MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

Hypnotic writing is an ethically cloudy, but effective method of improving sales and conversions. Rex Steven Sikes of Idea-Seminars.com, http://www.mrfire.com/article-archives/guest-articles/hypnotic-questions.html, says that to take full advantage of hypnotic copy, we need to consider the three languages that occur inside English.

The first language, according to Sikes, is the language of pictures, which is how we view items in our minds as well as in the real world. The language of sounds is second, and incorporates our internal monologues, as well as how we interpret what we hear. Third is the language of feelings, which is when a particularly emotive word or turn of phrase elicits a strong positive or negative emotional reaction.

When writing hypnotic copy, it’s important to try and incorporate as many positive words as possible, to create feelings of comfort and harmony. Readers are then more receptive to your product or service and are more likely to read about it. Reading your copy becomes an experience rather than a chore.

Hypnotic writing serves the same function as persuasive advertising. Its focus is on convincing readers that they need your product or service. So where does the ethical cloud come in?

Many people, SEO copywriters included, feel that it’s a manipulative technique. They believe that it plays on readers’ emotions, takes advantage of them and makes them purchase products that they don’t need or would not ordinarily buy. The theory is that by using hypnotic writing, you take control away from the reader.

But this argument assumes that readers and consumers are anchorless vessels, helplessly drifting along the tide of mass marketing. It suggests that they are passive users, incapable of making informed decisions, and who are at the mercy of unscrupulous advertisers who are out to increase their sales statistics.

As a consumer, I resent those implications. Just as being physically hypnotised can’t make you do things that you don’t want to do, hypnotic copy can’t make consumers buy something that they don’t want to buy. The best that hypnotic writing can do is make products and services seem more attractive. They can make various options seem more viable. And they do their best to influence consumers’ decisions.

That’s the crux of the whole matter. The writers do their best. They don’t wield an ominous tyrannical power over consumers. They aren’t evil tools serving the purpose of omnipotent business magnates.

They’re writers who do what all writers do. They use words to the best of their ability to create strong emotive images. They tell a story, the quality of which consumers can judge, as they decide whether or not to take up the proposed offer. The writers merely suggest that by heeding their advice, consumers are assured of creating their own “happily ever after” ending. Ultimately the power lies with the consumer, which is not so different from conventional advertising at all.