The Secret of the Hypnotic Buying Trance

“Now you know it’s a meaningless question / To ask if those stories are right / ‘Cause what matters most is the feeling / You get when you’re hypnotized / Seems like a dream / They got me hypnotized” – Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac

What you want to do when you’re writing marketing copy is create a Hypnotic Buying Trance in your customers – the mindset where they are prepped to buy. But not everyone knows how to do this … sometimes, including me. This brief story will explain what I mean:

When Pat O’Bryan released his long-awaited CD and DVD set called “Your Portable Empire,” I wanted to drive traffic to his website and see the sales roll in. So I wrote the following e-mail and sent it to my list:

SUBJECT: What may be the greatest website of all time?

Pat O’Bryan just sent me a link to look at his new website.

I wasn’t interested.

I was tired, just on a teleseminar, and didn’t want to go look. But it was for Pat, so I did.

And it fried me.

The graphic at the very top not only made me smile, but the words on it have to be the greatest summary of an irresistible offer I’ve ever seen online.

I don’t care if you’re busy, or tired, or what. You simply have to go look. It won’t take but a sec.

Go see.

– Joe  

PS – If you want to create your own Portable Empire, which is what Pat is known for, then get your rear to his website.

Well, what do you think? Is that a good e-mail?

I sent the e-mail and waited.

And waited.

Sales receipts did not burst into my e-mail box. While my e-mail created traffic to Pat’s site, there were no sales. I found this very perplexing.

As it happened, Mark Joyner, who’s a genius at online marketing, sent me an e-mail to say hi. I told him about my e-mail and the lack of results. He surprised me by pointing out that my “framing” was all wrong. He said by driving people to look at the site to study a graphic, I sent people to the site with the wrong end in mind. They need to be going with an urge to buy, not with a desire to look.

I knew this. But I needed the reminder. With Mark’s lesson in mind, I wrote this follow-up e-mail and sent it to my list:

SUBJECT: I goofed – and you can learn from my mistake.

I sent out an e-mail yesterday urging you to see one of the best websites I’ve seen in a long time.

Many of you went, but not all of you bought.

When I mentioned it to Mark Joyner, he said my positioning was all wrong.

He explained that by having you go to look at the site, you didn’t go to look at the benefits of the product. In other words, I violated one of my own principles of how to lead someone to buy. Mark said I should have focused on all you get, such as –

 – You learn how to set up your own online business in 30 days or less.

 – You learn about hypnotic writing, hypnotic marketing, hypnotic publicity, and much more.

 – You learn the quick-start secrets for building a money-making business.
You get the idea.

By sending you to the site to look at the hypnotic graphic, you went there with a mindset to learn about hypnotic graphics.

Nothing wrong with that … except I also wanted you to go BUY.

This is the lesson: Whenever you want to get someone to do something, how you lead them there will determine what they do.

I led you to look. But I needed to lead you to buy.

So let me try again.

Please go review Pat’s site because the product he offers can put you into business – and making money – with your own “portable empire” in about 30 days. If Pat – a once-struggling musician with several CDs out but always broke – can do it, then so can you.

In one of my next mailings, I’ll send you the e-mail you should have gotten in the first place. But don’t let that stop you from reviewing his site.

Go for it. – Joe

PS – This very e-mail ought to prove that nobody knows it all (except maybe Mark Joyner). If I can still learn something new, then so can you. Get Pat’s package and get to the head of the class. Go see his website.

What do you think of that e-mail?

Is it good?

This new e-mail brought in sales. I learned my lesson: How I direct people somewhere determines what they do when they get there.

The bottom line is this: Think of what you want your readers to do after reading your marketing copy. What you say will influence their next actions. People only buy when they’re in the right state of mind. What you write helps mold that buying mindset, which I call the Hypnotic Buying Trance.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Joe Vitale is the author of numerous books, including Hypnotic Writing and The Attractor Factor. The above article is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Buying Trances: A New Psychology of Sales and Marketing.