Writing Teasers that are Effective

Writing teasers is a very precise type of copy that can almost be viewed as an art form. To be noticed, you want to write smart headlines, but that don’t deceive or lie to your audience. You just want to pique their interest so that they’ll click through and read the rest of what you want to say. You might write teasers on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Facebook and other social media sites. In an email subject line, you might even want a nice teaser.

Over Deliver and Under Promise

Make a solid promise in the teaser but avoid modifiers that are not provable. You don’t want to write a fantastical headline that promises the moon when you’re only going to give them a rock.

Do Not Sensationalize

The news is famous for this. They take something out of context and put it in the headline. What happens when you flick through and read the article and then realize midpoint that you were misled? You feel duped. Don’t dupe your followers or they’ll stop following you for good. You really want to build trust.

Do Not Give Away the Milk

Your teaser should simply make the audience want to click through to watch or read the actual story. It is not necessary to tell the entire thing in your teaser. The teaser should leave them wanting more and wondering.

Make Your Teasers Important

A teaser is just as important as the other work that you do and the other copy that you write. To be more successful, put just as much thought into your teasers as you do creating the product you are teasing. Off-the-cuff last minute teasers never work as good as planned out and focused teasers.

And the Benefits?

If you can identify benefits of reading or watching by clicking through, those can be the basis of various teasers. The focus should be the teaser; the meat of the product should be the teaser. But, don’t give it all away. Keep it simple, just a few words so that they’ll click to see more.

Make Sure You Understand

If you don’t understand the facts behind why you’re creating the teasers or the point of the story, it will be difficult for you to create effective teasers. If you’re having trouble coming up with teasers, there’s a chance that your product is at fault and not focused enough.

Avoid Snake Oiliness

“If,” “better,” “should,” “could,” and other words like that make the reader feel slimy. You really don’t want to be viewed as a snake oil salesman – you want to be seen as an honest contributor to any discussion and an reference within your field. Don’t “should” your customers and try to scare them into reading or watching further.

In conclusion, consider asking for a second opinion or hiring an expert to help you write compelling and effective teasers to use in email subject lines and on all your social media accounts. To avoid ruin your reputation and cause you to lose sales, you want to be very careful to create teasers that do not mislead anyone.

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