August 14, 2008

5 Strange Tricks To P-U-L-L People's Eyeballs Into Your Sales Letter

Grabbing people's attention and getting them to read your marketing material is becoming ever so challenging. But techniques and tricks are becoming ever so clever.

You need an effective, attention-grabbing headline to get someone's attention and hold it. Without it, your sales letter is completely useless. The same is true of e-mail subject lines, because they convince people to open them.

There are some truly "hypnotic" text tricks you can use to make your titles, headlines and subject lines grab people's attention and hold on. However, some of these tricks are definitely avant-garde, and not for those who like "middle of the road."

We've used these ourselves, so we know they work.

Below are five very unusual ways you can begin to grab someone's attention and stop him or her cold, as long as you have the courage to use them. They are:

1. Use a fill-in-the-blank headline. For example 'Write At The Speed Of _____!' Is there a quicker way to generate curiosity than having a blank in your headline? We've yet to discover one.

2. Write your headline backwards. '!thguohT detpurretninU fO deepS ehT tA etirW' You'll be surprised how many people will sit there and really want to figure out what you're headline says, especially if they're caught off guard!

3. Write two appealing words and one that is totally unrelated. 'Money! Freedom! Cows!' There's something about humor that often combines two or three completely irrelevant ideas or subjects.

4. Emphasize specific words by using all capital letters, dashes, or underlining. Take a look at this article's headline again. Certain keywords can really stand out in your headline or title that will make your readers to subconsciously want to respond favorably.

5. Block one or two words. 'Make As Much XXXXX As You Want to, in Your Own Home!' Similar to using the blank in the headline, you instead use a "black box" to block out a word from being seen. This may often grab readers' attention so that they're thinking, "What you hiding?"

Once you put these tricks to use, you should immediately explain the headline or title in your opening. Don't risk being seen as unprofessional. A great way to start your opening paragraph is to say, 'I'm glad my strange headline got your attention'. Then proceed to explain yourself.

There are tons of other techniques you can come up with on your own, and these are just a few of the 11 tricks listed in the 'Hypnotic Traffic Tools' bonus report. You can also use these ideas sparingly throughout the body of your content, and not just in your headlines or subject lines.

Test these out and have a little fun!