Step into a bookstore, step into the business section and pull out a book. Then flip the book to the back cover. And here's what you're sure to find on almost every business book. Yup you guessed it. You find bullets.
And there's a reason why bullets make it to the back cover of a book
It's because you tend to read the title, then the subtitle (on the front cover) and then flip the book to get a gist of the book. Yes there's the yada, yada about the book on the back cover. Yes, there's an index. Yes, there's a contents page, but you ignore most of the yada, yada and head for the bullets.
And you do so, because bullets are like flashing Christmas lights
They flash because of their ability to create curiosity. And not just some amount of curiosity, but a massive amount of curiosity. So here I've got a book on my desk that's about podcasting. And at the very top of the back cover are these bullets.
* How to find and download audio and video podcasts to your computer or portable media player
* How to develop, format, produce, edit, encode, and upload your audio or video podcast, including in-depth information on using music legally
* How to set up an effective audio studio, including the complete and updated “The podcast studio buyer’s guide”
* How to create great video, including tricks of the trade such as the law of thirds, the line, and the three-point light
technique, as well as tips on casting, locations, scheduling, and more
* How people are marketing and making money through podcasting in the era of Web 2.0
Notice how they've put the entire guts of the book in those four or five lines?
And notice how each of those points started with a ‘how' statement?
So let's tackle those two ideas one at a time.
Idea 1: Notice how each of those points started with a ‘how' statement?
Idea 2: Notice how they've put the entire guts of the book in those four or five lines?
Idea 1: Notice how each of those points started with a ‘how' statement?
It doesn't matter what the line, if you put the word ‘how' before it, it instantly becomes interesting and curious.
e.g I went to Ireland this summer
With “how”: How I went to Ireland this summer.
e.g. I make butter chicken.
With “how”: How I make butter chicken.
Of course you can always add a “why”.
e.g. I make butter chicken.
With “how”: How I make butter chicken.
With “why”: Why I make butter chicken.
e.g. I went to Ireland this summer
With “how”: How I went to Ireland this summer.
With “why”: Why I went to Ireland this summer.
Of course you need to tidy up your sentences so that they're not as boring as the ones above, but you do get the point, right? The only question that does remain is how do you get all of these sentences. And the clue lies in Idea 2.
Idea 2: Notice how they've put the entire guts of the book in those four or five lines?
So take your entire book or course, or speech, or whatever. Split it up into distinct parts. e.g. The Brain Audit has seven parts so it could be split into seven distinct parts, but hey you could choose seven or you could choose five.
Then pull out something from each part to describe what the reader could get from that part.
So in The Brain Audit the bullets read like this:
1) How to instantly get (and keep) the attention of the customer.
2) The roller coaster sequence (and why it matters when selling).
3) How to create a uniqueness factor in a matter of days.
4) How to know if a customer is really interested in your offering.
5) Why benefits and solutions aren't the most effective way to sell.
Each of those bullets represents a different part of the book.
And each of them have a simple ‘how' and ‘why' structure to get and keep attention. In fact this same technique that you see at the back of a book, can be used for any promotion, be it a sales page, an event, a speaking engagement, product or service.
The fundamentals are simple.
Take your product/service. Split it into five/seven parts and pull out the most important highlights/benefits.
Take those highlights/benefits and put a ‘why' or ‘how' before it.
And there you have it: a whole bunch of bullets.
And that's how you make your product/service or course stand out. Like flashing Christmas lights.
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I find How To is a great standby when I am struggling with copy… for headlines, sub-headings and bullets.
Who doesn’t want to know how to…
The bullets I find particularly appealing are those that arouse my curiosity like
The two things you should do immediately before you turn out the light to virtually guarantee a good nights sleep.
Don’t forget that search engines and special computers used by the disabled like screen readers appreciate good bullet lists too.
None of the bullet lists in your article are truly bullet lists, they’re simply paragraph text. This means that the non-human readers that I mentioned above won’t see them as such.
Typing an asterisk or a number before a line doesn’t make it a bullet. Your website should be built so that when you add content, you can add true bullet lists using the appropriate markup ( “ul”, “ol” and “li”). With a proper CMS, this can be done with the click of a button.
Good point.
Bullets are an important tool to appealing to certain psychographic information. It’s important to note that bullets alone are not enough some people gravitate towards bulleted info while others want to read the narrative.
Great tip.
Excellent tips on how to put bullets together. In your example above, you could have introduced point 5 earlier to dispute the conventional wisdom. Then you could have added your replacement idea as the next point, perhaps using an obscure reference along the lines suggested by Paul above, to really stimulate the readers curiosity.
Sean, thanks for this article on capturing curiosity with bullets. I like the way you demonstrate it by using some of your own work as the example. I am reaching for my credit card. LOL
Shallie Bey
Smarter Small Business Blog
Thank you so much for the insite. As a up and coming writer , I must know how to attract potential readers that can be drawn to read my body of work so now at least I have a tool that can be used in my sales stategy.
writer/ speaker/organizer a prodegy of Shallie Bey