Dr. Scott Lewis is a comedy-hypnotist performing at the
Riviera Hotel every Monday night in Las Vegas. He called me
one day wanting a truly hypnotic ad to run in the local
newspapers to pull in college students to his show. I asked
him to tell me what he already had in mind for the ad.
Here's what he told me:
"I'm thinking of using the headline 'Come do outrageous
things at the Riviera next Monday night'."
What do you think? Me, I didn't think it was a very hypnotic
headline.
For one thing, it's not engaging. It just sits there. It's
slightly active, in the sense that it says "come do
outrageous things," but that's not enough to truly mesmerize
busy readers of newspapers. Not today. And not college
students.
For another, his headline would eliminate all the shy people
from going to the show. They might be afraid they would get
hypnotized and look stupid in front of their friends. After
all, far more people want to be spectators than performers.
Scott would miss his target audience.
I advised Scott to try the following headline instead:
"What outrageous things will you see your friends and others
do next Monday night at the Riviera?"
Now we have something truly hypnotic.
First, the question involves the mind. It forces you to
begin thinking of WHAT you will see next Monday. And it
begins the process of having you IMAGINE outrageous things.
Second, this new headline isn't confrontive. Good hypnotic
headlines sneak in under the radar and deliver their
message. This new ad says what will "your friends and
others" do, not what will YOU do. See the difference? It
makes it safe for you to go to the show. Your friends "and
others" are going to look like fools, not you.
All headlines can be improved by doing just three things:
- Make them engaging.
My favorite way to engage people is to ask an open-ended
question. How can you use an open-ended question when
writing your next headline? (I can hear your mind whirling.)
- Make them curious.
People are naturally curious. Appeal to their curiosity and
you can hypnotize them into doing almost anything. What can
you make them do with a curiously hypnotic headline? (Note
how your mind is again buzzing.)
- Make them short.
When Scott asked me to review the ad with my new headline, I
realized we could add a shorter headline before the longer
one. This way we could telegraph our message and then pull
people into our hypnotic headline. So I advised him to make
the main headline, "Think you've seen outrageous?" We then
used the longer headline ("What outrageous things will you
see your friends and others do next Monday night at the
Riviera?") as the secondary headline. Don't be afraid to use
two headlines, as long as the first one is short and leads
into the longer, more hypnotic one.
Finally, how did the new headlines pull for Dr. Lewis? Just
call the Riviera in Vegas and try to get into his
"Hypnolarious" show next Monday night. You'll find his show
packed -- and you'll be amazed at the outrageous things
you'll see your friends and others do on stage there!
Joe Vitale is the best-selling author of numerous books and
tapes. His latest book is now available at
http://www.HypnoticMarketing.com He also has a seven-day
marketing course by email that anyone can have for free by
sending a blank email to hypnoticmarketing@getresponse.com
