Tuesday, June 24, 2008

How to pump up your copywriting with "micro-hooks

By Million Dollar Mike Morgan

Want to know a secret I've rarely revealed?

The "hook" or the "Big Idea" is one of the ways we get people to read our ads.

And since you know the more people read, the more they buy, you'll want to sprinkle "micro-hooks" in your advertising to jack up your readership, your conversion rates and your bottom line.

Human beings are a curious species as a group. And there is a phenomenon that surrounds incompletion in us all.

Curiosity will keep people digging to find answers... that means they will read more of your salescopy.

This is basic human psychology and in marketing, you use this psychology to your advantage.

Mark Joyner talkes about this phenomena in his book Mind Control Marketing. It's called the Zeigarnik Effect.

In the ad I wrote for Marks 7 Day business turnaround, there were hooks galore in the body copy.

Wany an example?

In a section of the copy, I was explaining the exact steps involved in a business turnaround. I explained the 4 step process that made any turnaround work.

and after that I wrote:

"That's it. Pretty simple... at least on the outside. With that strategy alone, you could engineer a turnaround. If you know the tactics to accomplish each step, my work is done here. Go forth and execute. If you don't... keep reading to uncover your answer. Okay, seems pretty simple doesn't it?"

But the beauty of that micro-hook was the fact people didn't know the details to execute the strategy.

But they were told that if they didn't, they should just keep reading and the answer would be revealed.

How many people were hot to find out the answer?

You bet it did, because if they were in need of a business turnaround, they HAD TO KNOW THE ANSWER.

Here's one more example.

Later, I showed the mechanism that made turnarounds work.

So I wrote:

"That's the process for your 7 Day Turnaround. It's the same thing a Fortune 500 would do, just made so bloody simple a 2nd grade teacher could do it (more about that in a minute)"

How about that?

Now I know teachers are not stupid... but it still sounds irrisistibly easy!

Using "more on that in a minute" hooked readers into reading more copy so they could find the answer.

If you can Google the letter and read it... it's a great tutorial on these "micro-hooks".

It's a great lesson in sucking in your readers continued attention.

One more thing....

You gotta close the loop on the curiosity!

If you don't give them what you said you would... they won't trust you. And that kills your sales.

If you don't, they'll still be mentally processing the open loop, and that kind of mind isn't ready to buy, because those little things will drive them crazy.

But don't give readers ALL the answers in your copy... or they won't buy your product.

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