For Hypnotic Gold Members Only

“How I Stopped a Terrifying Category5 Hurricane – with One E-mail!”

Or, Who else wants to learn the innersecrets of writing Hypnotic E-mails?

A Special “Brain Scan” of the Best E-mails of All Time

Joe:Hello everybody. This is Dr. Joe Vitale of Hypnotic Gold, and of course, of MrFire.com. Well, I have a special bonus audio CD going on right now. This is very different from things I've done in the past. What I'm going to do over the next 30, 45 minutes, maybe even an hour, is analyze some of my most famous, popular, award-winning, results-getting emails. I'm a big believer in hypnotic emails. Of course, I'm Mr. Hypnotics, so of course I'd be a believer in hypnotic emails.

And I went through my files, I went through all of the emails I have, and there’s hundreds of them, if not a thousand or more, that I've sent out over the last dozen or more years. And I have the top five, and a couple bonus emails that I'm going to talk to you about. And what I'm going to do is reveal my thought process, as best I can, to how I created them. So this is going to be a different interview.

Usually I'm very fast-talking and upbeat, but I have to be a little slower, and I have to be a little bit more self-reflective. And I think this is going to be one of the most fascinating interviews, or revelations, or audios I've ever done because I have no notes. I have … what's in front of me are the print-outs of the emails I want to talk to you about, and I'm going to just ad-lib. I'm going to be spontaneous, I'm going to be very honest, I'm going to be very heart-revealing and brain-revealing, I guess, and just let you in to my thought process when I created these famous emails.

So the first one I'm going to look at is the one called “A Psychology for Sales and Marketing”. That was the subject line, “A Psychology for Sales and Marketing”, and so let's just start with that one, and let's also start right there. I spend a tremendous amount of time on the subject line. There's no if's, and's, or’s, or but's, or anything else in the way of that. I know a subject line is the make-it or break-it point with everybody.

Now when they receive an email from me it comes from Joe Vitale, so they see my name there, and that wins me a little bit of a moment with them. They know Joe Vitale, they sign up for my emails over at mrfire.com, and they've read my books, they see me in the movie The Secret, or on Larry King. So they know who I am, but that doesn't give them … or it doesn't give me a ticket into their brain. It doesn't mean they're automatically going to open up my email just because it's from Joe Vitale. So knowing where it's coming from does win a point, but it doesn't give me the whole game.

So the subject line is far more important. The subject line is like the headline in a traditional sales letter, and you probably already know that because I talk about it all the time. And in some of my books like Hypnotic Writing and probably even in the book, Buying Trances, I really spend a lot of time on how to write a good headline. Well, the subject line is equally important. It's the very same thing. It is your headline.

So I spend a lot of time on subject lines. It's no different for this one in particular. “A Psychology for Sales and Marketing” is exactly what I'm trying to get across, but I played with how can I word this to make sure I get their attention? And I had things like “What is a Psychology of Sales and Marketing?” I had, as an alternative, “A New Psychology for Sales and Marketing”. Oh, I probably had a subject line like “What is a Buying Trance?” I think I had another subject line that was to the effect of “Are you In a Buying Trance?”

And a lot of this has to be done intuitively. I went through this creating a dozen or more subject lines, looking at all of them, and trying to figure out would I open the email? Would people who are getting an email from me, they see my name, and they see the subject line, would they open the email? And the more I thought about it, I thought well, I am talking about a psychology for sales and marketing and that should interest everybody on my list. They're interested in sales, they're interested in marketing, they're interested in psychology.

Whether I used it as a question or not, that was up for grabs. I could have done a coin toss, I could have done a test. But again, I went with my gut, I went with my intuition, I went with my experience, my education and I just left it with “A Psychology for Sales and Marketing”. As I look at it right now, I probably might have had better results if I had turned it into a question mark. I am a big believer of using questions to engage people. But, of course, the questions I talk about are the kind of questions where people have to think about the answer.

You don't ask the yes or no question like if I had said, "Do you know a psychology for sales and marketing?" They might have said, "Yes," they might have said "No," but there's no involvement. There's no real curiosity. If I had asked the question, "What is a new psychology for sales and marketing?" They can't answer it without opening the email. So that might have been a better subject line.

Again I was doing the best I can. This is something that always needs to be tested. When I send out further emails for the same product that this email is promoting, I might

try a question headline, and I might try something completely different. So, that's a lot of time on the subject, but that's because the subject line is so darn important, that even I, with the experience I have, is spending that much time on it.

Well, when you open up the email, you're hit with a question. How can you get your message across to your kids, your spouse, your neighbors, your clients, or …? when they are being bombarded with messages from others all day long? Well, this is exactly what I was talking about. It's an engaging question. It enlists your participation because it asks you a question that you cannot answer without reading on. I'm also asking this question to build rapport. I'm highlighting a question or a problem you've probably run across.

