Anglers in Maine catch trout using dry flies with barbless
hooks. Unless they keep tension on the line all the way to the
net, they lose the trout. Your sales letters must do the same.
But how?
One secret to keeping busy business readers hooked is to use
irresistible transition sentences. Transition sentences come at
the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next. Good
transition sentences leave your readers hanging in a number of
ways.
One of them is to tell your reader that a number of things are
coming up, forcing your reader to transition to the next
paragraph to learn what some of those things are. If you’ve ever
listened to a person with a pronounced stutter, you know how
hard it is to wait while that person completes a thought. Your
prospects are the same. If you almost complete a thought at the
end of one paragraph, they will begin reading the paragraph that
follows to complete your thought. But that’s not all.
Another way to keep your reader hooked throughout your copy is
to end one paragraph with “that’s not all” or a similar phrase.
Or to start your next paragraph with the word “another.” Each
device shows the prospect that you have not finished, that the
prospect has more to learn. And so the prospect keeps reading.
And yes, there are some other hooks you might want to try.
You can start a paragraph with the word “you,” the one word that
prospects and customers never tire of seeing in print. Or you
could try another proven tactic.
And that is starting a paragraph with the word “and.” Read the
Gospel of Mark in the Bible sometime. It’s one of my favourite
books. You’ll find the narrative almost impossible to stop
reading, it’s so exciting. That’s because the writer begins so
many of his sentences with “and” that you are compelled to
continue reading to discover what comes next. (I won’t give away
how the book ends. Read it and find out.) But there’s another
device that’s just as powerful as the word “and.” Do you know
what it is?
It’s the question mark. Put one at the end of one paragraph,
with the answer at the beginning of the next paragraph, and
you’ll keep your readers headed towards your net.
So here’s the one thing you need to remember. You’ve figured out
by now that the secret to effective transition sentences is to
keep your prospective buyer in a state of suspended
satisfaction, one where they must keep reading your letter to
the end before they feel gratified. And there’s only one sure
way of doing that.
© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and
in print provided the links remain live and the content remains
unaltered (including the "About the author" message).
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