One way to hook your reader into your content is to focus on their pain points. Some people call it rubbing salt in wounds but if that makes you feel bad about doing it, think of it in a new way. By getting their attention by poking pain points, you are showing that you understand their pain and that you can help them. When you show that you commiserate and relate to your audience with your content, you can really increase conversions in a big way.
In the copywriting world, this formula is known as the “problem-agitate-solve” or PAS formula. Let’s look more into how this copywriting method will work for you.
Problem
The first thing that you bring up when using the PAS formula is the problem. By demonstrating your full understanding of what your audience with this problem faces, you will help elicit trust. The more you can describe the pain your audience is experiencing accurately, the more they will feel as if they can trust you to solve their problem.
Agitate
Once you share the information you have about the pain point now, you need to elicit some emotion and feelings from your readers and viewers that can sometimes only be described as pouring salt in the wound. However, do be careful. You don’t want to make them mad at you. Instead, you want to focus on relating to them and their problems and pain without allowing them to get too far down a rabbit hole that accepts defeat.
Solve
Just at the moment when they feel as if they cannot take one more poke in the wound, it’s your job to show them how you can solve the pain point you’ve identified and poked. At the point where you reveal the solution that you know works for this problem, they should feel safe enough to make a buying decision. However, at this point, you probably want to add in some other features to the formula like showing proof via testimonials and quotes from those who have used the solution to solve the problem.
Let’s look at this example:
- Bring Up and Identify the Problem: Back Pain
- Rub Salt in the Would or Agitate by Reminding Them How It Feels: Describe someone who can’t get to work on time or function in the day due to not sleeping well at night due to excruciating back pain. Describe a mother who cannot pick up her own babies due to back pain. Whatever you can do to get the audience to resonate with the pain for a moment will work if you know who the audience is and can choose stories that they will relate to.
- Solve the Problem: The adjustable memory foam mattress that you can order right now without any risk is the answer for your back pain and this is why it works, and how it works, and these are the people who have experienced the relief that you seek.
Good copy often seeks to agitate the problem before offering the solution. This method is known to work very well to help people envision the solution fully while also being reminded of why they want to solve this pain point as quickly as possible.
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