Ep 28. How to write hooks that make your ideal client stop scrolling

Your content could be brilliant, but if your ideal client scrolls past the first line, they’re never gonna know.

Today I’m sharing one thing that most people miss when writing hooks, and it’s not about being clever or click baity. It’s about calling out the right person so that they actually stop and read what you’ve got to say.

If you’re new here, hello and a very more welcome to Quiet Confidence with myself, Anita Popat. This is a podcast for introverts who want to market their thing without changing who you are.

Just to clarify what I mean by a hook, it’s the first line or two of your post, the title of a carousel or a reel, or the first one or two lines of a caption.

It’s the bit that people see before they decide to click see more, or they keep scrolling.

And their job is to make your ideal client stop scrolling and think, wait, this is for me.

This episode is actually inspired by a client conversation I had this week, because her content wasn’t getting the traction she hoped for.

Her posts were good. They had loads of value. They were written in her voice, but the problem was that no one was stopping to read them.

And it’s because her hooks just didn’t mean anything to the people that she was trying to attract. They were really generic and could been written by anyone in her industry, for anyone in her industry.

When your hook doesn’t call out a specific person, they’re gonna scroll right past, even if your content is gold, because there’s nothing signaling to their brain like, stop! This is for you.

When I say “calling out”, what I mean is that you’re making it really obvious from the first glance that you are talking to the person you’re trying to attract, which means you’re using language, situations or a title or some sort of identifier that makes them stop and think, ah, she’s talking to me.

There’s a few ways that you can do this.

So you can call out their title or their role. for example, I use introverted service providers.

You can talk to different stages, so you could say, new business owners or coaches in their first year. And this works because it helps people self-identify, and if that’s them, they’re gonna keep reading. 

You can also call out a specific problem that someone might be having. So for example, I could say something like, if you’re posting content but you’re not getting any clients, if you feel like your marketing should be working right now, but it’s not.

If someone’s experiencing that problem, they’re gonna stop scrolling because they’re gonna find it valuable.

On the flip side, you can call out a desire or a goal, which is what I like to do. I could say things like, do you wanna fill your offers without feeling salesy? Or, are you trying to build an audience that actually converts?

If that’s what you want, you’re gonna be interested in reading or listening more.

You can also call out a situation that they might be in. Example, if you just launched your business and you’ve got no idea where to start with marketing, read this. Or if you’ve been in business for a year but you feel like you’re still guessing, this is for you.

These situational hooks will help you kind of repel the people that might be at the stages that you don’t want to work with.

They work because you’re gonna attract the people at the right stage, but also create that, oh, how did she know feeling?

And the key here, if you hadn’t noticed, is being really specific. The more specific you are, the more the right person feels like you’re speaking directly to them, which is why generic hooks like “want to grow your business?” don’t work because everyone wants to grow their business. It doesn’t make anyone feel special or seen. It’s just noise.

But specific hooks like, are you a service provider who’s tired of posting content that gets likes, but no clients?

That works because the right person thinks, Yeah, that’s exactly my problem.

So you’ve called out the type of person (service providers), but you’ve also spoke to the struggle that they’re having.

Remember, you’re not trying to appeal to everyone. What you’re trying to do with your hook is just to make your ideal client stop scrolling and notice you in their feed.

To give you an example, I had a client who’s a career coach and she was posting things like, do you wanna feel more confident? Or, here are some tips for building resilience. And those hooks do apply to her audience, but they’re really generic and vague and could literally apply to anyone.

If you were someone new who wasn’t in her world and a suggested post of hers came up on your feed, you might not click on it.

When I asked her who she actually helps, her answer was something like, I help female leaders in their forties who are navigating career transitions and feeling like they’ve lost their sense of identity outside their job title.

See how specific that is? That’s a person. You can really feel them, and that’s someone who would stop scrolling if you’ve spoke directly to them.

So instead of saying do you wanna feel more confident, she could say something like, female leaders, do you feel like you’ve lost yourself in your career transition? So immediately the right person knows that the post is for them. So they’re a female leader and everyone else can keep scrolling, which is exactly what you want.

Like with everyone when we do this work, she thought it was gonna be too narrow and that she’d exclude people. But that’s the point, right? You’re not trying to speak to everyone. You’re trying to speak to just one person.

And when she started using Hooks that actually called out that one person, her engagement changed. Not only was there more of it, but there was better quality clients landing in her DMs, which meant that the people reaching out to work with her were people that she actually wanted to work with.

You can use a really simple framework for writing hooks that will call people out.

Start with who they are. This could be their title, their role, their situation. And then add a problem, desire, or solution, like what are they experiencing? What do they want? Where are they stuck? And that’s your hook.

It calls out who it’s for and the problem it solves all in one.

But that’s just the first step.

Once you’ve got your attention with a good hook, you need to obviously deliver on it, and this is where people mess up.

You’ll write a good hook, but then the content doesn’t match. So if your hook is something like, are you feeling overwhelmed by all the marketing advice, then your content should address that overwhelm.

So you could share your perspective, tell a story. Give them something that actually helps them with that specific problem. Don’t be that person who hooks them in with one thing and then talks about something completely different. That’s clickbait and we’re not about that vibe.

What you wanna do is connect your hook to a story or a perspective that only you can share. If you’re calling out, overwhelmed first year coaches, share a story about when you were overwhelmed or when a client was overwhelmed, and what shifted for them or your perspective on why, some sort of advice might feel overwhelming.

Make it really relevant and personal, but more importantly, make it about them, not you, and then your call to action. So the thing you want them to do at the end needs to match that transformation that you’re talking about.

Don’t just say DM me. This is what a lot of people do as well.

Share the transformation they’re gonna get if they DM you. You could say something like, oh, if you’re ready to stop feeling overwhelmed and start seeing result, send me a message to book a free strategy call so you’re telling them what they’re gonna get if they DM you. The call to action should really speak to what they actually want. It could be the relief, the transformation, the outcome of them sending that DM to you.

When you get all of these three pieces, right – the hook that calls them out, the content that delivers on the hook, and then the call to action that speaks to the transformation.

Your content will start working differently, and not everyone will engage, but the right people will, and those are the only people that you need.

Obviously if you want help with figuring out exactly how to call out your ideal client and create content that attracts them in your voice, then I’d love to work with you inside my signature program Silent Storm.  You can find out more here if you’re interested.

And as always, a huge thank you for listening.

Speak soon.