Chapter 3
There is an emotional psychological reason for using a hook in your content—whether it's marketing, storytelling, or any form of communication ie: your website!
And that is to instantly capture the audience's attention and engage their emotions, motivating them to want to learn more.
Let's talk about Hooks for a second and why they matter:
Attention Grabbing: Hooks are designed to stand out amongst the noise. In an age where people are bombarded with information, a compelling hook grabs attention QUICKLY. This is critical because you typically only have a few seconds to catch someone’s interest before they move on.
Emotional Engagement: Effective hooks often tap into specific emotions such as curiosity, fear, excitement, or joy. So, by triggering an emotional response straight up, hooks connect on a deeper level, making the message more memorable and impactful.
Remember how we want to make them FEEL. Feeling rule supreme!
Emotional engagement is key in transforming passive readers or viewers into active participants.
Curiosity and Intrigue: Many hooks work by sparking curiosity. They often pose a question, present a surprising fact, or introduce a startling statement that can only be resolved by engaging further with the content. This plays into the psychological principle of the 'information gap' theory of curiosity, which suggests that when people feel a gap between what they know and what they want to know, they take action to learn more!
Relevance and Relatability: Hooks that are psychologically effective often resonate with the audience's existing needs, desires, or pain points. They reflect back an understanding of the audience’s situation or aspirations, making the content feel tailored and relevant. (USE your word banks!) This is a personal relevance and it increases the likelihood that your perfect people, your audience will feel a connection to the message, seeing it as directly applicable to their own lives.
Motivation and Action: Finally, it goes beyond just capturing attention, a strong hook can motivate action. So, by engaging emotions and sparking interest, a well-crafted hook can drive your audience to continue reading, click on a link, share the content, or even change their behavior. Think emotional arousal in decision making!
Hot tip -Jump on your socials and notice what you have saved. What was the hook? Why did it speak to you? How do YOU relate to their hook?
There is a reason you saved it. Now rewire that hook and make it your own.
Example:
Seen hook: “The part of divorce no one talk about”
YOUR hook: “The dark part of being a creative that no one talks about”.
Don’t copy, get inspo. And make it PERSONAL.
