Seven Types of Hooks to Make Your Content Irresistible

What makes content irresistible?

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a French aviator, writer, and author of The Little Prince. He also knew a thing or two about motivating others. He once said this:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, and divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

This is an example of motivating people using something called the quest — a call to adventure, a rally cry to join a journey of understanding or discovery, even if it’s intellectual in your case, not physical as it was for him.

The quest is one of seven different types of hooks that make your content irresistible to others.

As defined by marketing author and keynote speaker Andrew Davis, a hook is a refreshing twist on a familiar theme designed to ensnare your audience. I’d add that the hook should also make your work memorable. It’s what causes your exploration of a topic to be different than others’ same explorations (you won’t “out-expert” anyone by crying about how your five tips being better than their five tips, or your three fancy corporate jobs are better than theirs). Your hook immediately answers the question others have about your work:

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Marketing isn’t about getting in front of others. It’s about ensuring people care.

A hook is one component of the work you create — podcast, video series, newsletter, or otherwise — which causes your ideas to resonate, emotionally, with the audience.

The hook is what they recall. It’s what they discuss when referring others to you. It’s what separates you from the noise and brings people back for more.

All of this means we should stop today and ask ourselves this question:

“What’s our hook? What’s our refreshing twist on the familiar themes our content explores?”

How to Pitch Your Work with a Hook

I like using something called the XY premise pitch to describe the hook. I explain this framework in full in this essay, where you can also walk step by step as we evolve a generic, commodity premise for a show (The Modern Marketing Show) into something irresistible, original, and resonant. (I also introduce another framework called the Audience Resonance Pyramid. Again that’s here.)

The XY framework is most effective when crafting your show’s premise — the overarching idea fueling every decision you make and every episode you publish. The premise is your specific, defensible purpose for the show, pulled from your personal vision for your audience. Most of us niche down or describe our audience. Few of us consider if our ideas are specific (not generic), defensible (not taken; ownable IP for ourselves and our brands), and informed by our own personal vision for some kind of change (like we can say to others, “Stop doing X, start doing Y,” or else, “I’m not going to tolerate where we’re sitting anymore, and I think we should march to THAT mountain over THERE.” Visionaries have vision. What’s yours?)

A premise describes more than WHAT your show explores. It also describes HOW you explore those topics. This gives the audience a reason WHY they should care.

The premise combines both your content’s topics and your hook.

Here’s the XY Premise Pitch:

  • “This is a show about [X]. Unlike other shows about X, only we we [Y].”

In other words, “This is a show about [topics], where we [hook].”

This forces us to articulate more than what makes us different. It forces us to articulate something that competitors would freely admit is ours, not theirs.

The hook can’t be, “Only we get the practical details.” Your competitors would claim they do the same thing. Saying you go “deeper” or have “more honest interviews” or explore things in a “smart” way or “more entertaining” manner — those are not hooks. The key for this to work is your competitors would readily concede that YOU do that and they don’t. That’s a sign it’s not just original, but defensible. You can OWN that idea in the market, and that’s advantageous to your cause.

The premise pitch also forces us to admit that WHAT we explore — our topics — isn’t differentiated enough. You could even tell a story that no one else has told (e.g. you run a true crime show and nobody has documented this case before), but your audience is still going to place you inside a genre or category. Concede the “topics” as commodified. Concede “expertise” as commodified. Defend your hook as your own.

WHAT we explore does not make our work irresistible. HOW we explore it does. The reason WHY others care is the hook, not the topics. Topics make you relevant. That merely means you’re not invisible. But the goal is much more difficult: to be memorable.

Example hooks (before we list all 7 types)

This is a [newsletter] exploring [marketing, podcasting, and creativity], but unlike other newsletters about marketing, podcasting, and creativity, only we [are on a journey to understand what it takes to make someone’s favorite things, in which we ask one big question per week to advance this quest]. That’s my newsletter, Playing Favorites.

This is a [podcast] about [music], but only we [ask artists to take apart one song and, piece by piece, tell the story of how it was made]. That’s Song Exploder, which Vulture called “the best use of the podcast medium ever.” (Hear the story of how host Hrishikesh Hirway crafted this show on my podcast here.)

This is a [documentary] about [business success] but only we [want to replace the popular growth-at-all-costs business success story with a new model focused on people, not profits]. That’s Against the Grain, the documentary series I created just before the pandemic. Watch it here.

This is a [podcast] about [living an awesome life, but only we [ask our interview subjects to share the 3 books that transformed them, as we collect the 1,000 most transformative books in the world]. That’s 3 Books, a great show from Neil Pasricha.

This is a [YouTube show] [interviewing celebrities], but only we [have our guests eat spicier and spicier wings as we ask them more and more personal questions]. That’s Hot Ones.

“This is a [project] about [topic]. Unlike other [projects] about [topic], only we [hook].”

* * *

My friend Andrew Davis describes the six different types of hooks. He’s spent a career creating deeply resonant, refreshingly different projects, first in television in places like the Jim Henson Company and NBC, and later as a marketing author, agency executive, and globetrotting keynote speaker. (I’ve also added a seventh category as part of the list — the Pattern Break.)

You’ve already met “the quest.” This is a nuanced and rather advanced type of hook to try, but if done well, it can really inspire your audience.

The most difficult yet powerful hook: The Quest

Applying Andrew’s idea of the quest to the world of podcasting specifically reveals three distinct types found across the audio landscape. They are…

1. Show-wide quests: The quest stretches across the entire show. The very premise of the podcast is, itself, a quest. Each episode thus supports that same journey. Here’s an example:

The Coup (This is a show about industry and business disruption, where we go on a journey to understand why disruption happens and how we might see it unfolding before it hurts our businesses. The “vast and endless sea” we long for: turning ourselves into the innovators who do the disrupting.)

