Can you use NLP for marketing to get more of your emails opened? This week we talked to Jon Benson from Copy Pro and EPIC Email about using NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) in your email marketing to grab your audience's attention and get more of your emails opened.

Ready to find out a handy trick or two to sell more and ethically?

SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

(0:18) Join our FREE Facebook Group.

(3:00) Is Jon really allergic to pollinated fruit?

(4:47) Who is Jon Benson?

(6:47) What is NLP and why does it matter in email marketing?

(8:15) Creating a pattern interrupt.

(9:50) How to grab people's attention.

(12:04) How to 'promote' in your emails.

(16:50) How to create links people will want to click on.

(19:26) You don't need to create new content all the time.

(21:52) Subject line of the week with Jon Benson.

Who is Jon Benson?

Jon Benson is known as the person who invented the video sales letter and was the first to sell copyrighting software. Somewhere along his business journey, Jon also started thinking about ways he could apply the same NLP and persuasion tactics to emails. Known for successfully employing and teaching techniques such as pattern interrupt and future pacing, Jon introduced these concepts into the world of email marketing. And that's how EPIC Email was born.

What is NLP and why does it matter in email marketing?

But first thing first, what is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)? Jon sees NLP as a tool to help you make sales. It's based on the idea that human beings can be persuaded to take action through simple language commands - all without being manipulated.

We all know that the word 'manipulation' has a negative connotation, but it’s not necessarily bad. Parents 'manipulate' their children into eating their vegetables all the time after all! For Jon, selling is the art of ethical manipulation or persuasion, and NLP is a building block for that.

Creating a pattern interrupt

One of the things we have to do at the beginning of every sales conversation (no matter the medium) is to grab attention. Because without the attention of your audience, you’re shouting into a void!

When it comes to emails, grabbing attention is not as active as it would be if you were standing on stage. So to grab the attention of your subscribers and get them to pay attention to your emails, you want to create a pattern interrupt.

Jon will typically start an email with just one or two sentences that either seem out of place or that direct someone into something they’re not normally used to seeing in an email. For example, an email that converted well for Jon started with the phrase “Look around your room”. That’s not a request – it's a command.

How to grab people's attention

The idea here is that you can use words that create patterns where you engage someone’s mind without them knowing you’re doing it. This is NLP, and it works because it's unusual - it's not something you tend to write at the start of an email.

Another email starter Jon used in the past is “What’s the one thing you remember the most about your father?” So it's all about starting your emails with something interesting or a story, so people want to click on the email and read more.

What we just described with this idea of grabbing your audience's...