Seth Godin talks about attention deficit. And he also talks about attention surplus.
And weirdly enough, they both conclude the same thing: No one is paying attention. Including yourself.
I’ve always been intrigued by the psychology of persuasion (yes, and am a big fan of the book by Cialdini too). And one of my favorite past-times is reading random stuff about “Ninja” copy-writing and persuasion and marketing techniques, as I’ve always been (and will be) a student of marketing.
And one of the techniques I love, is a NLP Technique called “Pattern Interrupt“.
This is where, you do something so different from the rest of your competition, that it completely throws your audience off-balance, and lowers their guard just enough for you to make your presence felt – and grab their attention for a few fleeting seconds (now what you do with that next is a completely different story).
This technique can be used in many aspects of life…
Stand out from other typical web sites…
…by say, offering a free report, without asking for their email address.
Stand out from the other males all vying for the attention of that beauty in the bar…
…by acting totally un-predictable, being a bad boy, and never being a “gentleman” (Eben Pagan, mega-marketer and super-nice dude, who runs DoubleYourDating under the pen-name David DeAngelo calls it the “Wuss” factor).
Stand out from the thousands of marketers crashing your prospect’s inbox with “offers”…
…by offering just honest-to-goodness, *awesome*, instantly usable, valuable content.
Stand out from your competitors…
Stand out from most other bloggers…
…by generously publishing outgoing links to all kinds of posts and pages and sites (like this blog post) without worrying about “losing your readers” (an awesome technique I learned from… you guessed it… Seth Godin 🙂 )
But I digress…
Now you might have already heard about Roy H. Williams, the “Wizard Of Ads”, and one of my “Guru Drona’s” that I pay tribute to in my book.
Here’s an excerpt from his newsletter, that I eagerly wait for every Sunday midnight.
Here, he talks about asking people to volunteer ridiculous, over-the-top subject lines, and how he ties it to their marketing, in front of a live audience…
The stagecraft begins when I ask everyone in the room to write a statement that would catch the ear of any person who overheard it. “The statement doesn’t have to make sense,” I say, “It just needs to be larger than life, evocative, difficult to ignore. The kind of statement that would make a passing stranger turn and say, ‘Huh?’
I then ask 6 volunteers to bring their statements onto the stage. I’m now going to craft real ads for real businesses using the statements written on those papers as the opening lines for the ads. ‘Do I have any business owners in the room?’ Six business owners take the stage. I randomly pair them up with the colorful statement-holders. I have no idea what businesses are on stage or what statements are written on those papers.
I owe Tom Robbins (not to be confused with Tony) for this little bit of stagecraft. In a magazine interview that accompanied the release of his novel, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, Tom said, “Everything in the universe is connected, of course. It’s a matter of using imagination to discover the links, and language to expand and enliven them.”
‘Business owner number one. Tell me about your business.’
‘I have a plumbing company.’
‘Name a profit center you’d like to improve.’
‘I’d like to get more calls for our 24-hour emergency service.’
‘Crazy person number one. What did you write on your paper?’
‘I came home and the dog was bald.’
The room roars with laughter as I walk to the front of the stage and balance there – my toes hanging over the edge – as 2,000 people hold their breath.
‘I came home and the dog was bald. I haven’t been that surprised since I woke up at 2AM to pee and stepped out of bed into an inch of water. Thank god Martindale Plumbing never goes to sleep. At 2AM they were just sittin’ there, hoping someone would call. They fixed the problem while I made coffee. Great guys. Thank god for Martindale Plumbing, 24 hours a day. But I still got no idea what to do with a bald dog.’
I started laughing so hard at 3:45 AM in the morning while reading this newsletter on my iphone, on my bed, getting ready to fall asleep, that I literally became wide awake, and couldn’t fall asleep for a 1/2 hour after that. That’s how much it tickled me, inspired me, and got my juices going.
Remember, it’s not just about writing something ridiculous, larger than life, and simply shocking for the sake of shocking. That usually ends up like a bad joke.
The key is to start your copy (email subject, blog post, book title) with something ridiculous, outrageous, and even shocking, and somehow tie it all together with your main story.
That’s when you make people laugh in a dark room at 3:45 AM in the morning and inspire them so much that they lose their sleep!
Oh, and don’t forget to go sign up for the free Monday Morning Memo, written by one of my favorite people in the world.
A Mini Headline/Subject-Line Challenge
Imagine you’re sending out an email to your list… something to do with your product (any product or service, or yourself).
I challenge you to come up with a “pattern interrupting” headline, and also tell us, if you would, how you would tie it in to your story…
Go on, give it a shot in the comments section below. No one’s reading my blog anyway 🙂
Cheers!
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Ravi, I would be STILL laughing at your post if it wasn’t for the fact that my heavy accounts software box just fell and crushed 6 of my toes. But nevermind, I have DAP and I know what is in my bank account 🙂
Well done, Ravi. I believe Roy would approve.
If you have not spent any time at Wizard Academy, I highly recommend it. Live, Roy, and the other incredible minds wandering the hallowed halls of the Academy, will blow your mind.
And the accommodations rock. Stay in the dorm, if possible. It’s really a 4-star hotel room wrapped around a DIY kitchen.
Great post. You’re staying true to your word: Plenty of great content, lots of valuable links. Easy access. Value at every turn. Nice.
>>If you have not spent any time at Wizard Academy, I highly recommend it<< Oh yeah, spending time with Roy Williams, live in Texas, has been one of my dream trips that I plan on making come true very soon :-). Thanks for the dorm-room tip. Will make sure I do that. - Ravi Jayagopal
>>Accounts Software Found With Six Toes<< I actually thought of a "Headline/Subject-line Challenge" right after reading your comment above. So "Accounts Software Found With Six Toes" would be an incredible subject line for an email to your list... In the example below, I'm going to write an email for, say, affiliates of one of my products, to send out to their list... Subject: Accounts Software Found With Six Toes Body: I was reading this incredible blog post about "Pattern Interrupt" written by a friend and I started laughing so hard and my desk shook so bad, that my joy was literally "interrupted" and turned into instant pain, when my accounting software box fell and nearly crushed 6 of my toes! Anyway, this dude's name name is Ravi Jayagopal, and he is the Founder & Co-Developer of a membership platform for WordPress...(insert your affiliate link to DAP here)." And if you know how DAP works, you could set the affiliate cookie and THEN redirect the visitor to this blog post, all in one link 😉 NICE! - Ravi Jayagopal
Nice article Ravi! The moral of the story is to wake your reader’s brain up! Sean D’Souza also talks about this in his Brain Audit. It really works!
Not only did you get me to open your email but I read the entire contents. I was hungry and this was food for thought that I needed right now.
thanks Ravi
I liked this.
I make my singing courses through email marketing.
It is funny, but just yesterday I called people to come to my choir rehearsal exactly with this technique. This worked very well, I can see in my mailbox.
Hm, maybe we are all tied together… And our minds have a connection to each other. So synchronicity is happening this way. Even in the distance of two continents and one (and a half) ocean.
Thanks, Ravi for this post and these examples.
so there’s no bald dog?
:0)))
brilliant. I have random funny things pop in my head often, now I know what to do with them! (as one of my old bosses once said when she was walking around laughing to no one “sometimes I think funny thoughts”)
this is really great as well, I think we need more humour and sillyness in this world.
Good one, Ravi. Your title did get my attention to read your blog and its right on.
Hi Ravi,
bought dap last night and look, here I am, responding to a interesting post you make. I’m setting up an online communication training.
This would be in my autoresponder series I think.
What do you think of it? I’m shooting straight from the hip.
My first try:
The moon fel off her plate again.
They had an argument and I looked outside. I listened and hardly paid any attention to what I saw.
It was only when I realized that they did their old familiar communication dance again that I started to pay attention to the plate in front of me.
For the second time, I had seen the first time only vaguely, the moon fel of her plate as she pushed it accidentally during a dramatic gesture to show her anger.
I was wandering how long would they continue this pattern before they would replace it with something more valuable?
Some comnmunication improvements seemed like a wise idea.
How much more worthwhile can life become when you’re fed up with senseless arguing and yearn for a change!
They are acquintences and telling them about the possiblities that almost everyone can benefit from through my online training, didn’t seem like aviable option.
As a change coach, I learned that everybody is entitled to the suffering they need. (So I don’t pester people with my “great advice and help” when they obviously don’t want it at that moment.)
Sure I have my arguments once in a while. They happen less and less because my communication skills, that prevent these situations from happening, kick in automatically with the embodyment technique I have.
It’s fascinating to see the moon being being thrown off a plate by a beautifull angry woman.
Henry
Your son for mine and player to be named later!
I am at my whits end with my teenage son and his continuous trouble making.
I spend my afternoons recovering from jealousy of my girlfriend’s son and his great achievements.
If Johnny doesn’t change soon I am going to go NFL on his a** and trade him and a player to be named later – for your son!