When I say, "How do you get your message across to your kids, your spouse, and your neighbors when we're all being bombarded with messages?" you're probably going, "Yeah, how do we do that?" You're probably in your own mind relating to the question. And this is very important, because what I'm trying to do is create rapport with my sales letter. So I raise the question, and I don't answer it. I say, "Here's breaking news!" Well, everybody is interested in news. That's why we buy the newspaper, that's why we turn on the news, that's why we poke around on Google or on websites. We want to find out what the news is. So I say, “Here's breaking news! It's about a new psychology of selling.”

Well, again, the people on my list are interested in marketing, they're interested in selling. This should interest them. So I then go on to explain a little bit including saying, "Besides it's a new book by me." Well, again this is a rapport builder. The people on my list know I'm a prolific author, most of them have my books. All of them should have at least one book, and so here I am saying, "I have a new book." Well, again that should interest them. All of this is being done within the first moment or two of opening this email and beginning to read it.

I then go on and start asking a lot of questions, "Why don't your sales and marketing efforts work all the time?" Well, everybody wants to know that, but you can't always answer it. “How can you make all your selling, online and off, more persuasive?” Again, it's a question you can't answer without reading more. “What's the proven secret to getting people to absorb and then act on your message?” Again, you can't answer this.

This is my favorite kind of hypnotic question. It's relating to what I'm trying to sell here, but I'm engaging you by asking you something you can't answer without knowing more information. The more information is in this email. Well then I go on to say, "Consider everyone you talk to or write to is in a preoccupied state of mind. They're in a type of trance.” Well, this is my explanation. You know, this whole formula that I'm using to write the email, can go back to the old AIDA, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

I'm getting people's attention with everything I've been doing, from the subject line to the opening here. Now I'm trying to build interest by saying, "Well, you know everybody you talk to is in a kind of preoccupied state of mind. They're in a type of trance. Their

eyes are open, but their mind is elsewhere.” So I'm building interest here, I'm building desire here. I'm building enthusiasm for what I'm trying to sell.

I then go on and, of course, say, "But how do you do this? Buying Trances, the latest book by yours truly, explains these everyday trances, and offers practical guidance for anyone who wants to use this knowledge for dramatic results.” And I give the URL right there, the web site. Snipurl.com/buyingtrances, I believe, takes them right to the Amazon site.

At this point, I'm okay to give them the website. I don't want to give a website too early, because if I've given the website before I've generated their interest in seeing what's on the website, they won't go look. There's not enough of an intrigue factor that's kicked in. So by now, I think I've asked enough questions, I've told them it's a book about me, or by me, and then I can lead them to the website.

Now knowing that some people aren't going to go look, I keep going with my ammunition. I have testimonials. Now, giving testimonials is traditional direct marketing. We should all do that in your ads, your sales letters. Everything needs your website, and everything needs to have testimonials because we live in the age of skepticism. I've said that before, I'll say it again. I do it in my own emails. I can't rely on people to trust me. They're not going to. They might be fans of my work, but it doesn't mean they’re automatically going to believe everything I say, especially if I'm raving about one of my own books.

So I have to march in my evidence, just like a good court attorney. So I've got Robert Ringer, he's pretty famous. Dave La Conney, Mark Joyner, of course we all know. Joseph Sugarman, he's a legend. I've got famous, legendary, reputable people giving endorsements. Then I can give the website again, because now there should be more intrigue in seeing what this email is all about.

I don't stop there because I know some people are saying, "Well, what's in the book?" And some people are even asking themselves, "Well, is this about unethical or covert selling?” Well, I try to anticipate and respond to questions before they actually come up, or as they come up in a reader's mind. So I go on in this email to say, "Anyone who knows me knows I believe in loving your customers and clients. At heart, Buying Trances is all about caring."

Well, that should win over some friends and influence some people by saying that, and it's all, of course, true, but I know a lot of people on my list are kind of spiritually- oriented because they read the Attractor Factor. They read the earlier version of it called Spiritual Marketing. And because I'm in the movie, "The Secret", a lot of the people going to my Mr. Fire site are of a new age, loving kind of bent, and I can't talk about covert or unethical selling. Not that I would, but I've got to make sure that people don't interpret what I'm doing with hypnotic writing, hypnotic marketing, buying trances or anything of that caliber, as something that's evil.

So I'm pointing out it’s all about loving. And then I list some of the chapter titles. And all of this, again, is to build credibility and to generate more interest. And, of course, I keep asking them to take action, I keep telling them, “Go to the website.” I keep giving the website, and towards the end of the email I ask … I always put a P.S. I use a P.S. all the time. Very often, even in a quick email to a friend, I'll add a P.S. because I know we all read P.S.'s.

I renamed P.S. Traditionally it's called a post script, but I call P. S. “powerful statement”. It's your opportunity to reiterate something, or to remind people of something so they'll take action and go look at the website.

So this whole email, “A Psychology for Sales and Marketing”, had a strategy behind it that I wasn't really thinking about as I wrote it. But now that I'm dissecting it, I can see that there were a lot of traditional elements in play, everything from the headline to building interest, to the testimonials, to asking them to take action. So I'm pretty pleased with it. I would probably experiment with it a little bit more and try a few other things, but “A Psychology for Sales and Marketing” did make sales, did make the book a bestseller at Amazon, so I would say it did its trick.

