“His emotion seemed to communicate itself, with an electrical rapidity, to my heart.” 1799 Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810)
If you are like me, your inbox is filled with emails from marketers vying for your attention. Email after email attempts to snap you away from the blur of your daily life and capture your attention. But most emails pass through your inbox like an express train — destination: your trash folder — without so much as a brief pause along the way.
But there are also those rare gems that always capture your full attention and have you clicking to open almost before the familiar ‘new mail’ sound from Outlook has stopped ringing in your speakers. These are the emails from the content masters — the ones you MUST read before they (gasp) get buried deep in your inbox.
What is it that elicits that response from us?
These content masters hold the golden key. They are able to command our attention at the press of a button — like Pavolv’s dog, we have a predicable and conditioned response based on past experience. Why? Because we anticipate that we will be enriched, either monetarily or in new-found knowledge, after we read what they have to offer.
One such email arrived into my inbox today, an armor-piercing BULLET from Gary Bencivenga.
What did I learn today from Gary? The “Golden Key of Persuasion;” the “little secret that can help you become one of the most persuasive people on the planet, both in person and in print.”
Did you get it? If you aren’t on Gary’s list, waste no more time. This article will provide grist for your communications mill for years to come.
Gary has it posted on his website.
After you read Gary’s BULLET, please come back here and tell me if you think I “got” his message. When it comes to putting Gary’s teachings into play, I feel like a white belt clumsily learning a new form while his 6th degree black belt master patiently watches with a gleam in his eye.
10 Comments
Metaphors work not only because they make huge, complicated concepts easily accessible, but because they can also make them personal. And fun.
I’m lucky; as a life cocach, I know my clients well. I generally base my metaphors upon my clients’ background; I know them well enough to relate to them. I don’t talk about mountain back roads to clients in New York city; I don’t talk about gridlock to clients in small town Oklahoma.
But what if you don’t work one on one? Use something everyone knows; a jigsaw puzzle, a hatching bird, a butterfly, an exchange on a turnpike, a traffic jam, a blade of grass.
Imagine your ideal client; what would that person relate to? The more you can put yourself in your clients’ place, the stronger your metaphor.
Summing up: Don’t work at metaphor; play with it. Metaphors work best when they are fun and not contrived. And make sure they’re something your audience will relate to!
Oh, please note I wrote the above without using a single metaphor. A metaphor at this point would be as contrived as a cat with feathers.
“as contrived as a cat with feathers”
Now THAT is a powerful image
Funny I came to this post and onto Gary’s “Bullet”, as I’ve been reading Hypnotic Writing and it echo’s so much of the same. This has been a very big topic for me right now, because I can see the huge advantages.
I know for myself, the only marketers newsletters or e-mail that get talked about are the ones that are proving good content/value and I think that most of that is just interesting/hypnotic(I hate to keep using that word, but it’s to the point) writing. And sadly there seem to be few of them. But they really are creating viral content. The advantages can be enormous with a higher level of trust, liking, authority, and even more important to many, very high conversion rates. I also believe this creates a higher level of influence. Least my opinion.
Naturally there is more to it than just interesting writing, but it seems to be such a large part of it.
The only drawback is putting these ideas in to practice, I for one am not a writer so I feel like I am at a dis-advantage. Not impossible mind you, just have to worker harder..:)
I love Gary’s bullet and as I said, it re-enforces much of what I’ve been learning also. It’s really too bad Gary wasn’t selling something in his writing, to get a better understanding of the idea’s in real world working examples. Not that I don’t truly appreciate his giving.
Ron,
I wish Gary has a blog (at least I don’t know of one that he writes). It would be fun to see his style when it is not a carefully constructed copy piece. Plus, I’d love to hear his take on some of the conversations that happen online.
“But, I can’t blame him. He sends just a few emails a year in his retirement. The only drawback is putting these ideas in to practice, I for one am not a writer so I feel like I am at a dis-advantage. Not impossible mind you, just have to worker harder..:)”
I hear ya. Writing skill is a must-have for marketers but few of us reach the level of someone like Gary. I’ve found that blogging is a great way to exercise the writing muscle. It provides the freedom and platform to write a lot.
Thanks for dropping by and adding your comment.
Doug
Ron, You don’t have to be a writer. You just have to write, and that’s not the same thing. If you can be authentic, and real, and honest, the way you choose your words and position your words (and believe me, that’s all writing is), will let the real you come through. Just pretend you’re talking to someone else–a friend, an ideal client–and put the conversation down on paper. Include the uhs and ehs. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, spelling. Write from your heart.
Then, go back and make a few corrections. Fix the spelling and punctuation. Change any glaring mistakes, but don’t change the heart and soul of what you’ve said.
Too often, people think writing needs to be hard. It just needs to be from the soul.
Doug, yep totally agree, few marketers seem to create or care about good writing, well writing that makes a difference. I know from my side, probably 99% of the lists I am on, most are just selling and very few of any of them are really interesting. I can’t think of many I couldn’t live with out. Guess I hope not to be just another marketer that fills up peoples inboxes…:) I guess i also don’t want my products to be so-so.
Lynn, thats what I’ve been learning, it’s not really the proper writing skills, it’s personal and interesting. I just want to get the interesting down, so I am not just another e-mail.
Just need to flop around a few times till it works…:)
Doug, yes I should do more posting on my blog, it does seem to help and could be a place to test.
Hi Doug,
It was good of you to share the link to Gary’s post.
I’ll begin by sharing one of my favorite mixed metaphors:
“Man, some marketers don’t know which side of the coin their bread is buttered on.”
There is so much bad writing in our business. Gary provided some solid advice on how metaphors engage readers.
As a reader (potential buyer), I’m looking for an experience, something to engage me. I’m impressed by plucky use of language.
As you noted in your post, true gems are rare. Much of the writing that arrives in my inbox seems to be hail from the same tired playbook.
There are exceptions, of course.
That’s what I buy — the exceptions.
Warm regards,
Patrick Pretty
Metaphor can be a great way to tell a liven up your marketing, so can any number of language and story telling principles.
Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling