Creating Your Hook (Part 4)

By now, you've not only uncovered target market of internet shoppers who've got a problem (or problems) that they'll pay to have solved, you've also got, a good handle on the solution(s) they're looking for.

That, my friend, is the driest tender. It's what you'll need to start your sales fire.

Now, all you need to do is strike it with a match. You've got to provide that dry tender with the spark that sets the whole process aflame.

That spark in marketing lingo is your “hook” - the thing that will get people to take notice of your membership site... to get excited about what you're offering... to pull out their credit cards and sign up for a membership.

This is another one of those critical steps in the process. If your “hook” isn't up to snuff, it's the same as trying to start a fire with wet matches. It won't matter how dry your tender is – heck, you could even douse it with lighter fluid. If your matches are wet, you won't get a spark. If you don't get a spark, you won't get a fire. And, in our analogy, if you don't get a fire – you die.

So, take your time – at least the whole hour – and create a really powerful “hook”.

Of course, creating a great hook isn't easy. If it was, everybody would have one! But it IS simple. You just have to put your “creativity” cap on, follow a few guidelines, and put away your fear of looking silly.

Picture this: You're presenting a serious marketing idea, and everyone in the audience falls down laughing. Rolling in the aisle.

That's the kind of idea I've always looked for. In fact, when I was president of the New Jersey Nets, we had a page in our company manual that said: If people fall down laughing when you present an idea, that idea has a chance of becoming a breakthrough idea. When an idea is so outrageous that it causes people to laugh at the idiocy of it, then it's time to push the outrageous envelope and see if that idea can be developed.
Jon Spoelstra – Marketing Outrageously

Got it? So, let's start on our powerful, outrageous “hook”.

Focus on your topic. Take your information and turn it into a process, a step-by-step formula that you can give to your members to solve whatever problem they're dealing with. For me, I'm not only going to tell them the “Top 10 Most Essential Pieces of Photography Studio Equipment”, for each essential piece of equipment I'm going to show them:
• the different brands and why they would choose one over the other
• where to buy the equipment at the best price (and whether they should consider buying used)
• the brand I use and why I chose it, what I like about it, and what it does and doesn't do (with detail information about features and function)
• how to use the equipment to get the best results – both photographically and financially
• what alternatives they have if they can't afford that piece of equipment

Wow! That was fast. How did I get there? It wasn't as difficult as you might think.

I'm about to take five minutes out of your hour and explain a concept that is as close to a secret gold mine as I'm ever going to get. This concept is so important that I'm going to write it in bold, red letters so when you see it, you'll know it's REALLY important.

When people are on the internet looking for “information” - “information” isn't what they're hoping to find. Most of the time they already know what they want and have a pretty good idea of how to get it.

What they are looking for is someone who can show them how to get from where they are to where they want to be with the least amount of pain and aggravation**.

**Pain and Aggravation always take one or more of these forms:
• Money - they want to get there without spending more than they have
• Uncertainty – they want to get there without getting lost and confused
• Time – they want to get there as quickly as possible

Now, if you want to know how to satisfy that need, the way to get them to choose you over your competition is simple.

Be a guide -- not a map-maker.

As this country (the US of A) was expanding and people were migrating from the East Coast and Midwest to the West, most of the travelers didn't have a clue about how to get to where they wanted to be. Sure, they could buy maps, but what they really wanted and needed were guides. People who'd been there before and could lead them over mountain passes, across dry deserts, through hostile territory, and to their destination in the shortest time and with the least amount of pain and loss.

If you've spent any time with internet marketing, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I've spent more money that I'm willing to admit on ebooks and courses – all the while looking for a guide. Most of the time, what I ended up with were just maps. The authors hadn't really been to the places they were “guiding” me through. How could I tell? Because there was always a river on the map that said “cross this river” - but never any information about:
• how to find the shallowest place to ford
• how to prepare the wagons to get across
• how to prevent wagons from capsizing (and what to do if one does)
none of the tips you'd expect to get from someone who'd actually driven a rickety, unbalanced, overloaded wagon across a swiftly running river. Most of the time I trying to find my way with just a map – sure would have been nice to have had a guide.

The products I appreciated – and the people I purchased from repeatedly – were the people who gave me step-by-step instructions that I could follow to get from where I was to where I wanted to be. They gave me guides – which were way more useful to me than maps.

Your “hook” is that in every word of your marketing, every paragraph of your sales letter, every headline and heading, you're going to let your prospects know that they're not about to part with their hard-earned cash for a map...

They're getting a guide.

Let's look again at what I've planned to do with my “Photography Studio Equipment” membership site. I know I've got people looking for “information” about photography studio equipment. I know they've got a limited budget. How do I know that? Because if they had unlimited funds they'd just go out and buy a bunch of stuff. But because their budget is limited, they've got to figure out what the essential studio equipment is. So, I would expect that in addition to finding out what the “Top 10 Most Essential Pieces of Photography Studio Equipment” are, they'd also need to know:
• the different brands and why they would choose one over the other
• where to buy the equipment at the best price (and whether they should consider buying used)
• the brand I use and why I chose it, what I like about it, and what it does and doesn't do (with detail information about features and function)
• how to use the equipment to get the best results – both photographically and financially
• what alternatives they have if they can't afford that piece of equipment

Now, wasn't that simple?

Ok. Your turn.

If you're working from personal experience (like I am with photography) think about the success you've had in this area and how quickly you can teach someone how to do what you do.

Then, figure out YOUR angle, how are you different from all the other sites offering similar information? There are review sites that will review equipment brands, there are photography sites that will show you how to take better photos.
But I have at least 2 things that will make my membership site different:
1. I'm going at it specifically from the point of view of creating a studio. When I've finished with them they'll have all the equipment they need to run a top notch, professional studio without busting their budget
2. I'm ----- ???

You got it! I'm giving them a guide and not a map!

So, what's your hook?
• What do you help people do faster, easier, more efficiently?
• How does it save them more money?
• What extraordinary results have you seen with your system?
• Why is your membership site better than the competition?

Along the same lines of creating a hook for yourself, what's your point of difference versus the competitions?
• Is your program simple to implement?
• Do you get results in half the time?

Think hard and write out a list of benefits of not only your membership site but your services. These “one-liners” will be useful when it comes time to writing sales letters and press releases.