Call me
Reach readers with callouts
Think of your callout as a movie trailer for your story.
Movie trailers give the best stuff away for free to entice moviegoers to buy a ticket. Callouts — aka pull quotes — give the best stuff away for free to entice readers to read your story.
So go ahead: Find the most provocative point in the story — the more specific, the better — and give it away in your callout.
Here are three types of callouts to consider:
1. A dramatic moment
Choose the most dramatic moment in the story — the time when everything started going awry. If the callout is powerful enough, readers will read the story to find out what happened. That’s the technique we use for callouts like these for Saint Luke’s Health:
“Where my right elbow had been, I felt this hole.”
— Linda Thomssen, symphony violinist who smashed her upper arm
2. A provocative detail
Present a provocative detail that makes readers ask, “Am I ready for that?” This callout, from a conference brochure we wrote for the Public Relations Society of America, uses the same approach:
Nine out of 10 journalists use search engines to do their jobs. Do you know how to help Google find your release?
3. A fascinating specific
Entertainment is the No. 2 reward of reading. Call out details that demonstrate that your piece is interesting read. The New York Times Book Review does that in these callouts, which promote not only the review, but the book as well:
Instead of chanting “air ball,” basketball fans in the Chinese interior employ the Sichuan word for “impotent.”
— from a review of The Only Game in Town
Call to action
Take time to choose and craft compelling callouts. Research shows that callouts attract attention, draw readers into your copy, make your messages more memorable and more. Get more tips for writing callouts.
Plus, a short, carefully crafted callout might also make the perfect tweet.
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