In writing, unless you’re writing a therapeutic metaphor for an individual, you don’t know the preferred submodalities of your readers. How do you deal with that?

Does the modality of reading matter? Initially I’d thought reading was an entirely visual experience. Someone suggested that it was auditory because people say the words in their heads as they read. I argued that I didn’t say the words because I speed read.

I’ve heard it said that the mind can process something like 20,000 words a minute but most people are limited in their reading speed by their speaking speed.

So perhaps it’s a synethesic activity. That’s where you use multiple submodalities concurrently without being able to separate them out. When I was learning to speed read, that was the trick… to be able to stop saying the words in your head.

What’s this have to do with marketing?

Well, if you want to match your reader’s submodality, it probably includes a visual component so you can use that language. Would that look right? See what I mean?

Each market segment is different though. Maybe most CEOs (for example) favor kinesthetic messages… words that pack a punch, feel right and explode your profits.

The only way to know is to test it. Test using each submodality together and separately. If you’re multivariate testing you’ll eventually figure out the best mix.

Does that ring true? What do you think?