Bad hooks are 90% of why your posts flop.

I studied 5,000+ high-performing X and LinkedIn posts, and 3 insights kept showing up:

1. Strong hooks stay under 15 words

2. They follow one of twelve repeatable frameworks

3. The winners use specific nouns and numbers (no clever wording)

I built something called Hook Archive to make writing hooks super easy for myself. 

It's a Notion database of 280+ (and counting) universal hook templates, organized by framework. Today, I thought I’d share it with you all.

Each entry comes with 4 real examples spanning various niches. New templates added every Monday. Access is lifetime.

I've been working on this in the background for a while. Today I finally hit the button!

Let me know what you think.

~ Blake

~ Blake

3 other ways I can help:

Gallopeer → Personal brand sprint for future 100k follower founders

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Every strong brand is defined by what it refuses to say.

Your competitors list every feature, serve every segment, chase every dollar. The market sees a blur.

The Subtraction Principle

Take your current messaging. Remove the lines any competitor could also claim. Whatever survives is your actual position.

Companies keep adding until they feel safe. But safety in messaging is invisibility.

The stuff you remove creates the edges people remember.

→ Drop the generic "trusted by thousands" line

→ Drop the capability list that mirrors your competitors

→ Drop "companies of all sizes"

What's left should feel uncomfortably narrow. That discomfort means it's working.

Broad messaging feels efficient. Reaches more people, moves fewer of them.

Narrow messaging feels risky. Reaches fewer people, lands like a fist.

Your position lives in the empty space

P.S. Reply with your homepage headline and I'll tell you which words to cut.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Gallopeer → Personal brand sprint for future 100k follower founders

Every company fighting for the same keywords is fighting for the same margin. And losing.

Captured demand means bidding wars. Created demand means owning the conversation before a competitor enters the room.

The Demand Flip

Captured demand = competing on price Created demand = competing on vision

How to create demand in practice.

→ Name a problem your market feels but hasn't labeled yet

→ Attach your company to that label

→ Repeat it until the market uses your language

The company that frames the problem gets credit for the solution. Every time.

Think of every category creator you admire. They named something. They gave language to a frustration that existed but had no vocabulary. The market adopted their frame, and the frame led back to their product.

You can optimize for existing searches forever. Or you can build the search.

P.S. Reply with one problem your market feels but hasn't named yet. I'll tell you if it's sharp enough to own.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Gallopeer → Personal brand sprint for future 100k follower founders

The space between what you think you sell and what the market thinks you buy is where revenue disappears.

Ask five customers why they bought from you. Compare their answers to your homepage.

The mismatch will surprise you.

The Mirror Gap

1. Write down the top 3 reasons your product deserves attention

2. Call your last 5 customers and ask why they actually bought

3. Map the overlap

Where those two lists diverge is where your messaging breaks. You're selling what you think matters. They're buying for reasons you've buried or ignored entirely.

The fix lives in their words. Steal them. Your language feels accurate to you. Their language feels accurate to everyone.

Close the Mirror Gap and your landing page starts converting the day you update it

P.S. Try this with your last 3 customers and reply with what surprised you. I read every response.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Gallopeer → Personal brand sprint for future 100k follower founders

Hey, I have a gut feeling that my recent emails have been ok, not great.

I’d like to change that and just create free resources that are insanely useful to you.

What can I write for you?

I’m talking “pie-in-the-sky”, whatever ultimate guide, checklist, article, related to AI/content strategy/personal branding/positioning/copywriting/etc that would make you excited to read...

Reply to this email and I’ll get to work.

Appreciate you,
Blake

The people who engage with your content are rarely the ones who buy.

Your real audience lurks. They screenshot. They forward to their team in Slack. They bookmark. They bring your name up in meetings you'll never attend.

This is The Screenshot Economy.

The metrics that matter live outside your dashboard. Forwards. Screenshots. "Have you seen this?" conversations happening without you.

Building for engagement optimizes for the wrong crowd. Building for resonance reaches the invisible buyer.

Two things:

1. Write for the person who forwards, because the buyer receives it secondhand

2. Make every post standalone. Easy to share without context.

Your best-performing content by likes will rarely match your best-performing content by revenue.

