I recently had an interesting meeting with a friend from across the pond about her lead generation funnel.

She’s been trying some different things that aren’t working, so we decided to get back to the fundamentals. This makes me super excited because it’s always the fundamentals that make you rich (never complicated “new” crap that rarely works and, if it does work, it won’t work for very long).

A Comparison

Let me preface this by giving an example. When you work out, you can make the process as complicated as you want, but working out basically comes down to 5 basic elements:

• Push;
• Pull;
• Core;
• Legs;
• Cardio.

All the complicated stuff comes down to those five things when you’re working out.

When it comes to selling online, all that complicated stuff always comes down to:

• Hooking your audience,
• Selling them with a story, 
• Having a great offer. 

The Hook

You can do each of those three elements a bunch of different ways, but let’s focus on the Hook (simply because without a great hook, story and offer don’t matter). A Hook can be many things like a headline, a question, or a picture. But the Hook only has 2 purposes:

1. Grab the right people and make them stop what they’re doing.
2. Pre-frame them for what comes next (which is to read your story).

That’s it! 

Get their attention so that they read your story.

How Does A Hook “Hook”?

The 2 fundamentals that always hook people are their problems and their desires. So, how you craft your “Hook” basically comes down to these 3 questions:

• Are you going to hook them with a problem?
• Are you going to hook them with a desire?
• Are you going to hook them with both?

(This is also one of the first things you should split-test once you’re funnel is up and running.)

Problem Vs. Desire

Your hook can focus on the problem, the desire, or both. If you focus too much on the problem, you often eliminate the people who:

• Won’t admit that they have that problem.
• Don’t realize they have that problem. 

If you focus too much on the desire, you could hook people who might not be the “right people” for your offer.

Elbow Pain

Let’s say I see a problem-based hook that says:

Reduce elbow pain.

I’m not going to be interested because I don’t have elbow pain. However, if you’re in my tribe, you definitely want to improve or increase your number of pull-ups and push-ups. No matter where you are in your level of push-ups or pull-ups, you’re going to want to always improve or increase it. 

So having a desire-based hook that said:

Increase your pull-ups or push-ups by 20% or more in less than 2 weeks.

That would grab my attention. 

Bringing It All Together

What if I saw a hook that said, 

Massively increase your pull-ups or push-ups in less than 2 weeks… and avoid or eliminate elbow pain at the same time!

This last Hook is the best of both worlds. It’s going to activate all the people that want the desire, and grab the people who currently have the problem or want to avoid the problem in the future.

The Big Moral

The point is that looking at the fundamentals and not worrying about all the complicated stuff (like animated buttons) is how you get rich.

It’s when you get “caught up in the complicated” that things stop working. That’s when you’re going to run into problems.

Bottom line: you can build an entire business around a great Hook!

Take Action

Take a few minutes today to think about your Hook. Answer these questions:

• What is the single biggest desire that the people you’re targeting have? 
• What is the single biggest pain they want to avoid?

And then, build a new hook and hit them not just with the desire or the problem, but try hitting them with both!

By the way… If you want to get really good at hooks and more so you can sell whatever you sell like crazy (and make all your dreams come true), check out my NEW book “Copywriting Secrets”. You can get your FREE copy here at www.CopyWritingSecrets.com

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