Not trying age shame you or anything, but if you are old enough to have been born—and could vividly recall the impact that the song, Ruff Ryders’ Anthem, by the late, great hip-hop artist, DMX, had on the streets—there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve been around long enough to witness some of the coolest marketing campaigns of all-time.
Released in May of 1998, Ruff Ryders’ Anthem became not only one of the biggest hip-hop songs of the year—thanks to the stunts performed in the song’s music video—it would also go on to become the official theme song for millions of bikers around the world.
In the first line of the song’s chorus (which sounds more like a call to action), DMX instructs his listeners to, “Stop, drop, shut 'em down, open up shop.”
Although I was only in grade school when the song was first released, to this day, it still boggles my mind that a brand why a brand has not created an advertising campaign around those particular lyrics from the song.
Nevertheless, if you want your brand’s audience to stop scrolling randomly on their cell phones, drop whatever they’re searching for, and open up shop on your startup's website—do the following.
First, understand why your audience is scrolling
According to recent studies, each day, the average American adult spends roughly 4 hours and 39 minutes on their cell phone. Let’s take a second and analyze that.
Assuming that the average adult gets at least 7 hours of sleep per night, that means they’ll spend over 1/4 of their waking hours with their attention devoted towards their cell phone.
Perhaps the most pertinent information for brands like yours aspiring to influence consumers to take a desired action, is being aware of what people are actually spending that time on their cell phones doing—and why.
A 2024 Consumer Affairs study shows that these are the most common phone activities:
Email - 83% usage
Photography - 83% usage
Internet surfing - 76% usage
Navigation - 73% usage
E-commerce/online shopping - 71% usage
Social media - 67% usage
Now that you know the most common activities that people are conducting on their cell phones, let’s dive into a few proven hooks that’ll get them to stop scrolling—and start shopping on your website.
Relevant external triggers
We may not necessarily like to admit it, but every person on the planet has one. The key for your brand moving forward is to intimately understand your audience well enough to know which ones they’d best respond to.
Indeed, whether we know it or not—we’ve all got external triggers.
External triggers are determining factors that prompt a buying journey. A trigger could consist of an activity, event, or experience that compels consumers to begin the process of making a purchase from your business.
For example, suppose your startup’s MVP was a fitness app. One day, Josh, an avid 25-year-old Kendrick Lamar fan from Los Angeles—struggling to commit to a fitness plan, randomly comes across a witty meme on his Instagram feed from your startup’s Instagram account which shows Kendrick Lamar working out with the caption stating, ‘If you’re not about this fitness life, then you’re definitely Not Like Us.’
Suddenly, Josh has now been triggered to take his fitness efforts more seriously. And as a result, he logs onto your website’s homepage and downloads your startup’s fitness app.
In this case, Josh’s external trigger would have been the Kendrick Lamar (a hip-hop artist that you would know your target audience loved) meme from your brand that he came across while scrolling on Instagram.
Did you knows?
Contrary to popular opinion, people actually do enjoy learning new things. And what’s more, they also like to share cool things that they’ve learned with others. However, thanks to the effects of the internet, attention spans are shorter today than any time in history.
It is for that reason, DYKs (which stands for did you know?), are one of the most effective ways for your brand to enlighten its audience—while also enticing them to purchase your products.
Here’s how to use a DYK in your brand’s marketing messaging:
Let’s say that Emily, a 31-year-old startup founder who signed up to receive your startup’s newsletter via LinkedIn last month, is browsing through her email inbox one day, when she comes across an interesting subject line from your startup; whose AI-powered app helps people automate their small business.
The subject line, which reads, Do you know how many hours that the average small business owner wastes each year?
Interested in exploring the amount of time wasted, Emily opens the email. Which shows that a Slack study revealed the average small business owner wastes 1.5 hours each day on unproductive tasks (which is true by the way). Which equates to roughly three weeks of lost time each year.
Enlightened by this information, which causes her to reflect on just how precious time is, and how those three weeks could be spent with loved ones or doing more meaningful tasks, Emily decides to learn more about your startup’s app.
Emily then discovers that your app would help her save more time by automating tasks that she had grown accustomed to performing by herself. So she downloads it immediately.
Not only that, Emily also decides to share this cool and valuable information with other entrepreneurs in her social group by forwarding the initial email that your startup sent to her social group.
Unpredictable rewards
Lastly, is utilizing the power of reciprocation by rewarding your audience. I’m sure you’d agree, we all love receiving free stuff. And the law of reciprocity states that when we receive free things—we often feel compelled to return the favor in one way or another to those who provided it to us.
So, whether it’s by way of Email, a Google ad, or on social media—think of ways to reward your brand’s target customers with things that they would appreciate.
If you’d like help identifying which rewards would resonate best with your startup’s target customers—contact us today and we’ll help you not only pinpoint an offer, we’ll also provide other proven marketing hooks that are sure to get your startup's target customers to stop scrolling randomly online—drop their credit cards out of their wallets, and begin to open up shop on your startup’s website!
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