid mentioning rash and describe only smooth, healthy skin? Or, if acknowledging the problem state is crucial, repeat and intensify positive language to overshadow the negative: “X won’t leave a rash–just clear, creamy, silky skin.”
It can take three desirable thoughts to offset one negative?as in life.
