Fascinations: The Simple Copywriting “Pro Tip” that Boosts Reader Engagement

Want to know a really nifty way to increase your reader engagement, make your content and copy easier to read, and call attention to the points that your audience must understand?

Believe it or not, it’s our friend the bullet point.

That’s right, the bane of every deathly-dull PowerPoint presentation on the planet can actually be used in ways that are fun, interesting, and highly reader-friendly.

Here’s how.

First things first — you need to get these five “basic” elements down.

5 tips for better bullet points

Readers love bullets — they make your content easier to skim and they pull out the important information so it’s highly digestible.

But don’t just throw them into your content — use them thoughtfully. Here are five tips for well-crafted bullets:

1. Good bullet points call attention to something that benefits the reader. You probably remember this from our earlier conversations about cookie content.
2. Good bullet points are symmetrical. If you can, keep them to roughly the same number of lines on the screen.
3. Good bullet points are uncluttered. This isn’t an outline for your high school English class — avoid subsections, sub-bullets, etc.
4. Good bullets points are parallel. Begin each bullet with the same part of speech — if one starts with a noun, don’t make the next one a verb.
5. Good bullets points (like headlines) aren’t always complete sentences … but do keep them consistent with one another.

And notice — bullet points can be in a numbered list (like they are above), or they can be “unordered” bullets. Both work well.

Now for the good stuff … fascinations.

That’s an interesting word, isn’t it … fascinations. It’s an old copywriting term, meaning the intriguing elements or aspects of a product (or service, or free newsletter … you get the idea) that can be teased out and used to entice your audience.

Fascinations are a special type of bullet points — ones that are so compelling and so benefit-driven that the reader simply can’t help but discover the answer.

It’s a great technique for:

• Drawing people back into the copy they skimmed
• Prompting the download of a free report
• Causing someone to click a link
• Driving subscriptions to your blog or email newsletter
• Triggering that all important “Add to Cart” click

The key to a fascination is dangling the benefit in a teasing manner, without actually giving away what it is.

Fascinations were a cornerstone of traditional direct response copywriting. For example, take a look at some copy from Bottom Line Secrets, a subscription periodical that promises insider information that makes your life easier. The company launched itself many years ago with a sales piece that was essentially nothing but incredibly compelling bullet points.

Here are some samples from that original ad:

• Why some patients are given favored status in hospitals … almost preferred treatment. This little known information could save your life.
• How to learn about medical discoveries before your doctor.
• How and when blood pressure can fool you … and drinking alcohol without hangovers.
• The two famous cold remedies that, taken together, can give you ulcers.
• A simple way to prevent Montezuma’s Revenge.

Do you see how these are put together? They hint at a benefit of the product (in this case, the newsletter), without spilling the beans about how to get that benefit. If you want the simple way to prevent Montezuma’s Revenge, you need you subscribe.

That’s a fascination.

Where do fascinations come from?

The best way to find wonderful fascinations is to look at your product or service and figure out what benefits (ideally, unusual or unique ones) that you deliver to your customers.

Remember to keep them highly relevant. Focus on the benefits that are most compelling for your individual audience.

If at all possible, use numbers and statistics. So “How to lower your blood pressure” is ok, but “How to lower your blood pressure as much as 10 points … without medication” is a lot better.

Try to find an element of beneficial surprise as well. “Learn to improve your flexibility” is all right, but “Add 6 inches to your toe-touch in 10 minutes … even if you’ve never been able to touch the ground before” is a lot better.

Put a little time and effort into making your bullet points fascinating (or at least crystal clear and beneficial), and you’ll see your response increase.

Note: This lesson borrows heavily from Brian Clark’s early writing on fascinations and bullets. Thanks Brian. 

Don’t forget — we have lots more copywriting advice for you

Traditional copywriting techniques can do great things for your content — both sales-oriented material like landing pages, and your daily blog and email content.