How to Create an Effective Marketing Hook for your Business
What does “hook marketing” mean, and how do you create an effective marketing hook? Just like in fishing, as a marketer you want to “hook” your target and then reel them in, so they ultimately become your customer. Effective marketing will generally involve some type of hook. Below are some quick tips to help you create an effective hook for your business.
What is a hook in marketing?
A hook is generally described as a single phrase that intrigues a customer enough to explore your business or buy your product. In the Mad Men days of marketing, this might have been the jingle, or a catchy phrase that described your business. Today it’s not always so simple, as you compete with thousands of other businesses to fill the same customer need. Your hook needs to be that one thing that sets you apart. And it may not be a phrase at all, but rather a tactic. It’s what makes you different, intriguing, relevant or necessary. That may be a trait about your business, a unique niche you serve, or a relevant offer that needs to be acted on now. It could even be in the way you connect with your audience, that breaks through in a way that nobody else is doing.
How do you create your hook?
To create an effective hook, you need to understand your customer. What is that core insight about your target audience that you can tap into, that will resonate in a better way than anyone else. If you can dive deep to understand your customer at their core, you will know what it is that they really need. And if you know what they really need, and understand what makes them tick, you can craft a marketing hook that will snag them every time.
Your hook needs to be short, and grab attention quickly. When you are reeling your target in, you can take the time to provide more information, but the hook itself needs to create an immediate connection. Human attention span is less than 8-seconds, so your hook needs to resonate within that time frame to be effective. If your company message takes longer to convey than this, you need to focus it much more before using it as your hook. If your message is too long, prospects will lose interest before biting. If you find this challenging, try developing multiple hooks for different products or services that you offer, or for different audiences you are trying to connect with. In each case, your hook needs to emphasize what is uniquely valuable about your offer to your target audience. Focus on what need you are fulfilling for them.
Why do you need a hook?
Hooks resonate immediately, so your target will take the bait and bite. Once they do, your other marketing efforts can kick in to convert that lead to a sale. Hooks are also memorable. People will talk about an impactful message or tactic, and will remember it again when they are in need of that service, so an effective hook will have long lasting benefits for your business. The better your hook, the more awareness it will get, the farther your message will reach, and the more customers you will pull in.
Complicated messages are often forgotten, but an effective hook will get your message across quickly so it can be absorbed easily. You need the hook to immediately give a target a reason to engage with you, by intriguing them or conveying a relevant benefit to their point in time.
Who should create your hook?
You know your business best, but creating a hook is not as easy as it sounds. Once you’ve uncovered core audience insights, you are best to write a creative brief that gives all of the key insights and the core message, and then leverage a strong copywriter and/or marketing consultant to help create your hook. The hook isn’t your whole story – it is a tease into it, a taste of what is to come. It needs to be crafted brilliantly to really resonate with your audience. The wording needs to resonate, with brilliant simplicity. And the tactic itself needs to have relevance to your audience. Don’t be afraid to bring in an expert to help you craft this hook.
Where Can I Find Examples in Practice?
Apple is always held up as an example of great marketing, and beautiful simplicity – so we’ll use them as a perfect case in point. Almost 20-years ago, Apple launched the iPod, and people still talk about their tagline today. “1,000 songs in your pocket” was a perfect hook. In 5 simple words, the message was delivered perfectly, and intrigued the target into wanting that key benefit. Medium talks about this example as the difference between “okay” and “amazing”, by identifying the focus on the customer as their core. This hook didn’t talk about the product, it talked about the end benefit to the customer, and that is what sold it.
In terms of tactics, look no further than your Instagram scroll or a quick google search for a business service, and you’ll find many examples of hooks in practice. White papers, free downloads, seminar invitations, coupons, contests – these are all examples of “hooks” that have been designed to get someone’s attention and draw them in. By giving your target a value-add, you are gaining their contact information and getting the opportunity to reel them closer to a sale. The freebie is the bait, the hook that gets them to take a first step, and that is what allows you to close a sale.
It’s no accident that I named my business Hook Marketing. The hook is at the core of successful marketing, and the first step in the process to growing your business. Be sure to dive deep into understanding your customer and your business opportunities, then craft your hook and create a strong marketing communications funnel to drive from awareness to conversion.
Originally published on: hookmarketing.ca/blog at https://hookmarketing.ca/blog/f/how-to-create-an-effective-hook-for-your-business