Breaking Brand. (This is a show about building brands. Unlike other shows about building brands, only Breaking Brand documents the story of Gin Lane (the agency behind Warby Parker, Hims/Hers, Harry's, Sweetgreen, Bonobos) as they rebranded to Pattern Brands, killed all client work, and began to build their own DTC brands.)

Onboarding Joei. (This is a show about employee training. Unlike other shows about employee training, only Onboarding Joei documents the story of a real employee experiencing the real process and pain of onboarding into a brand new job.)

2. Season-specific quests: Each season is a contained quest. The host declares what’s being explored early on, then endeavors to arrive at the destination by the end, inviting the audience to join that medium-scale journey.

Crimetown (This is a show about crime and justice, where each season we go deep inside a different city to investigate the characters, events, and culture of crime. We long for: Getting tantalizing access to the world of criminal and governmental power brokers in America’s cities.)

3. Episode-specific quests: These are just like season-specific quests but unfold inside just one episode at a time. The early moments unveil what is being explored, with more questions than answers at that point. The end of the episode provides some kind of satisfying resolution to the quest.

Radiolab (This is a show that “investigates a strange world,” where each episode, we go on a journey to understand something complex but important from science and society.)

The quest isn’t the only type of hook you can try. Here are five more, with examples…

The Gimmick

The Gimmick is a named, often clever conceit that alters how the content is delivered.

Hot Ones (Unlike other celebrity interviews, only they have guests eat progressively hotter wings and answer progressively tougher questions.)

3 Books. (Unlike other shows about living an awesome life, only 3 Books asks guests to explain the 3 books that most transformed their lives.)

The Micro Daypart

The Micro Daypart owns small moments of the daily routine or a certain part of the day/week/month.

Whiteboard Fridays. (Unlike other shows for marketers where an expert whiteboards something, only they own the idea of Fridays.)

Marketing Over Coffee (Unlike other shows about marketing trends, only they own the idea of catching up on marketing trends during your coffee ritual.)

[ Just to editorialize here a bit: I find that this premise is among the weaker categories today, simply because everything has become on-demand and available whenever. Even the shows above can and are watched or heard on the audience’s schedule, not the creator’s. But the intention can still be useful. If you feel there’s something your audience needs at a specific time of day or week or year, by all means, craft a show with that notion in mind and message it accordingly. Just now that in a world where very few things are purely broadcast live at a set time, this type of premise can easily become a non-factor. ]

The Mashup

The mashup combines two or more seemingly disconnected things, borrowing specific elements of each, to create something original.

Disgraceland. (Unlike other shows of famous musicians, only they combine the true crime drama and monologues of a show like Lore with the behind-the-scenes, human interest stories about musicians of Behind the Music.)

I Made It. (Disclosure: This is a client show I developed and hosted. Unlike other shows about world-class creators, only they combine the deep dissection of a single project like Song Exploder with the current trends discussed in the “creator economy”).

The Visual Hook

The visual hook offers one readily-identifiable and repeatable visual or concept each episode as a means to make the complex simple and more accessible.

Working It Out with Mike Birbiglia (Unlike other shows about comedians, only they actually work out new jokes and material. By the way, they do this for a small percent of the whole episode, but it’s the hook for the show.)

Standing Ovation (Unlike other shows interviewing public speakers, only they have their guests play a real moment from their real speeches as a way to teach something complex but important about public speaking.)

Song Exploder. (Unlike other shows about music, only Song Exploder asks musicians to take apart their songs and, piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.)

The Pattern Break

The Pattern Break places familiar guests talking about familiar topics in unfamiliar environments. This changes their demeanor and therefore the substance and the emotions of their words.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. (Unlike other shows about comedy, only they talk about comedy while driving around in vintage cars en route to getting coffee.)

Actors on Actors. (Unlike other actor interviews, only they remove the journalist and ask actors to interview each other.)

The Challenge

The Challenge declares the stakes and tries to deliver — without certainty that it will.

Power Levels. (Unlike other shows about comic book heroes, only Power Levels treats film & TV footage like real evidence and talks to real physicists to decide who is most powerful.)

Serial. (Unlike other murder mystery shows — at least up until this show launched — only they traced over an unsolved mystery from years ago to see if they could crack the case.)

Hackable? (Unlike other shows about tech trends, only Hackable? asks real hackers to teach us just how safe and secure a given technology is.)

* * *

What makes content irresistible?

It’s not the topics you explore. It’s the way you explore them. A compelling premise provides people the motivation to subscribe. When I say “subscribe,” I don’t mean click a button or join a list. I mean subscribe to your beliefs, your ideas, your journey, your experience. I mean opt into the movement and the community.

That motivation comes from a premise, because a premise — when crafted correctly — is what makes the content irresistible.

As you leave the friendly confines of this piece of mine and return to your work — whether you make a show or another type of experience — remember to ask yourself:

“What’s my hook? If others can and do create similar projects about similar topics, what’s my refreshing twist? What can I say with confidence ONLY WE provide?”

You run a show about your area of expertise or interest, but unlike other shows about those topics, only you…

Nail your premise, and create a show that stands out:

“Jay’s teaching is more than how-to. He’s a guide for creative revelation.” — Dr. Jade Wu, Duke University (author, researcher, and podcaster)

  • Or explore my 1:1 coaching for entrepreneurs, authors, and big thinkers. I’ve worked with podcasters across industries, formats, and experience levels.

“I’m getting so many more passionate replies to my show.” — Jenny Blake, coaching client (bestselling author, globally touring speaker, and host of two podcasts, Pivot and Free Time, with 2m+ downloads)

“Jay is a savant in all things creativity.” — Heike Young, Salesforce Director of Content Strategy


Jay Acunzo