So let's look at the next email, this one is called “How to Change by Watching a Single DVD?” And again, I spent a lot of time on the subject line because, again, I know my name will give me a moment where people will look at the subject line, and maybe even open the email, but, that's not enough. I want everybody to open the email, and I need to give them a reason to do so. So, “How to Change by Watching a Single DVD?” Well, I think that's a very curious statement. I think the people on my list want to change. They want more money, they want more success, they want more results, they want more traffic, they want more happiness, health, peace, you know, the stuff.

They want everything, they want to change. But how? So I say, “How to Change by Watching a Single DVD?” Well, that's very curious. How do you change by watching a single DVD? And again, it's the kind of question you can't answer unless you read more. So I think that subject line is still pretty good, and I would probably continue using it. I am a great believer in testing, and I'll probably test other ones, but that one, for now, still works.

So you open the email and you see the line, "You'll love this news!" Well, there’s kind of a presupposition there, meaning that I'm assuming you're going to love the news once you hear it. But I'm planting in your mind the idea that you're going to love this. Love is also a very hypnotic word. We don't see it enough, we don't use it enough, we don't say it enough, so I like using it. I am a, I guess, a lover at heart, and I try to love my customers, I try to say I love you as I'm writing my copy, as I'm writing my emails.

And so beginning with "You'll love this news" is getting them to think that they'll love this news, and then the other part of that very same line is there's news here. And as I said earlier, we all want news. We want to know what's new, we want to know what's

leading edge, we want to know what the break through is, we want to be, you know, in on the next big thing that's happening. So you'll love this news.

I go on to say, "Mark Ryan and I just created a subliminal DVD to help you permanently release inner blocks." Well, that sounds intriguing. Most of the people on my list want to release inner blocks. They've heard me talk about that. Then I say, "All you do," and that's an important phrase, "All you do". It sounds simple. "All you do is slide the DVD into any player, sit back, and watch the show.” I love that line, because that line is saying, "You've got nothing to do." You slide the DVD in the player, make your popcorn, sit back and you just veg. And, in essence, that's what you're doing with this DVD, but I love the simplicity of this line, because it's letting you know it's the lazy person's way to change.

I then go on to explain how it's working, and people do need explanations because again, they're going to be thinking to themselves, "Well, you know, I can slide the DVD in, but how does that change me? How does that release inner blocks?" So I'm anticipating their question. I'm doing a little bit of email mind reading, I guess. And I say, "Your conscious mind will see beautiful images and hear music, as well as riveting stories told by either Mark or myself. Your unconscious mind will receive hidden messages that flash on the screen."

And of course, you can read this email, but what I'm doing is defining how this works. I go on to reiterate the problem everybody has. “Most of us who aren't happy, or healthy, or wealthy, or much else have stuck issues concerning love and forgiveness. This DVD will help you with that.” And then, of course, I tell them where it's at, go to subliminalmanifestation.com.

Now, my ending line I think is pretty good, because I'm encouraging them to get more than one copy. I say, "It will make a great gift for yourself, or your friends, family, coworkers, clients, staff, and many others." Now, why do I have to list all of those? I could have just said, "Buy copies for friends." Well, I know that people don't generally think for themselves. It sounds probably negative, but I think it's more of a reality. The average person out there is pretty much on autopilot. And I could have said, "Buy copies for friends", but in back of the reader's mind they would say, "Well, I don't have any friends", or "I only have one friend and I don't really care about that friend." But what I'm saying here is it's a great gift.

They might not have thought about getting it as a gift. And of course for themselves, which they're bound to get it for, but I'm mentioning friend, family, co-workers, clients, staff, and many others. I'm leading them to think of what they may not have thought of. So, it's very important that an email does that, and that's what I'm doing here.

My P.S., of course, and again I always use a P.S., “I wouldn't blame you if you are skeptical. But wouldn't it be wise to at least review the site?” Now, I love that P.S. because it's very logical. It assumes that people are skeptical, and I know there's going people skeptical. You're probably skeptical as you're even hearing about this DVD right

now. Well, I’m inviting people to keep their skepticism, but I'm saying, “Wouldn't you be smart to at least go look at the site? Because what if it did work and you passed it up?”

So I'm really kind of saying, "Don't be an idiot, and pass this up." I'm really trying, in a clever way to applaud them and say, "I know you're skeptical because you’re smart. And if you are smart, why don't you at least go review the site?" Then, of course, I give them the thing again, the website, subliminalmanifestation.com.

Note my note. My note says, "Please forward this email to anyone you like if you think they will welcome the news about this breakthrough healing method." This does two things. One is I'm reminding themselves this is breakthrough and it's a healing method. And two is, I've learned that if you tell people to forward an email, more often than not, they will do it. But if you don't tell them to forward the email, they will rarely think of it on their own. So I got a lot of extra travel power here, or viral power, by asking people to forward the email.

