CopySnips

In yesterday’s post I showed you how to create anticipation, and now as promised I’m going to show you a sneaky way of using that technique to make your readers read right to the end of your blog posts and sales letters.

Before I do that, let me remind you of how to create anticipation. You simply tell them in advance what you’re going to tell them, along with the benefit of what they’re going to discover (or why they should listen to it), and then you tell them.

The technique you’re about to discover is similar, but even more powerful and compelling.

I call them open loops. You tell them in advance what you’re going to tell them, and why it will benefit them (just like before)… and then you don’t tell them!

At least, not right away.

You keep them in suspense… for a little while.

Fiction writers and movie makers use this technique all the time. They reveal part of the puzzle, and make you keep watching to get the complete story. It’s basically the same for copywriting.

Again, I did it at the beginning of this post. I told you I was going to show you “a sneaky way…”, and then I diverted for a couple of paragraphs: “Before I do that…”

So if you wanted to know the “sneaky way” at all, then you had little choice but to indulge me for those extra few paragraphs! And, of course, you’d use those extra paragraphs to hook them even further into your copywriting net.

So to create an open loop, simply tell them in advance what you’re going to tell them… tell them why they need to know it… then delay the telling for a short while, to create suspense and keep them hooked.

Now, tomorrow I’m going to show you an awesome technique that will hook people to read your blog on a regular basis, so you’ll want to be subscribed to my blog feed to make sure you don’t miss out on this invaluabe knowledge you need to know as a copywriter. Stay tuned!

Twitter users, please click here to retweet about this blog post and help your followers with their copywriting. You can also follow me @copysnips

Just think… by the end of this post, you’ll have discovered a simple technique to make all of your writing far more compelling – making people want to read on to the end.

“What is that technique?” you may be wondering.

It’s called creating anticipation… and I did it right there in the first paragraph. You were given something to anticipate, the “discovery of a simple technique” – and I gave you the benefit of knowing it.

It’s a simple enough technique. You just tell them what they’re about to discover, and why it will benefit them (or why they should listen). Then, you tell them.

You can do it in many different ways…

“I’m about to show you an amazing trick which will…”
“You’re about to discover an intriguing little fact which will amaze your friends…”
“Let me share with you something shocking I discovered at the copywriting boot camp that changed my whole perspective on writing, and will probably shock you as well.”

By doing this, you’re creating anticipation.

But you might be wondering: “Why bother, when I could just come right out with whatever I want to tell them?”

Well, there’s an almost sneaky way you can use this technique, which will just about compel people to read your longer blog posts and sales copy right to the end. I’d like to tell you about that… tomorrow.

So make sure you’re subscribed to this blog’s RSS feed. If you’re on Twitter, I’d also appreciate if you could click here to retweet about this blog post, so that your followers can benefit from it and appreciate you more. You can follow me here: @copysnips