The power of the right hook to make your business stand out

Finding a great hook for your story is important to stand out and cut through the inbox of hundreds of other story ideas journalists receive each day and achieve media coverage for your small business, writes Kathryn Van Kuyk and Anthony Caruana, co-CEOs and co-founders, Media-Wize.

Like any great idea, the hook needs to be conceived, tested, developed, refined and retested until you’re certain it’s right. There’s no magic formula for what’s right.

‘Going viral’ should not be the goal

When we speak at large events about media relations and being heard in the increasingly packed and ever-changing news cycle, one of the most common questions we get is, “How do we make our thing go viral?”

Going viral should not be the goal. The goal is to reach your audience with a message they care about that will drive some action, decision or change. You’re not looking for a viral hit that gets millions of views. You’re looking to reach your target audience, connect with them and open a dialogue with them. There is no point in going viral if your aim is to try and sell more of your products or services. Be intentional and strategic.

It is much more effective to target your message and spend your time and resources on ensuring that the key decision-makers you need to reach are the ones you reach. One hundred of the right eyeballs is more valuable than thousands of the wrong ones.

More than one voice

The Australian movie producer, Glen Dolman, talked about his writing process in a recent podcast. Dolman created, wrote and produced the acclaimed TV series Bloom. He said that while the seed of the story came from him, it was the work of many people including other writers, directors, editors and actors, that made the idea work. They argued, changed things, refined and rewrote things until they got the story right – including the hooks that would draw in the audience they wanted.

Interestingly, Dolman said that creating Bloom was a three-part process where the story was rewritten three times. The first stage was when the writers had completed each episode. Then the story was transformed by the director and actors as they brought the words from the script to life. The third stage came when the editors finished their work, cutting together the footage. Only then was the series production finished.

Making your story work and appeal to your target audience is about more than one voice – it’s about taking an idea and transforming it until you make it work.

Let’s go fishing

So you’ve identified your hook. It’s topical, delivers a benefit to your audience and appeals to a specific need. And then someone asks “What about me?”

The thing about hooks is that you may need more than one. When someone goes fishing, they have different hooks and lures for different types of fish they’re trying to catch. One story idea or information source can be used in different ways by changing the hook.

Whether you’re writing a media release or opinion piece, the opening needs to be about what’s in it for the audience. After pouring blood, sweat and tears into a project, it’s easy to start with “Here’s what we’ve done” and launch into a description of the product or service you’ve made. A better place to start is thinking about the problem that you’re solving. Why did you create this?

In his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek discusses Apple at length, saying that the reason people buy the company’s products is not about specifications and performance. It’s because people buy into the Apple vision. When Apple sends out a press release or conducts a product briefing for the media, the focus is on their vision for the product and how it makes the user’s life better. It’s about the benefit the product brings to the customer – not the product itself.

If you’re writing anything, you need to consider what benefit the reader will gain from investing their time in reading your words. That’s why it’s important to launch straight into the crux of your story. One of the lessons all writers have to learn is not to ‘bury the lead’. If you’re writing a media release or media pitch, the journalist needs to know the story succinctly in the first paragraph.

Everyone today is time-poor, especially journalists whose inboxes are flooded daily with lots of ideas.

Like Jerry Maquire said, you have to get them at hello. The hook for your story is the fertiliser that makes your audience’s interest grow so that they engage fully and act upon the information you share.

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