The subject line of today’s e-mail is called a “metaphor,” and metaphors are phrases which make “good” sales copy GREAT.

If you look up “metaphor” in the American Heritage Dictionary, it says something like this: “A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison.”

So, for example, when you say “Jealousy’s a stinky cologne, Max,” the word cologne, which ordinarily means aftershave, now as “stinky cologne” refers to an emotional state — jealousy.

To be fair, I didn’t come up with this metaphor. Last night when I picked up my son Nick from work, it was the first thing he said to me when he got in the car. Nick’s a VERY quick-witted young man, but alas… he didn’t make it up either. Apparently it came from a movie he watched, called Super Troopers.

Metaphors are effective for several reasons. For starters, if your metaphors are humorous, then you get the opportunity to put a smile across your prospect’s face — and that is ALWAYS good. But be careful though — you don’t want to be goofy or foolish. You’d BETTER know what you’re doing when it comes to humor.

Second, metaphors make something that may not be tangible, VERY tangible.

And lastly, they are good involvement devices. Your customer becomes a part of your promotion and internalizes your sales copy when you use a metaphor. When you read the subject line, loads of different things may go through your mind — bad cologne, smelling bad cologne, splashing cologne on your face — it can be any NUMBER of scenarios.

Here’s another common metaphor: “He was as frozen as a deer in headlights.”

Want to know what made me think of this one?

You do?

O.K., well… during that same car ride home with Nick (he’s one HELL of a resourceful kid that Nick, believe me), we saw two deer crossing the road down our street. If you’ve never seen a deer “in person”, rest assured it’s not like on TV. Deer are VERY big, and very graceful as well.

Truly beautiful to watch, and a far cry from the streets of The Bronx where I grew up and we had other kinds of “animals” roaming the streets.

Want to know how to IMMEDIATELY create intense want for your product? Check out page 10 of this month’s Offline Seductive Selling Newsletter before it’s gone. Only 5 days left to get your hands on it, so test-drive it FREE, here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Now go sell something, Craig Garber