Bucket Brigades

Use “Bucket Brigades” to get more people to read your content

Insight from Brian Dean.

Your goal as a writer is to get readers to fall down a "slippery slope." The job of the 1st sentence: get people to read the 2nd sentence. The job of the 3rd: get people to read the 4th. And so on.

 Now: there's a simple (and effective) copywriting technique you can put to work today to keep people sliding down the page instead of hitting the "back" button. 

"Bucket brigades"

What are bucket brigades?

Before fire engines were invented, firefighters would pass buckets of water from person to person down the chain to extinguish fires. Hence, "bucket brigade." When writing content, the "fire" you're trying to prevent is a person leaving the page.

Add these words and phrases to your content to keep people reading:

1. Listen up:

2. Here’s the deal:

3. Now:

4. What’s the bottom line?

5. You might be wondering:

6. This is crazy:

7. Let me explain:

8. It gets better/worse:

9. But here’s the kicker:

10. Want to know the best part?

You might be wondering: “How do you know where to add these?”

First: Use heatmaps to pinpoint where people drop off. Add a bucket brigade there, and watch your time on page increase.

Then:

• Use them in transitions

• Use them when you need to grab the reader's attention

• Use them before/after explaining a key concept

• Use them to direct attention to an important takeaway

And here’s the best part: (See what we did there?) Any form of written content, from emails to ebooks, to ads as well as advertorials, can benefit from a handful of well-placed bucket brigades.