Write More Effective Lead Paragraphs with These Tried and Proven Techniques
When potential customers read your copywriting materials (emails, sales letters, videos), you only have a few seconds to grab their attention and get your message across.
As a result, the content, form, and structure of your sales message matter immensely – especially the first paragraph (lead).
Here are 5 ways you can hook clients and make sure they stay invested in what you have to say.
#1. Make a Direct Offer
The start of your sales message should be so good that it makes the reader stop what they’re doing and focus all their attention on it.
Start your sales message with a direct offer, one that its prospects will be tempted to act on.
This is more likely to work with well-known products rather than new and unfamiliar ones.
#2. The Promise Lead
Before customers make a purchase, they ask themselves: what am I getting out of this?
Provide them with an answer.
You can focus on the many benefits of the product and/or focus on a solution they can’t resist.
#3. Problem and Solution
Use emotions to your advantage. Start by highlighting their fears, focusing on them, and building them up.
This will create a demand for a solution.
Your main goal with this type of message is to present a truly relevant problem and then introduce your product as the effective solution to the problem.
Use proof to convince them. Employ the use of testimonials, reviews, ratings, stats, etc.
#4. Intrigue or Secrets
“Learn how this 91-year-old made the leap and started a business.”
“Learn the secret to perfect health…”
Notice the intrigue in these sentences? Build on it. A boring sales message is not going to cut it.
Curiosity will push most people to open your emails, provide their contact information, or do what you’re asking them to do.
#5. The Proclamation Lead
Make a bold claim, one your clients would not see coming. The headline should be so unexpected that it “jars the reader out of their seat.”
Make bold predictions. Use data to make your proclamations more realistic. For example, “Crypto will become the online medium of exchange by 2025. Here’s why.”
#6. The Story Lead
Stories intrigue people. If there’s something that can guarantee a prospect’s attention, it’s this. You can use this to your advantage by targeting universal dreams and aspirations.
Provide readers with relatable success stories through testimonials, reviews, and case studies.
Conclusion
After the headline, the lead paragraph is the most important section of your sales messages, since it’s where readers usually decide whether or not to continue reading.
The six leads discussed here have been used by leading marketers for years and years, since they are proven to hold readers’ attention beyond the headline / title.
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