This little tiny email for SubliminalManifestation brought us in almost $60,000 worth of sales from one small list selling this DVD, which I think sells for $79. So this sales letter has done well. It's one of my more hypnotic ones. I like it. It's short and sweet, and I think it's great.

So let's go on to one that a lot of people think is either my best all time email, or at least one of the top two or three emails that I've ever written. And it's called an "Unusual Plea. Help Me Stop Rita". Well, I don't even know how to … where to begin with this one, because this was such a sincere effort on my part to change the planet, to change the thinking of a lot of people I was hearing about.

As you may remember, Katrina, of course, came and pretty much wiped out New Orleans, and then it was followed on the heels by a hurricane called Rita. Rita was aiming itself at mainland Texas. It was going towards Houston and, of course, it was going through Central Texas. That's where it was aimed to go, which is where I live, where I'm at right now. What was really bothering me … I wasn't so much terrified, because I thought the storm would probably die down before it hit this area. So that didn't concern me so much. What was really bothering me was all the talk of everybody feeling like they were a victim.

I kept thinking, “I've got to do something about this.” I said, "I'm tired. The news is wearing everybody down. The news is talking about the storms, about Mother Nature, about everything that happened in Katrina, and now it's going to happen in Rita.” And everybody was terrified. The key word I kept seeing is that everybody felt like a victim.

And I thought, "I don't believe this!" I thought, “I can do something about this.” I thought that if I can get enough people to think positively, that I could actually dissolve, or at least redirect, the storm back into the ocean. I really thought this. I really believed that, and I really believe it now. I held my breath, because I began to draft this email

knowing that this is one of the most sincere, heartfelt, important emails of my life. And I also knew that I may be flamed to death, meaning I get hate-mail from people. I may be ridiculed. I may have people unsubscribe from my list. I may have people think I'm crazy, I'm insane, I'm just off the charts nuts. And I thought, “I have to do this.”

So, at heart, this was driven by sincerity, and this was driven by a noble cause, and that was to awaken as many people as possible. So, let's look at the subject line. "An Unusual Plea," well I love that because the word "unusual" makes this sound like, "Well, this is going to be different from anything else you've ever read.” And it's a plea, so it's like I'm not selling anything. I'm actually begging for your attention.

"Help Me Stop Rita!" Well, that alone is going to get everybody's attention because Rita was on the news. Here I am saying I'm going to stop it, and you can help me. So that subject line, I don't know how to improve on it, because that is heartfelt. That is to the point. That is riveting. It's hypnotic. You can't help but open it. "An Unusual Plea: Help Me Stop Rita!"

And then I began, and as I typed these words, “People in Houston are scrambling to leave the city.” Well, that's exactly what was going on. So I'm beginning to tell a story. Stories are very powerful, stories are very hypnotic. And I tell this story using a lot of one-line email sentences. It's very important to make them one line, because an email, you don't want your text all bunched together, it's too hard to read. I also thought it would be far more hypnotic if I had a pace to this email. So this is paced in such a way to keep you trucking along, reading, riveted, hypnotized.

“The Mayor has urged many to evacuate. The next hurricane, Rita, is bigger and badder than Katrina, and it’s headed this way.” And I go on to explain what this is all about. And then I go on to the real reason I'm writing this. “As I listen to the news and watch people, the key word that everyone says or seems to breed is "victim." We're victims of storms, we're victims of chance, we're victims of a poorly run government. We're victims of … “, and I go on and list them all.

Then I tell people that they have more power than what they think. And again, I know I'm jarring them with some information here, but a lot of these people want this to be true. A lot of people are nodding their heads going, "Okay, I'm with you Joe. The news is talking to us about being victims. I do feel like a victim, but what do we do about it?" Well, I then go on and quote the 19 studies that are listed in the back of my book, The Attractor Factor, that prove that when a large group of people hold positive intentions, those intentions radiate out and become reality.

Now I was very quick at that very point to anticipate what people were thinking. I was not telling them to ignore the storm warnings. I was not telling them to go out and stand in the face of the storm. I was, instead, urging them to think positive, and I was reminding them that if a large group of people thinks positive, that energy will go out and make a difference in the real world. So again, I wrote this from my heart. That is the

best way that I can explain it. As I wrote it, I anticipated what people's concerns would be, and I addressed them.

And this is very real too, because, as I was typing this email, the storm was heading our way. And as I was typing this email, as I say on the letter page, “As I was finishing this article, UPS delivered two books to me. Both are timely and worth mentioning.” Well, that's true, UPS did arrive, and those two books did arrive. Unconditional Bliss was one of the books, and Megatrends 2010 was one of the books. And I say it all here.

I then go on and, again, encourage everybody to send out loving energy, knowing that a lot of them are going to think I'm crazy, but knowing a lot of them will do it. And in my heart, feeling that if a lot of people do this, we can make a difference! So I end it by saying, "It begins with you. What will you choose to think?” Well, that's a pretty powerful question.

