Brand awareness is a hugely sought-after commodity. Earning the attention of an audience is one of the most challenging jobs in branding and marketing. Every day, we are bombarded with emails, notifications, updates, messages, and social media posts, with all of them jockeying to get us to sit up and notice them.
Companies need to truly understand and manage some due diligence regarding who their target audience is, what they need, where they shop, and what evokes their emotion and purchasing behaviors. This is what makes research, competitive analysis, and insights on the front end of any marketing initiative so important.
As far as your brand narrative or messaging, do you know what your hook is? A hook is a reader’s first written impression of a business, company, entrepreneur, or product. It describes, clear as day, WHY a particular widget or service suite is the solution someone is looking for. In a few succinct sentences it needs to explain what makes a business stand apart from any competition it might have. Many of my clients THINK they know WHY they are special or unique, but when they attempt to articulate that by writing it down in words, they typically stumble.
Think of your hook as you or your brand’s story. Everyone, including companies and organizations, has a story that is theirs and theirs alone. Your story (in full or in part) should be a large part of your hook because no one else can claim the exact same origin story.
That story helps create a nucleus or focus as your demographic decides whether they are in or out, whether they trust what you are selling (or saying). In other words, your story hook, if done well, can get your proverbial foot in the door, which is no doubt the most difficult obstacle in today’s digital era.
When your marketing hook fails to garner attention, readers bounce off your website, or they keep scrolling on their social media feeds. So you must stand out and stand out authentically to get them curious enough to learn more.
There are a few primary principles to ensure you hit the mark with whatever marketing hook you establish.
1. Find a pain point within your target market and craft your hook so that it resonates in a way like no one else. Whatever solution you or your business offers is part of your/its story, so consider why you choose to do whatever it is that you do or sell whatever it is that you sell. Transparency and honesty are always received well.
2. Reject the status quo. This is an ongoing process. It means that what worked for a time needs to change and evolve as your brand’s story does. Re-evaluate at least once a year what your marketing mix is all about and what new chapters your/your business have begun. Tweak or overhaul your hook as necessary.
3. Stay creative as you simply can’t remain static. Your hook has to show that your product/solution has the chops to fix a problem or fill a gap.
4. Use headlines and subject lines deliberately and purposefully, These need to speak volumes in 5-6 words, max! These are the initial triggers for making a reader curious to continue on. If they can relate to your header or lead-in, it’s a win. Keep in mind that headlines/subject lines should offer a glimpse into what is to come. Don’t spill it all here, keep them wanting more.
We are bombarded by marketing messages all the time. Your hook is all about taking that intangible thing about your brand/business and finding the order, flow and cadence of words to draw people to it and engage with it. It isn’t an easy task but once you land on your hook, it literally can inform all marketing initiatives moving forward.