P.S. Reply with the last piece of content a prospect mentioned to you that surprised you. I'm always curious what travels in the dark.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

"We're the best" invites comparison. "We're the only" ends it.

Strong positioning removes the lineup. Weak positioning enters it.

Try The Only Test.

Take your homepage headline. Replace your claim with "We're the only company that ___."

If you can fill that blank with something true, specific, and valuable... you have a position.

If you can't, you're competing on price, speed, or vibes. All three are a race to the bottom.

Companies that close fastest never get compared. They sit in a category of their own making.

Your positioning should disqualify alternatives before a buyer even considers them.

Fill the blank. Make it true. Make it specific. Make it yours.

P.S. Reply with your "only" statement. I'll tell you if it's sharp or if it needs work.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

"We help businesses grow."

Ever see a business try that headline on for size?

It’s essentially invisible copy. It means everything and nothing. A thousand companies could say it. So it lands on no one.

Specificity is a ladder with four rungs:

Rung 1: Vague "We help businesses grow."

Rung 2: General "We help B2B companies get more leads."

Rung 3: Specific "We help B2B SaaS companies reduce churn."

Rung 4: Undeniable "We help B2B SaaS companies with 1,000+ users reduce churn by 40% in 90 days without hiring a CS team."

Most messaging lives on rung two. Comfortable. Safe. Completely forgettable.

Rung four is where the money lives.

The test is simple. Read your headline out loud. Could a competitor say the exact same thing? If yes, climb higher.

Every word that sharpens the message adds weight. Every vague word dilutes it.

Specificity is a magnet. Vagueness is camouflage.

Pick one.

P.S. Reply with your current headline. I'll tell you what rung you're on and how to climb.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

Let’s say somebody reads your landing page and nods along.

Thinks "yeah, I need this."

Then they bookmark it. Or tell themselves they'll come back later.

Later never comes.

I have a theory on why this happens.

Most content answers "what" and "how." The best content answers "why now."

Why now is the lever that turns interest into action.

Without it, you're just another tab they'll close next week.

Three ways to pull the lever:

1. Cost of waiting. What gets worse the longer they delay? Be specific. "Every month you don't fix this, you're leaking $X" hits harder than "don't wait."

2. Window closing. Is there a real reason this matters now? A market shift. A regulation change. A trend they'll miss. If there's a window, name it.

3. Compound loss. Some problems don't just persist, they compound. Show the gap between acting now vs. acting in six months. Make the future cost feel real.

If your content creates desire but not decisions, this is the missing piece.

Wanting something and needing it right now are completely different forces.

P.S. Reply with your offer and I'll tell you what "why now" angle you're missing.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

Someone finds you online.

They like your post. Maybe follow. Maybe visit your site.

Then nothing.

You wonder what went wrong. The content was good. The offer is solid. But they vanished.

Here's what happened: you skipped steps.

There's a sequence people move through before they buy. And you can't rush it.

The Trust Sequence:

Awareness → Curiosity → Credibility → Trust → Action

Most founders jump from Awareness straight to Action. "Here's my content, now book a call."

That's proposing on the first date.

Curiosity means they want to know more. They're leaning in.

Credibility means they believe you can do what you say. You've shown proof.

Trust means they believe you'll do it for them. Different thing entirely.

Each step earns the next. Skip one and the whole thing stalls.

If people see your stuff but don't engage, you have a curiosity problem.

If they engage but don't buy, you have a credibility or trust problem.

Diagnose the step. Fix that step. Stop blaming the content.

P.S. Reply and tell me where people drop off. I'll tell you which step is broken.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

The content that performs best doesn't teach anything new.

It puts words to something the reader already felt but couldn't articulate.

That's recognition. And it beats education every time.

Teaching says "here's something you don't know."

Recognition says "here's something you've always known but never heard out loud."

One makes people feel small. The other makes them feel seen.

Watch what happens when you nail recognition. People screenshot it. Tag their friends. Say "this is exactly what I needed to hear."

They're not learning. They're validating.

The shift is subtle but it changes everything.