By asking them what will they choose to think, I'm reminding them that they have a choice. They can remain a victim, they can choose to be fearful. Or they can choose to be more powerful, and they can choose to think positive. Well, that's the way I wrote this email. I wasn't selling anything in terms of an item that they would pay for, but I was selling a concept. I was selling a philosophy. I was selling a mindset. And I think this email really did it well.

Now I'm enough of a marketer to be sure that this ended with a little bit of a bio on me. So at the end there's what’s called a "resource box" where it say, “Dr. Joe Vitale is the author of way too books to list here,” and I mention The Attractor Factor and a few other ones. I also mentioned the e-zine I have at Mr. Fire. And I also mentioned my Katrina Drive, and that was a web site I had set up after the Katrina devastation. It was at … I don't think it's there now, but it was at operationsuperhero.com. So even while I was creating my plea for people to help save a whole lot of other people by getting my list "All Think Alike", I still was enough of a marketer to have a little bit of a marketing message still at the end of this.

This added to my credibility because it said who I am, in case a few people had forgotten. Told them I was an author of a book or two, in case they had forgotten that. I gave them my website in case they had forgotten that. And, of course, told them about the Katrina Drive, which I guess, on another level, also let them know I was making a difference in the world by trying to help out the past victims.

So, I'm very proud of this email and of course, if you didn't hear the ending punch line, Rita did not hit mainland Texas. It did dissolve. It went from a category 5 to a category 1, and before it hit land, it was almost nothing. And here in the hill country, Narissa and I had prepared for the storm to hit us, and on the day it was supposed to hit, it was sunny and clear, and we sat out on the front porch watching the birds fly. It was pretty remarkable. Now how much of that was accomplished because of my email asking people to change their mindset? I have no idea! Maybe it had nothing to do with it. Maybe it had everything to do with it. I'm still glad I did it.

And I think there's a lesson here in being honest with yourself about what you believe in when you write your emails. Be sincere, be personal. I think what people want is to hear from somebody who's unique. They want to hear about what you love, they want to hear about what you hate. They want to know what your passions are. They want to know you are real. Well, this email revealed all of that, and it revealed the real Joe Vitale.

So let's look at the next email. The next one is called "The Secret Manual of a Marketing Genius." Well again, I'm always working on the subject line. The word "secret" is powerful, obviously the movie is called "The Secret," and everybody wants to know what the secret is. A secret manual even sounds more interesting. It sounds like a CIA textbook of some sort that was hidden under lock and key. Well, this one’s of a marketing genius, not just a marketer, but a marketing genius. Well, you can't help but wonder what is a secret manual of a marketer's genius?

So I think people would open it up, and then when they open it, I ask them again with a question. "How would you market your business without the internet? Or radio? Or television? Or the telephone? Or any of the other bells and whistles we all take for granted these days. How would you market your business if all you had was your own creativity? One man left us the answer.” Well, as you can see, this is written in a story format. It's written with a great deal of curiosity. Curiosity is one of the most powerful hypnotic tools that you could ever come up with, that you could ever rely on in your bag of tricks. I use curiosity all the time, and I use these questions all the time, and again, these questions are designed to make you keep reading.

You also notice a lot of one-liners. You'll also notice a lot of … I’m building your suspense. One man left us the answer, but I don't tell us who it is. I then said, “He lived in the 1800's, and used his wits to create an empire. He was such a marketing genius. He was so spiritual. His peers called him "The Shakespeare of Advertising." He was so confident that his marketing ideas would work, ‘If you faithfully follow my methods, you cannot fail.’ His methods were fun. He impressed President Abraham Lincoln."

I go on, and on, and on, and I don't tell you who the man is. And you already know from the subject line, he's some sort of marketing genius, but I'm building up enthusiasm. I'm building up passion. I'm building up curiosity before I ever tell you it was P.T. Barnum. Now, as soon as I tell you it was P.T. Barnum, again I'm anticipating skepticism. I know a lot of people think P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute." The truth is he never said that. So I handle that objection instantly. I say P.T. Barnum's name. “I know you're thinking he said, ‘There's a sucker born every minute.’” I quickly dispel that. I then go on to say, “I revealed the only book on Barnum's methods,” and I give the website, Barnumreturns.com.

Then the rest of this is a lot of description, telling you what's in the book. Again, there’s testimonials, like from David Deutch, who said, "A fascinating look at one of the greatest and most misunderstood promotional geniuses of all time." And, as always there's a P.S.

telling people they can get the book at a bookstore, and a second P.S. telling them they can see a Barnum-like stunt at canineconcert.com.

As I mentioned before, I always use a P.S. at least once. Sometimes I'll use two or three, because I know they are important. I rarely go beyond three P.S.'s, because at that point, it's over-kill and no one P.S. stands out. For a P.S. to be a powerful statement there really should just be one, and if there are two, that's okay, but they better be pretty good. You could get away with three, but I wouldn't do much more than that.

