You will be able to write several hooks for one idea using a small set of patterns.
Farah sells work blouses. One idea in her backlog is a video about a blouse cut so it does not gap at the buttons, and she needs an opening line that makes a stranger stop scrolling.
Most people write a hook the way they write a text message to a friend: they send the first thing that comes to mind, quickly. For a business video, that first idea is usually a plain description of the product, such as "New in: the long-sleeve office blouse." It's accurate, but it gives a stranger no reason to stop. The fix is to rely on patterns instead of inspiration. A pattern is a shape that has worked many times before, and you put your own idea into it. Writers have long used patterns for headlines, and they work just as well for a video's first line. With the five patterns below, you can write five hooks for one idea in about ten minutes.
Pattern 1 is to call out the viewer. You name the person the video is for, so they recognise themselves at once. Some examples: "If you run a home business and still do your own accounts, watch this." "If your child knows the work but goes blank in exams, this is for you." "Parents planning a party for more than twenty kids." This works because it filters. People who match stop, and people who don't match scroll on, which is what you want, as Lesson 3.1 explained. A call-out also tells the feed early on who the video is for. It only works if it's specific. "If you are a busy parent" fits almost everyone, so it stops no one. "If you are a parent who just found out the party is next Saturday" stops the right person.
Pattern 2 is to open on the mistake or the result. You start at the end, show the interesting part first and explain afterwards. A mistake opening might be a collapsed cake, a blouse gapping at the buttons or a worksheet covered in red ink. Viewers stay to learn what went wrong and how to avoid it. A result opening might be a finished cake being cut, a blouse looking sharp in a meeting, or a student working confidently through a problem. Viewers stay to learn how you got there. In both versions, the video then goes back and tells the story. It works because the viewer already knows why the story matters before it begins.
Pattern 3 is to state an opinion they half agree with. This is a view your audience suspects is true but hasn't heard anyone say out loud. For example: "Most tuition is too much practice and too little checking." "Expensive fabric is not why your work clothes look tired." "You do not need a new cake design for every party." People who half agree stay to see whether you can back it up. People who disagree stay to argue. Either way, they keep watching. The opinion must be one you actually hold and can support from your own work, because an opinion invented for attention gets found out quickly.
Pattern 4 is to ask the question they already asked. You put a question in the viewer's own words, such as "How early do you really need to book a birthday cake?" or "Is it worth sending a P5 child for tuition if their marks are fine?" (P5 is Primary 5). For this one, go back to your voice-of-customer file and the customer questions you collected in Lesson 2.2. Suppose the hook matches a question a viewer typed into a search bar last week. They stop because it is, word for word, their question. Avoid questions with an obvious answer, such as "Do you want a beautiful cake?" Nobody says no to it, and nobody stops for it.
Pattern 5 is to promise something specific and then deliver it. You tell the viewer clearly what they'll get: "Three ways to wear one blouse from office to dinner." "The one thing to check on your child's worksheet tonight." "How to get a cream cake home in a hot car without it melting." The promise has to be specific, and the video has to keep it reasonably soon. Say the hook promises three ways, but the video spends most of its length on a story before showing even one. Viewers will feel cheated. If you break promises again and again, your audience learns that your hooks can't be trusted, and that costs you more than one weak video would.
This rule applies to every pattern, though the promise pattern makes it most obvious: whatever the hook says the video contains, the video has to contain.
Farah took her blouse idea and wrote one hook in each pattern:
Call out the viewer: "If you have ever put a safety pin between your blouse buttons before a meeting." Open on the mistake: an opening shot of a blouse gapping as she sits down, with the on-screen text "This is not your size." State an opinion: "Most work blouses are cut for standing still." Ask their question: "Why does every blouse gap when you sit down?" Make a promise: "The one detail that stops a blouse gapping, and how to spot it in a shop."
Each of the five reaches the same viewer by a different route. Farah chose the mistake version. She could only see it was the strongest because she had written all five to compare. Writing every version is what shows you the best one.
Work through it in this order. Pick one idea from your backlog. Write a call-out hook that names a specific viewer. Write a hook that opens on the mistake or the result. Write a hook stating an opinion you actually hold and your audience half agrees with. Write a hook that asks a question in the viewer's own words, using your voice-of-customer file and your customer questions. Write a hook that makes a specific promise the video will deliver reasonably soon. Then compare all five, choose the strongest, and check that the video contains whatever that hook says it contains.
In the activity, you'll do what Farah did: take one idea from your backlog and write five hooks for it, one in each pattern.
Pick one post idea from your backlog and write five hooks for it, one in each pattern.
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