Stop asking "what can I teach them?"

Start asking "what are they already feeling that no one is saying?"

Find that feeling. Say it better than they can.

That's the whole game.

P.S. Reply with your audience's biggest unspoken frustration. I'll show you how to turn it into recognition.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Gallopeer → Personal brand sprint to grow your social accounts

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Every piece of content you make comes from the same 5-10 core beliefs.

You might not have written them down. But they're there.

They show up in your best posts. Your sharpest takes. The things you say that make people pay attention.

The problem is most founders create content like they have infinite beliefs. They chase trends. They react to whatever's happening. They post without a spine.

The fix is simple. Write down your beliefs.

What do you think is true that others get wrong?

What would you argue for at dinner even if everyone disagreed?

What do you know from experience that contradicts popular advice?

That's your inventory. 5-10 opinions. Maybe fewer.

Once you have it, everything gets easier.

Content becomes riffing on your beliefs, not hunting for ideas.

Positioning becomes which beliefs you lead with.

Messaging becomes how you say those beliefs in language your audience already uses.

The inventory is the source. Everything else is downstream.

P.S. Reply with one belief you'd bet your reputation on. I'll tell you if it's strong enough to build on.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Gallopeer → Personal brand sprint to grow your social accounts

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

If your message takes two minutes to explain, it takes two seconds to forget.

The Minimum Viable Message is the shortest version of your story that still lands. One sentence. Maybe two. The version you'd give in an elevator that's already at the next floor.

Most founders add when they should subtract.

More context. More nuance. More "but also."

The work is removal.

Here's the process:

Write your full pitch. Everything you want to say.

Now cut it in half.

Now cut it in half again.

What's left is probably still too long.

Keep cutting until it feels almost too simple. That's when you're close.

If the short version doesn't work, the long version won't either.

The long version is a crutch. It lets you hide. It lets you avoid the hard decision of what actually matters.

Clarity is compression.

P.S. Reply with your one-sentence pitch. I'll tell you what to cut.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Gallopeer → Personal brand sprint to grow your social accounts

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Some content gets saved, shared, screenshot.

Other content disappears into the void.

The difference is tension.

Tension is the pull that makes someone need to keep reading. Without it, your idea is flat. Forgettable. Easy to scroll past.

The Tension Test checks for four types:

Curiosity → You opened a loop they need closed. A question raised. An unexpected claim made.

Disagreement → You said something they're not sure they agree with. They have to keep reading to decide.

Surprise → You broke a pattern. Subverted an expectation. Went somewhere they didn't predict.

Recognition → You described their situation so accurately they feel exposed. They have to see where you're going.

Before you post anything, run The Tension Test.

Read your opening line. Ask yourself: which type of tension does this create?

If the answer is none, rewrite until it has one.

No tension, no attention.

P.S. Reply with your next post's opening line and I'll tell you which tension type it's using (or missing).

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

The hardest way to get attention is to change someone's mind.

The easiest way is to say what they're already thinking.

This is The Already Believed Principle.

Your audience walks around with half-formed frustrations. Observations they haven't articulated. Suspicions they can't quite name.

Your job is to say it for them.

When you nail it, they feel understood. They screenshot it. They send it to a friend with "this is exactly what I was trying to say."

Here's how to find the already believed:

→ Listen to how your customers describe their problems before they found you. The exact words. The specific frustrations.

→ Pay attention to what makes people say "finally, someone said it" in your comments or replies.

→ Notice what gets shared. Shared content almost always validates an existing belief.

You're not here to teach new ideas. You're here to articulate existing feelings better than anyone else.

Recognition beats education every time.

P.S. Reply with your audience's biggest unspoken frustration and I'll help you turn it into a hook.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

Everyone wants to talk about content.

What to post. When to post. How often to post.

But content is the last layer. And if you start there, you're building on sand.

The Clarity Stack has three layers. In order.

Layer 1 → Position

Who are you for? What do you believe? Where do you win?

Layer 2 → Message

How do you communicate that position? What words do you use? What do you emphasize?

Layer 3 → Content

Now you can create. Now you have something to say.

Here's the diagnostic:

→ If your content feels random, you have a messaging problem.

