Today I want to tell you how to keep people reading your stuff—
Even if they know better… even if they think they get no value from what you are saying… and even if they can’t explain to themselves why they keep tuning in to your self-serving, borderline obnoxious sales talk.
It’s a very simple trick.
But used subtly, without trying too hard, it’s very powerful.
In fact, it’s so powerful it can get people actually hooked on you. Let me illustrate what I mean, with this quote from sex bomb Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was married nine times, and who should know:
“Husbands are like fires. They go out when unattended.”
So the copywriting trick I have in mind is to surprise people. You can do it like Zsa Zsa with a bit of humor and misdirection. You can do it with an unusual phrase of turn. Or you might even be able to do it with a well-chosen fact. Such as the following:
Nothing kills surprise as quickly as going back to the same well, day after day.
So whatever you do to light up your reader’s brain and fill it with dopamine… don’t let your technique become predictable, and don’t let it become a crutch.
But let me take my own advice. Because this surprise stuff is another great idea I’ve learned from Ben Settle.
In the early days, Ben kept me reading his emails, in spite of my better instincts. He kept me reading, not just through shock in the subject line. Not just through challenging industry norms. But through tiny surprises he hid away and mixed into his copy.
But since this is #3 in my recent list of Ben Settle ideas that I want to remind myself and you of… I’m getting dangerously close to being predictable.
So I’ll wrap up this mini-series tomorrow. And I’ll tell you the most valuable and perhaps easiest-to-implement lesson from Ben Settle I’ve learned to date. If you want to read that when it comes out, sign up for my email newsletter here.