“Baiting the Hook” or How To Write Great Bullets

If you’ve been writing ads for any period of time, you know there’s a world of difference between a good bullet and a great bullet.

Good bullets make you say: “hum, that’s kind of interesting.”

Great bullets freeze you in your tracks and get you excited. And if the ad writer can pull off a half dozen great bullets, then the sale is virtually cinched.

I once heard A-list writer, David Deutch, remark that the secret to writing great bullets is to “bait the hook.”

I understand this to mean wrapping a prospect’s existing belief or a proof element around a claim and therby strengthening it severalfold.

Here’s an example.

Version A

• Seven secrets for safe-guarding your home

Version B

• Ex-professional burglar’s seven secrets for safe-guarding your home

Version A is good, of course. It employs the tried-and-tested specificity of numbers. But Version B bursts off the page thanks to the proof mechanism of “ex-professional burglar.”

Investing the time in reading world class bullets is an activity that pays for itself many times over.

Here’s an ad in the self-help and personal development arenas that’s loaded with great bullets.