# 6 Pillars of a Magnetic Hook

> The six things that make a hook impossible to scroll past: a cliffhanger, specificity, credibility, a poked pain, minimised effort, and punchy clarity.

- Author: Tatsuki Thomas (https://tatsukithomas.com/)
- Published: 2023-08-06
- Canonical: https://coldangles.com/blog/6-pillars-of-a-magnetic-hook/

The hook is the most important part of any piece of copy. Get it wrong and nothing else you write matters, because no one reads it. Get it right and you've earned the attention to make your point (or your sale).

Here are the six pillars of a hook people can't scroll past.

**1. The Cliffhanger**

This is the most important, but also the most obvious aspect of a brilliant hook. You state what the content is about. But you never say how or why.

For example:

"Storytelling is the most powerful skill in the world. But most people suck at it. Here are 9 rules to writing stories that sell."

You're stating what it's about (storytelling), but you're not giving away how to write stories. The curiosity of how or why is fundamentally what hooks your reader.

**2. Specificity**

Specificity does not simply mean being specific with numbers.

Save $1000 becomes Save $1234.23

This does increase believability (to an extent). But what is more important is that you are specific with the idea and outcome.

Save $1000 becomes: Save $1000 a year with a simple accounting trick that reduces your tax bill (legally).

**3. Credibility**

There are thousands of people writing online. And half of them don't know what they're talking about. So why should someone listen to you?

Credibility. It comes from what you, or the person you're writing about, has done. The more credibility, the better.

For example:

- "I've grown 2000 followers in the last 30 days."
- "I spent 6 months studying 30 copywriting books."
- "He sold over 20,000,000 pairs of sunglasses with a 240 word story."

This matters most when you're small. The bigger your track record gets, the less you need to lean on written credibility, because you already carry it.

**4. Poke a Pain**

Pain is one of the strongest motivators. So poking a pain is one of the best ways to hook attention.

Bigger the pain. Stronger the hook.

For example:

- "Finding clients is hard."
- "Most people suck at storytelling."
- "Struggling to write content alongside your 9 to 5?"

**5. Minimise Effort**

People are lazy. They want their problems solved and their dream achieved as easily as possible.

So always: minimise the perceived effort, maximise the benefit.

For example:

- "7 simple steps to get more work done in your day."
- "Here's my easy 3-step formula for viral posts."
- "Steal these 10 dead-simple tricks to make your stories sell."

Warning: don't take this too far, or it stops being believable.

"3 simple steps to make $1 million in only 2 hours today."

Just be honest.

**6. Punchy and Clear**

You're fighting against a sea of other hooks. So your hook needs to pack a punch. And NEVER confuse. Confusion is the biggest conversion killer.

Here's a hook I wrote a while ago:

"Get buff in the word gym with these 7 copywriting exercises."

Can you see what's wrong with it? I'm trying to be clever, not clear. What the hell does 'get buff in the word gym' mean?

An improvement would be:

"Get good at copywriting with these 7 easy exercises."

To recap:

- Have a cliffhanger.
- Be specific on the idea.
- Layer in credibility.
- Poke a pain.
- Minimise effort. Maximise benefit.
- Make it punchy and clear.

Master these six and you'll write hooks people can't ignore.

Tatsuki

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