copywriting-hooks

# Copywriting Hooks ## The method A hook's only job is to make the reader want sentence 2. Voice, structure, formatting, all of it, follow from that one job. What makes a reader want sentence 2 is one of **five levers**: 1. **Open a gap.** Pose something incomplete that the reader needs to close. Curiosity gap, question, open loop. 2. **Break a prediction.** State something that violates the reader's prior. Contrarian, definition reversal, surprising statistic. 3. **Drop into a scene.** Load sensory or specific detail that builds a vivid frame. In medias res, concrete detail, time anchor. 4. **Promise a payoff.** Name an outcome the reader wants. Benefit, "if you... then this", direct problem. 5. **Borrow weight.** Lean on a name, number, or quote that carries embedded authority. Authority hook, statistic, quote with disagreement. A strong hook usually pulls two levers at once. "Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon..." is scene plus open loop. "Most people think X. They're wrong." is prediction-break plus gap. Single-lever hooks can still work but are easier to ignore. Three further principles: - **Specific beats abstract every time.** Replace "many companies" with "Stripe, Shopify, Vercel". Replace "recently" with a date. Replace "studies show" with the actual finding or cut the claim. - **The first sentence must force the second.** Read each candidate cold. If you would not click sentence 2 after sentence 1, rewrite. - **Match technique to article type.** Person...