Also notice my little footnote. Again, I say, "Note: Please forward this email to anyone you think will welcome the news." And again, by saying that, I'm suggesting. I'm planting a hypnotic suggestion that people do it. Very often they do, so always consider asking people to do that.

So, let's now look at what many people say is my most hypnotic email of all time. The subject line is “A Big Fat Confession from Joe Vitale”. Well, that subject line, I did work on it, and I couldn't help but feel when I got to it that, this was it. First of all, a big fat confession, it's just not a confession, it's a big fat confession, and when people get into the email, they'll understand the relevance of the subject line itself, but when you just see the subject line, you're wondering, "Wow! What's he confessing?" He’s not just … a big confession, it's not just a fat confession, and it's a big, fat confession. So it sounds really unusual, it sounds really different, it sounds very captivating. And I say it's from me. So, if, for some bizarre reason, they didn't see my name from the from line in their email, they see it in the subject line, or they see it both. And they're going, "Wow! What is Joe confessing?" And it's a big, fat confession.

So that subject line gets people to open it. It's intriguing, it's short, it's sweet and it's sincere, it's honest. So you open the email. “If you've been reading my newsletter, you know I've lost about 60 pounds in the last six months.” That's a good opening line, because I'm reminding people they're on my e-zine. It's amazing to me that people will sign up for a newsletter, and within days forget they've signed up to it, and when you send them something that they actually requested, they forgot they requested it, and sometimes they're upset. They think they're being spammed, and they'll complain, or they’ll unsubscribe.

So my first line is kind of interesting because I'm reminding them, at least subliminally, hey, you joined this newsletter. You've probably even been reading them in the past. And the very second phrase, “I've lost almost 60 pounds. in the last six months”, whether they remembered that or not, it’s going to be news to them. And if they have any sort of weight issue, they're probably going to be curious.

Then I go on to say, “I've done it primarily with the help of the most remarkable training I've ever seen.” Well, the word "remarkable" is a qualifier, it makes the word "training" far more interesting. I then say, “It's the "Mental Toughness Institute." Well, most likely they've never heard of it, and at the same time, it's a curious name. Mental Toughness Institute? Whoever heard of such a thing? So I'm building their curiosity.

I go on to explain what happened. “These were the people who helped me raise my consciousness, expose delusional thinking and finally, finally reached my fitness goals.” I go on to explain that, “Whether you have 10 pounds or 100 pounds …”, so I'm drawing them in. The best way that I can describe this email, much like the Stop Rita one, it's real, it's authentic, its' true, it's about me, it's about a personal experience I've had that I've lived through. It's a confession of the kind where you bare your soul.

I am primarily the testimonial for this whole program, and so this coming from me, and the reality of me losing 60 pounds at that point … of course I went on to lose 80 pounds, and I've been in five fitness contests, and I'm currently in my sixth one at this very point. I'm giving a very persuasive, very real testimonial for the Mental Toughness Institute.

I go on to say that there's going to be another training, and that I'm going to be in it. I think this is a powerful tool. A lot of people try to sell things, but they don't use it themselves, or they're trying to sell a class, but they're not in the class themselves. Well, I say I'm going … there's a new training date, it's on Monday, it’s whatever … the February 21st, and I'm going to be in it. I then go on to say, “If you want proof …” and I give them a place to go look at the pictures of me, MrFire.com/photogallery.html.

So I think that this is a very powerful email, and many say the most hypnotic one I've ever written in my life, because it's so confessionary. It's such a thing where I'm baring my soul, I'm telling you the truth. I'm letting you see before and after pictures, I'm the testimonial. And more than that, I'm going to be in the next class, which is what I'm promoting with this actual email. So this is pretty powerful. This is, for all those reasons I gave, and it's telling a story, of course, it's a … in many ways just a long testimonial. But the reality of it, the truth of it, the sincerity of it, all of these are the elements that get my vote as one of the most hypnotic emails I've ever written.

So let's go on to another on. This was an email, the title is "Brittany Spears Caught Using Hypnotic Selling in TV Curious Ad." This one was a fun one to write and a fun one to do. Let me tell you the story behind it. When I was selling my giant package through Nitro Marketing, my Hypnotic Selling Secrets huge package, and we were promoting a web call or web cast where people were going to go to, and I think it was at hypnoticwritingwebcast.com, where I was going to give a free training on Hypnotic Selling Secrets. And then, of course, we would pitch people at the end of it to go and buy it.

I kept thinking, “We need to do something to get more of the world to take notice.” Traditionally, people online just promote to their own lists, or they’ll promote to a few other mailing lists they can get their hands on. They'll do a few joint ventures. But they keep forgetting that there's truly a customer born every minute. They keep forgetting that most of the world is not online, they're not on the computer, and it's really a small percentage, so far, that's online. And I thought, “I want to be able to dip into that sea that's out there, that ocean of customers that maybe never heard of me before, or Nitro Marketing or Hypnotic Selling Secrets,” and I thought, “I need a way to do that.”

