How Queen and A-Ha can rock your course marketing

Let’s play a musical mini-game! It’ll be fun and teach a key principle about selling more courses and programs.

Ready? Here we go!

A-Ha & Queen Will Rock Your Marketing

What comes to mind when you think about each of the following songs?

  1. A-Ha: Take on Me
  2. Queen: We Will Rock You
  3. Pharrell: Happy

I’m willing to bet a bag of sour gummies (my favorite!) that you immediately had a specific line of the song come to mind for at least one, if not all, of them.

From Take on Me, it was either the synthesizer line that starts the song or the “Taaaaaaake ooooooon meeeee…Take. On. Me.” chorus line.

(I still remember figuring out how to play this song on my parent’s piano when I was nine. That was the beginning of my rock career.)

From We Will Rock You, it was certainly the “stomp stomp clap” rhythm underneath “We will, we will, rock you.”

From Happy, I’m guessing it was “Because I’m happyyyy, clap along if you feel…”

Now, what do each of these have in common?

The Secret That Will Rock Your Marketing

I first learned marketing as a songwriter playing in bands throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Several lessons have stuck with me from that time that I still apply to business and marketing today.

One of those lessons is the importance of having a “hook.” Each of the examples from the mini-game contains a rhythmic, lyrical, or melodic hook.

A hook is a musical idea that immediately sounds both fresh and familiar. Once you hear it, it sticks with you. It pulls you in and makes you want to hear more. The listener can easily repeat it and sing along.

I’ve been running course launches and promotions since 2004. (My first one was to 83 people my snail mail and made me 8k, converting me forever to the power of packaging your knowledge to share and sell.)

Early on, I learned the importance of having a hook when promoting a course.

Like a musical hook, a good marketing hook immediately sounds fresh and familiar. It offers something new to your intended audience while also feeling familiar with their experience.

Marketing Hooks That Grab Attention

Here are some examples of marketing hooks.

  1. Somatic Therapy: “Talk therapy not getting you the desired results? Discover the missing piece revealed by science.”
  2. Fitness: “Did you know bench presses are not only an inefficient way to build muscle but are probably damaging your body?
  3. ADHD Productivity: “Procrastination is not laziness or a lack of willpower. Once you understand these three truths about your unique ADHD brain, you can tackle your most important goals with ease.”

Good marketing hooks do the following.

  1. Flag a specific audience.
  2. Empathize with a top-of-mind pain, goal, or challenge
  3. Offer new hope and a fresh opportunity to reach the desired outcome

Add a clear call to action, they engage the audience to learn more, placing them on the path to understanding the value of your unique solution.

Most Marketing Lacks a Proper Hook

It’s not enough to emphasize the benefits and speak to the desired outcomes. Every other marketer is doing that.

The melodic hook in Take On Me made it one of the most memorable synthesizer melodies among the hundreds of other synth-pop songs of the 80s.

When you nail the hook, you stand out. It makes your messaging memorable. It makes crafting messaging that inspires people to work with you much easier.

Want help crafting the right hook for your next promotion so you can knock it out of the park?