→ If your messaging feels generic, you have a positioning problem.

→ If your positioning feels fuzzy, you have a decision problem.

Work backward. Find the broken layer. Fix it before you touch anything downstream.

P.S. Reply with your one-line positioning statement and I'll tell you which layer needs work.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

"Book a call" asks for too much too soon.

You're asking a stranger to commit 30 minutes, pick a time, show up, and talk to a salesperson. That's a big jump from "just reading your page."

This is The First Date Problem.

You wouldn't propose marriage on a first date. So why ask for a sales call before they've even warmed up?

The fix: micro-commitments.

Small asks that build momentum:

→ "See how it works" (2-min video) → "Get the template" (instant download) → "Take the quiz" (interactive, low stakes) → "See pricing" (satisfies curiosity without pressure)

Each tiny yes builds trust. Each tiny yes makes the next yes easier.

Then, after they've taken a few small steps, "Book a call" feels natural instead of aggressive.

Think of your CTA as a staircase, not a cliff.

The goal isn't to close on the landing page. It's to earn the next step.

Lower the bar. Raise the conversions.

P.S. Reply with your current CTA and I'll tell you if it's asking too much and what micro-commitment might work better.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

There's one sentence hiding in plain sight that can double your landing page conversions.

It's called The So What Bridge.

Here's the problem: You list a feature. The reader nods. Then nothing happens. They understood it, but they didn't feel it.

The fix is adding "so that..." after every feature.

Watch what happens:

❌ "Automated email sequences"

✅ "Automated email sequences so that you can close deals while you sleep"

❌ "Real-time analytics dashboard"

✅ "Real-time analytics dashboard so that you always know what's working before you burn budget"

❌ "24/7 customer support"

✅ "24/7 customer support so that you never lose a customer to a weekend outage"

The feature is the what. The "so that" is the why they should care.

Every time you state a feature, force yourself to complete the sentence. What does this actually mean for their life? Their stress? Their wallet?

Features inform. Bridges persuade.

Add the bridge.

P.S. Reply with 3 features from your landing page and I'll write you the "so that" bridges for each one.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

Your hook either works or it doesn't. There's no middle ground.

Here's a dead-simple way to know before you post.

I call it The Blink Test.

Read your opening line out loud. Then ask yourself three questions:

1. Would I stop scrolling for this? Be honest. If you saw this from a stranger, would you care? If the answer is "maybe," that's a no.

2. Does it create an open loop? A good hook makes the reader need to know what comes next. It opens a door but doesn't walk through it yet.

3. Is there tension? Curiosity. Surprise. Disagreement. Recognition. Something needs to pull them forward. Flat statements don't stop thumbs.

If you can't answer yes to all three, rewrite the hook before you touch anything else.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most people will never make it past your first line. That line is your entire audition.

Pass the blink test or don't bother posting.

P.S. Reply with your hook and I'll give you a pass/fail verdict plus a rewrite if it needs one.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader

There's a gap between who engages with your content and who buys from you.

Your audience claps. Your buyer pays. These are often different people.

I call this The Applause Trap.

You optimize for likes and comments. You grow your following. But your pipeline stays flat. Why? Because you're performing for the crowd instead of speaking to the customer.

Here's how to escape:

→ Get specific about who pays you. Job title. Company size. Exact problem. Real stakes. Write for that person, not "entrepreneurs" or "marketers."

→ Solve expensive problems. Buyer content addresses pain worth paying to fix. Audience content addresses curiosity worth a double-tap.

→ Use their language. Your buyer has specific words for their frustrations. Use those words. They'll feel like you're reading their mind.

→ Accept smaller numbers. A post that resonates with 50 ideal buyers beats a post that entertains 5,000 strangers.

The applause is nice. The wire transfer is better.

Write for the person who can actually sign the check.

P.S. Reply with a description of your ideal buyer and I'll tell you if your recent content is actually speaking to them.

~ Blake

3 ways I can help:

Pagetear → Copywriting studio for your SaaS

Boundset → Positioning & messaging sprint for startups

Founder Positioning → Personal brand sprint to become a thought leader