Well, in the evening I often watch television, and that evening a commercial came on with Britney Spears. She was promoting some new fragrance that they paid her to promote called "Curious". And I watched it and I thought, "Wow, that was pretty hypnotic." And then a moment later, a light bulb went off over my head and I thought, "Holy Smokes! That was hypnotic." I ran upstairs and I wrote this news release. "Britney Spears Caught Using Hypnotic Selling in TV Ad. Unless Curious Stinks, Sales Will Not" says expert.

I'm still proud of that news release. I sent it out as a news release. I got a lot of attention. I think we had like 15,000 people sign up for our web-cast, which was incredible. That was a stampede. I mean that was breaking … boggling the mind and breaking all records. Then I took the same news release and sent it out as an email to my list, and you're looking at it right now. “Britney Spears Caught Using Hypnotics Selling in TV Curious Ad”. And I just left it the way it was, which was kind of unusual for me. I tend to go ahead and re-write a news release so isn't email, and I could have done it with this one, but I liked it the way it was, and I liked the charm to it. I liked the fact that it was so different, that I sent it out the way it was.

Again, this brought in a staggering amount of new traffic. Lots of people who never heard of me before saw the news release, they signed up for the call, tens of thousands of people did, as I remember, and, of course, we sold a tremendous amount of Hypnotic Selling Secrets, the package. So that was a very successful email.

Let's look at one or two more before I wrap this up. The next one, the subject line was, "Why Did He Send Me One Baby Shoe?" Now of course, that's curious. “Why Did He Send Me One Baby Shoe?” Well, you've got to open that one up. You're wondering what? Who sent you what? And why was it a baby shoe? And why only one? So, again the subject line, that's a captivator. That's an eye opener, that's one people will open.

Then we look at the email. “I'm headed to the airport again, but I had to tell you this. Yesterday I received a box by Fed Ex. It contained one baby shoe. That's right. One tiny, white shoe.” Let's stop right there. This is very curious. I'm telling a story again, and as I've said many times, stories are very, very powerful. And the fact that this person sent me one baby shoe is very interesting, but I go on and tell you it's one tiny, white shoe. That's important because it paints a visual in your mind. You might have thought it was a red shoe, a blue shoe, or something else. But by saying it's one tiny white shoe it becomes real, and this story even becomes more real.

I go on to say, “I dug around in the box that it came, and I found a simple note with burned edges around the corners.” Well, that's interesting because you can see that in your mind. A note. It had burned edges around the corners. And the site was a completely re-written one, and I give the site, pelmanismonline.com. I then go on to tell the rest of the story. Now again, this is a true story, and this is one of the elements in almost all of my very hypnotic emails. They're true. They're sincere. They're based on something that actually happened, or is happening.

That was the case with this particular one. The person, Rob Hawthorne, who had sent the one shoe, had rewritten a website that had already been done. Well, I explain all of that in here, and I explain it in such a way that this new website is so good you have to go look at it, and that is powerful. I send you to pelmanismonline.com. I'm doing it because your curiosity about how it was rewritten, your curiosity about the website being so good has to be so high that you want to go look at the website, which is the whole point of this email. I want you to go to pelmanismonline.com.

Then I end it with a little bit of a joke. “My only question is, since Rob sent me one baby shoe, where is the other one?” Well, humor doesn't typically sell anything, but if you can leave people with a little bit of a twinkle, it softens them, it opens their heart, it lowers their radar, and they're very often inclined to just go on over and do what you wanted them to do in the beginning. Which was go look at pelmanismonline.com

Again, I always use a P.S. There's one here. I think I had just revamped my Mr. Fire site, so the P.S. is not even relevant to what I was selling. It's just a reminder that if you haven't seen the new and improved Mr. Fire, go take a look at it. But, the point is, I'm still using a P.S. because I know P.S.'s are so powerful.

And so finally, let's look at this last email. And the subject line was, "This is my last time to do this." Well, as I look at it right now with … some time has gone by, and a sense of detachment, I can probably improve on that subject line. But it did get people to know about this, and to open the email. It made them a little bit curious. And so you open it up and it says, "Thought you would want to know about this. It is my last time to teach it. Please forward it to friends. Thanks, Joe".

Now, let's stop there. That is one of my favorite things to do to create a hypnotic email. I added two lines, two or three lines, that look like they're personal to you alone. I added two or three lines before you get to the actual email. Now let's look at this closely. In a traditional email it might have begun with the quote, "I'm looking for 20 people on my email list who would like to personally learn from me …”, blah, blah, blah, and then you have all of the rest of the email. What I did different that makes this seem like it was only written for you, is I added those couple of words, those couple of lines.

So I pretend that … well, if I was going to send this to you personally, wouldn't I introduce it in some way? Wouldn't I say something like, "Hi! Thought you’d want to see this. I just wrote it." Or I'd say what I just said here. "Thought you would want to know about this. It's my last time to teach it. Please forward it to friends. Thanks, Joe", with a little smiley face. That couple of lines transforms this whole email. It goes from being a sales pitch into being a personal note with a request to you, before you ever start reading the sales pitch. It warms you up to the message. In fact, you're more likely to read the whole message because you think, "Oh, Joe sent this to me. I wonder what it's all about?"

