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A One Tenth Full Glass
By Louis R Burns | March 16, 2009
Sometimes it’s better to focus on the positive even if there isn’t much there.
When you have a choice, it’s usually better to tell people what they can do rather than can’t. Here are three examples:
Jamie Smart of Salad Seminars wrote an e-book titled, “The Top Ten Secrets of Instant Wealth.” If I hadn’t recently got some flash cards from Salad, I probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought.
Better questions are the key to getting what you want. Most people stop at the statement that they can’t afford something. Instead ask, “How can I afford it?” When you use that kind of language with your audience, your results will change as well.
The second example is that I sometimes see marketers bad mouth “hypnotic techniques.” Here’s a quote from an article in the Early to Rise e-zine (July 31st Issue):
“Don’t try to be a copywriter. Just explain what you’ve got and why anyone should care - and then just get out of the way.
“In other words, don’t mess around with mystical, manipulative tactics that are supposed to magically vacuum money out of your prospects’ wallets while they grin stupidly in a hypnotic trance.
“Just talk to people. Be interesting. Be respectful of their time. Share value. Make your pitch. And shut up.”
The point I think the author was trying to make was to not make the amateur mistake of making it sound like you’re trying too hard or using hype. He’s telling you to do exactly what a copywriter tries to do but then starts out telling you not to try to be a copywriter.
The one tenth part of this is that the writer must not know how to use hypnotic language patterns well. That just means there’s more opportunity for those of us that do.
This post was prompted this last example. I went to see a movie at our IMAX last week. The theater is inside a state history museum. While everyone was waiting in line, one of the museum employees made an announcement with an interesting one tenth full twist.
He announced that food and drinks were allowed in the theater as long as they were water with screw top bottles and candy bars still sealed in their wrappers. There’s no doubt that this approach was better received than telling people that no food or drinks were allowed except bottled water.
It reminds me of the saying attributed to Henry Ford that you could have any color of Model-T car as long as it was black.
I don’t know how many people noticed the approach at the museum but I found it humorous. That was actually much less than one tenth full but you get the point… be affirmative as much as possible for best results.
Topics: Copy Writing |
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