There was once a very sexy commercial on television with the line, “If you want to capture someone’s attention, whisper.” Of course it showed a beautiful woman whispering into a man’s ear – and it was also false advertising. Can you guess why?
Because it wasn’t the whispering that was capturing attention – it was the pretty lady. Why is it that sex will capture attention every time, and what (surprisingly) works just as well as sex at pasting your prospect’s eyeballs to your website? Here’s what I’ve learned:
Humans have 3 brains in one – the analytical, thinking brain; the emotional brain; and the primitive, reptilian brain. It’s that primitive brain that cares about one thing – survival. Its job is to constantly monitor the environment for 3 things: Anything it can eat, anything it can have sex with, and anything that will hurt or kill it. That’s it. It’s a non-stop monitoring system for survival of the individual and the species, and because it’s simple, it’s also brain dead easy to capture its attention.
Simply use images or word pictures that bring thoughts of sex, food or danger and your prospect cannot immediately look away. Yes, it’s that simple. If you have a picture of an accident on your site, people will stop and look. They HAVE to. It’s no different than when they’re driving by a car accident: They’re unable to keep themselves from slowing down and looking to see the danger. That’s also why so many movie scenes involve chases, danger and violence – Hollywood knows you simply cannot flip the channel when it’s catering to your primitive brain.
Next time you want to rivet your reader to your sales page, see if you can add in some sexy elements, or some food, or even a sense of danger. They won’t know why they can’t tear their eyes away, nor will they care. They will, however, think their intense interest in your page must have something to do with the contents, and thus they will be more inclined to linger and possibly take the action you desire. Become irresistible to your readers – try catering to their primitive brain as well as their emotional and analytical brains and see what happens.