So this is one of my favorite things to do. It's one of my inside secrets. I'm really confessing a big one here. This is a multi-million dollar email hypnotic trick, by personalizing your email. And then, of course, look at the email. “I'm looking for 20 people on my list who would like to personally learn from me how to make $5,000 to $15,000 in just three weeks." Well, those are specifics. Those details, those concrete numbers are incredibly credible. They are believable. That's the kind of thing you want in your email, solid numbers. Don't say, “I'm looking for a bunch of people”. Don't say, I can make … you can make a bunch of money in a short period of time.” Give me the specifics.

You go on to the first paragraph. “I taught famed copywriter, Yanik Silver, my proprietary method for creating e-classes." It's good that I said “proprietary method”, because it assumes that this is classified. This is secret. I haven't done this for everybody. I go on and give a specific. Yanik made $18,289.50 on his first e-class, and $11,180 you know blah, blah, blah.

You can go on and see … just scan this and look at all the numbers. These numbers suggest that this is real. Of course, all of this is real, but people won't believe you if you don't use real facts, real people, real figures. When you go on to see names, Tom Pauli, John Harshewan, Mike Dooley, Jillian Coleman, Blaire Warren, Randy Gilbert, Kevin Hogan, Eva Gregory. I'm not making these up. These are real people. So all of that adds credibility. It builds up your interest. It builds up your desire. It takes away your skepticism.

I go on and break down the class. “Lesson one, your own e-class”. People want to know what they're going to get. It's very important that you be very descriptive. Don't just tell them, "Oh, you're going to get your bang for your money. You're going to get a lot of value.” Tell them what they're going to get.

As you go on through this email, you'll see more things. One of my favorite things that I like to do, as a principle or a technique, is I put the fee for the class in perspective. I'm a great believer that most of marketing is perception. So before I ever tell them how much this will cost, I tell them how much I would charge. Now, I'm laughing a little bit because I see I charge $500 an hour for my consulting by phone. Well, today I charge $2,500 an hour for consulting by phone. But back then I charged $500 an hour, so it was relevant for me to put it there. So I'm telling you how much this is worth before I tell you how much it costs.

I then look at look at the possible objections. Where you can look at it two ways. "Oh my God. How can he charge so much?" Or "Oh my God. I can learn how to make $5,000 or more teaching my own e-class by email, and I can teach my e-class multiple times, and make money every time I do it. And all for only $995?” So I'm helping the reader choose how they want to perceive this. They can look at the email and go, “Oh, he's charging a lot of money.” Or they can look at the email and say "Wow. I can make $5,000 for only a $1,000 investment?" So I'm helping people to think the way I want them to think about this.

The email goes on with more strong specifics about when the class begins. I also tell them how to pay, which is important. You always want to tell people how can they reach you? Do they fax you? Do they email you? Do they go to a website? Do they, you know, send a carrier pigeon with a check attached to his leg? I mean what … how do they … how do they do this? So tell them what to do, tell them when to do, tell them how.

The P.S., there’s always a P. S. I remind people, “Remember, I can only accept 20 people in this e-class because I give you such personal attention.” Then I go on to tell how much money you can make, so forth. I do add a second P.S. to this one. I like this one because it starts to play with their fantasies. It starts to engage their emotion. “P.P. S. What are you going go get first when you start making all this extra money from your own e-classes? Will you pay off some bills? Treat your family to a vacation? Help a worthy cause? Get a new car? Start thinking about it right now, after you email me at joe@mrfire.com, and say," Count me in, Joe!"

I like that one a lot because it's getting people to start to fantasize about all the things they'll buy for themselves when this e-class works for them, and they start raking in the money. So that's a nice email, or a nice P.S., for a lot of psychological reasons.

Well, there you have it. Those are some of the most hypnotic emails I've ever written. They've been very popular. Some of these I had forgotten about. I haven't done an e-class in a long time, so I had forgotten about the e-class email for it. The baby shoe one is always great. The Britney Spears one I've always enjoyed. The Big Fat Confession from Me has always done well. Secret Manual of a Marketing Genius is one of my favorites.

An Unusual Plea, Help Me Stop Rita, that's probably my all-time favorite email, my personal favorite, because I think it's well written. I think it's well done. I think it accomplished its goals. And I also feel good about the fact that I did something to help people. I stood my ground. I faced my fears. I sent it out, and I got good results.

How to Change by Watching a Single DVD, that's always been a great one. A Psychology for Sales and Marketing, that one is so good I'm going to be sending it out again to a different list within the next few days.

So have fun writing your hypnotic emails. I hope you've learned a lot from this exploration into my thought process as I've narrated everything here. So God speed to you with everything that you do, and I look forward to seeing your hypnotic emails in the future.

Joe Vitale of MrFire.com and Hypnoticgold.com, over and out.