You likely know about using a hook in salescopy... that's one of the ways we GET prospects to read.



To keep my prospect reading, I use lots of "micro-hooks" to keep them engaged with my salesletter.

People are by and large curious. And I like to use that fact to my advantage when writing salescopy.

It makes people slightly uncomfortable... at least until they get the answer. But most importantly, it keeps them reading until they do.

It's psychology 101... but it's something you can use to keep the odds in your favor.

My pal Mark Joyner is a master of this. He calls it the Zeigarnik Effect.

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

Here's a few examples of these "micro hooks' from that letter:

In one section of copy, I needed to write about the precise 4 steps for a turnaround.

then...

"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 I didn't give them all the details... but enough to give some real information.

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!

And writing "more on that in a minute" ratcheted up the curiosity to the point where readers HAD to find out.

I suggest you all go get that letter and read it through and look for all of the tiny little "micro hooks."

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

Now, one more thing you need to know.

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.

When loops are left open, it's a sales-killer.

One more thing. Don't give readers ALL the answers in your salescopy. That's an itch only the product should scratch.